Another big butter tart

Chocolate Pecan Pie involved the same chocolate pastry as for the Maple Walnut..Pie and also the same filling - with the exception being that pecans were used instead of walnuts and raisins. The top was drizzled with melted chocolate...prettier than the previous pie, but I preferred the taste of the other one. I think walnuts and raisins worked better with the filling than the pecans. Also, the drizzled chocolate made it even sweeter than it already was - maybe a bit too much. I would love to use this filling along with the first pie dough I learned, to make butter tarts.

Longest pie name ever

Maple Walnut Raisin Lattice Pie is like a big butter tart with a chocolate crust. This was the first time I made a chocolate pastry dough; it's soft and sticky and needs to be handled carefully. The recipe is simple: butter, sugar, salt (these 3 creamed together); eggs, vanilla (added into mixture); flour and baking and cocoa powder (sifted together and added to mixture) are combined and then refrigerated for half an hour. The filling is SO good: brown sugar, cornstarch (blended); plus, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Graham crumbs are sprinkled on the crust once it has been rolled out and placed into pan - they help absorb some of the filling so it doesn't soak through the bottom of the pie. The walnuts and raisins are then placed on top and the filling poured over and baked at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

In other news, I think I've put on a few pounds.

I need to go to Boston

They make a good pie and the shopping is tax-free. Boston Cream Pie is one of those recipes that I'm glad I had someone to show me how to make it as it's a bit daunting: sponge cake, pastry cream, chocolate icing and the assembly make it pretty time-consuming. First, sponge cake (eggs, sugar, bread flour, plus a bit of salt, vanilla and lemon emulsion) is baked and set aside to cool. I've made pastry cream before (for fruit flan); milk is brought to a boil and then a mixture of sugar + cornstarch and eggs + milk is added to it until it boils again. Once removed from the heat, butter and vanilla are added and this is set aside to cool. Whipped cream is then folded into the mixture. The chocolate icing is made with white fondant, pure chocolate and water over a double boiler.

To assemble, the sponge cake is cut into two layers and filled with the pastry cream. The chocolate icing is poured over the top and vanilla icing (white fondant, water) is piped over the top and a paring knife is used to make the design you see in the top photo. Finally, the edges of the pie are covered with piped whipped cream. Yummy - I especially loved the icing...reminds me of Chocolate Dip donuts from Tim Horton's.

Breakfast pie

I love quiche: it's breakfast and dessert all in one. The dough for this Goat Cheese and Sun-dried Tomato Quiche included the same ingredients as the previous pies: pastry flour, water and salt - but with the addition of bread flour, an egg, and butter instead of shortening. This dough was rolled out slightly thicker than a standard pie and pre-baked until lightly browned.

The filling was a simple mixture of eggs, milk, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg poured on top of the goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and chives spread over the pre-baked crust. Baking time is 40 minutes at 350 degrees. I will definitely be making this again...maybe spinach and cheddar next time...mmm...

Lovely lemon

So fun to photograph! This Lemon Meringue Pie used the same pie dough as last week and the previous Pumpkin Pie. The difference is that the shell had to be pre-baked to avoid shrinking. For the filling, water, sugar, salt are brought a boil and a cornstarch, lemon juice and water mixture is added, as well as eggs; all this is mixed (very) quickly to avoid lumps. Once removed from the heat, butter is smoothed across the surface of the mixture and then dropped in to melt, to avoid 'skin' forming. Once cooled slightly, the filling is poured into the pie shell.


For the Swiss Meringue topping, egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar were heated over a double boiler and then whipped until stiff peaks were formed. I piped this over the top of the filling, but it can be poured on and 'spiked' by hand for a more rustic look. The pie is then browned in the oven until golden.

Love it or hate it

Pumpkin pie is not for everyone. It's not sweet enough for my liking and I have no idea how pumpkin came to end up in a pie, so this will be short recap. Sugar, eggs, various spices (ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg) and pumpkin pulp are mixed along with a scalded milk and melted butter combo and left to rest for 15 minutes. The mixture is then remixed for two minutes and poured into the pie shell and baked for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. The pie can be garnished with whipped cream once fully cooled (ours didn't have enough time to cool in class so no pretty topping). The same pie dough as last week was used for both this and the Lemon Meringue Pie that follows.

Rope & rosettes

In addition to my pie class, I'm also taking Cake Decorating I. This week we began practicing with buttercream icing, made with shortening (usually unsalted butter but this was just practice), water and icing sugar.

We started off with stars, zigzags and shells, followed by reverse shells, rosettes and rope. The reverse shells and rosettes (below, top) are killing me, I need to practice some more. I would love to cover a whole cake with stars:

Cheesecake in pie form

Who knew? Also, so much for sampling a tiny piece and giving the rest away. This Cherry Cream Cheese Pie involved the same dough as for the previous pie and the same topping, minus the oatmeal and pecans.

Just thinking about the filling makes my mouth water: cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, vanilla, eggs and cornstarch were mixed together until creamy. Cherry filling was spread into the bottom of the pie shell, covered by the creamy mixture, followed by the topping. Baking was approximately 40 minutes at 400 degrees. Simple to make, even easier to eat.

Pie dough 101 + a fruit-filled pie

This week's pie dough (pastry flour, shortening, water, salt and brown sugar) was worked just until it was roughly incorporated, refrigerated for about a half an hour, then fully worked and rolled out. Something I didn't know: the 3 key elements to pie dough are 1 part water, 2 parts fat (shortening) and 3 parts pastry flour.


The filling for this Strawberry Rhubarb Apple Streusel Pie included frozen rhubarb (thrown in the pot first, along with brown sugar and butter), followed by sliced apples, cinnamon, lemon juice & zest and frozen strawberries. These are sauteed with cornstarch and water until filling has thickened. The topping included oatmeal, pecans, white & brown sugar, bread flour and butter, broken up until a crumble is formed. This was very sweet and the pie crust was amazing - flaky and perfect (if I do say so myself). Baking time should be approximately one hour at 375 degrees, but we used a convection oven which sped that up. I'm not familiar with baking with a convection oven, but it seems unpredictable - some of our pies turned out well, while others were a bit burnt.