Apple Crumb Pie

Mr. Meat Eater and I are pie people.  We like cake, too, but almost always choose pie over cake.   Even though we love pie, I don’t make it very often because we would eat too much.  Last week I had some apples that were well on their way to spoiling so the first thing that came to my mind was…pie!

I searched around and found a recipe on Allrecipes that I changed up to suit us.  It’s easy and delicious.  I used MUCH less sugar than the recipe called for ~ I used barely 1/4 cup since my apples were sweet and 3/4 cup just seemed like too much sugar to me.

Apple Crumb Pie

Pie:
1 pie shell, unbaked
6 cups sliced apples
1 tbps lemon juice
2/4 cup sugar ~ I used less than 1/4 cup
2 tbsps flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbsp cold butter

Preheat oven to 375º.

Place sliced apples in a large bowl and sprinkle lemon juice over the apples. Mix the rest of the pie ingredients (except crust) in a small bowl and sprinkle it over the top of the apples and mix until all the apples are coated evenly. Spoon into unbaked shell.

In another small bowl, mix together the flour and brown sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks crumbly. Sprinkle over filling in the pie shell. Cover loosely with aluminum foil.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes until the top is golden brown.

Cool and serve.

Makes 8 servings.

Happy Cooking!

Key Lime Meringue Pie

This pie was another key lime recipe I made for Mr. Meat Eater.  I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted it and had to have my own piece.  It was delicious and I’ll be making this pie again in the near future.

Now, the recipe for the filling called for 5 egg yolks and the meringue called for 4 egg whites.  I used 5 egg whites for the meringue ~ no sense in wasting that last egg white.  I also used Nellie and Joe’s key lime juice instead of fresh lime juice.  I also made my own graham cracker crust instead of using a bought one.  I just followed the directions on the box.  I always find the meringue on pies gets really sticky after the first day so it would be easier to cut the pie into slices before refrigerating for the night.

I’m sure I got this recipe from Pinterest and it is attributed to the Deen Brothers.

Key Lime Meringue Pie

Filling:
5 large egg yolks
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsps grated lime zest
1/2 cup key lime juice ~ I use Nellie and Joe’s
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 prepared graham cracker crumb crust

Meringue:
5 egg whites
6 tbsps sugar
1/2 tsp cornstarch
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 325º.

In a medium bowl, mix together the yolks and condensed milk. Stir in the lime zest, lime juice, and cream. Pour into crust and bake for 20 minutes or until firm.

Increase oven temperature to 350º.

Meanwhile, using a mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add the sugar mixture, a spoonful at a time, to the egg whites, beating between additions. Beat until sugar dissolves.

Spoon meringue over the hot pie filling. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the meringue is golden.

Serve pie warm or at room temperature.

Makes 8 servings.

Happy Cooking!

Creamy Lemonade Pie from Simple Shortcut Recipes

Day 9 of 10 days of recipes from by Gooseberry Patch.  If you would like a chance to win a FREE copy of this cookbook, please follow the link and comment on THIS POST!  I’ll be choosing a winner tomorrow so please get your comments in before NOON!

Wow, is this a fabulous pie!  I love citrus anything so that’s why I chose this recipe and it really delivers that wonderful lemon flavor.

I made my own graham cracker crust because I’m not fond of the purchased ones.  I just followed the recipe on the box of graham crumbs.  Otherwise, I made the recipe as posted using sugar free pudding mix and the less fat cream cheese.

This pie would be just perfect for Easter or for a hot day in the summer.  I know it’ll be on my list to make often.

Creamy Lemonade Pie
Submitted by Kathy Grashoff, Fort Wayne, IN

VIEW PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE!

1 (5 oz) can evaporated milk
1 (3.4 oz) box instant lemon pudding mix
2 (8 oz) pkgs cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 (9 inch) graham cracker pie crust

In a bowl, combine the evaporated milk and the dry pudding mix. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes until thickened.

In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Gradually add the lemonade concentrate.

Stir cream cheese mixture into pudding mixture, mixing well.

Pour into a crust.

Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Happy Cooking!

Pi Day!

Today is 3.14 which is pi so today is known as pi(e) day in the foodie/blogging world.

Those who follow A Recipe A Day on Facebook know that I have been craving banana cream pie so I thought it would be a perfect post for pi day ~ and it helped that I remembered to buy bananas.  A reader suggested a banana pudding pie and it stuck with me.

I was looking through a bunch of old cooking magazines last week and found one called Our Best-Ever Cakes and Pies by Southern Living.   While everything in it looks so good, I did find a banana pudding pie that used homemade pudding so I gave it a shot.  It wasn’t hard to put together but it did take some time.

As I suspected, one piece satisfied me and now I won’t want banana cream pie for another couple of years since I’m not really a fan of bananas.  Mr. Meat Eater, on the other hand, inhaled 2 pieces ~ he loved it!

Regular readers will know that I can’t cut a pie to save my soul so I will only show pictures of the whole pie before I make a mess of it, LOL!

Banana Pudding Pie

VIEW PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE!

1 (11 oz) box Nilla wafers
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large bananas, sliced ~ I used 3
Vanilla Pudding ~ recipe follows
4 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Put 30 Nillas aside.

In a food processor, process remaining Nilla wafers. Stir crushed wafers and melted butter together and firmly press on the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate.

Bake crust for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to rack and let cool.

Arrange half of the banana slices over the bottom of the crust.

Prepare the vanilla pudding and put 3/4 cup hot pudding over the bananas and top with 20 of the reserved Nillas. Put 3/4 of the leftover pudding over the top of the Nillas and top with remaining banana slices. Put the rest of the pudding (about 1 cup) over the banana slices.

Beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer at high speed until foamy. Add sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and sugar is dissolved. Spread meringue over hot filling making sure to seal edges.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Remove from oven and let cool on rack for 1 hour. Crush remaining Nillas and sprinkle over top of pie.

Chill for 4 hours before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Vanilla Pudding

2 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 large eggs
4 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla

Whisk together first 5 ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, for 8-10 minutes or until mixture reaches thickness of chilled pudding. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Use in banana pie immediately.

Happy Cooking!

Apple Crumb Pie

Before I get started on the pie, I wanted to let you all know that I am having a virtual Christmas cookie recipe swap over on my A Recipe A Day Facebook page.  If you want to join in, all the information is under the event post.  I hope you will join us ~ the more the merrier!

My very favorite apples are Macouns.  They taste like McIntosh but hold up like a Granny Smith.  They do not cook down to much like McIntosh.  They are great for baking, cooking,  and eating ~ a really nice all purpose apple.  They can be difficult to find but my local BJs has huge bags of them for sale every fall.  Give them a try if you can find them.

This pie is super easy and really good.  I used Splenda blend instead of all sugar but otherwise made it according to the recipe.  I like to keep apple pies in the refrigerator since I like them cold and I think it helps to keep the bottom crust from becoming soggy, which I hate.  I found the recipe on allrecipes.

Apple Crumb Pie

1 (9 inch) pie crust
5 cups of apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Crumb topping:
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
6 tbsps butter

Preheat oven to 400º.

Pour apple slices into prepared pie shell. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over apple slices in pie shell.

In another bowl, mix the 1/3 cup sugar and flour and then cut in butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until apples are soft and crumbly top is lightly browned.

Makes 8 servings

VIEW PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE!

Happy Cooking!

Blueberry Lemon Tart

This is such a delicious dessert and I made it as low sugar as I possibly could so I could have a piece.  I don’t think I would use the full sugar next time ~ it’s perfect without.

Instead of the vanilla cookie crust, I made a graham cracker crust using the box directions and I did use the amount of sugar called for on the box ~ but I used 3 very scant tablespoons.  It was probably more like 1 1/2 to 2 tbsps.  The rest of my changes you’ll see on the ingredient list.

The recipe came from Food.com and was posted by TasteTaster.  I seem to be cooking from Food.com alot lately.

Blueberry Lemon Tart

Crust:
35 vanilla wafer cookies, crushed (1 1/2 cups)
1 egg white, beaten
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Filling:
1 1/4 cups low-fat milk
4 ounces instant lemon pudding mix ~ I used sugar-free
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel ~ I used grated peel from a whole lemon
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed ~ I used sugar-free

Topping:
2 tablespoons sugar ~ I used 1 tbsp of Splenda blend
1 teaspoon cornstarch ~ I used a heaping tsp
3 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen ~ I used frozen wild blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Crust:
Heat oven to 400º. Lightly spray tart pan with removable bottom, 9×1 inch, with cooking spray.

Mix crushed cookies, egg white and butter until crumbly. Press onto bottom and up the side of pan. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown; cool.

I made a graham cracker crust and followed the directions on the box for a pie crust.  To make a good crust, I take a measuring cup and press it against the corner of the pan like so:

Filling:
Beat milk, pudding mix and lemon peel in medium bowl with electric mixer on low speed about 2 minutes or until smooth.

Chill 5 minutes.

Fold in the whipped topping and spread the filling over the crust.

Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours until chilled.

Topping:
Mix sugar, cornstarch and water in 1-quart saucepan the stir in 1/2 cup of the blueberries.

Heat to boiling then reduce heat to medium-low and cook about 5 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Stir in lemon juice and remove from heat. Cool 10 minutes.

Stir in remaining 1 cup blueberries and cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour until chilled.

Spread over prepared tart.

Keep tart in the refrigerator.

Makes 8 servings

Happy Cooking!

Wild Blueberry Pie

PIE!! Pie is supposed to be this year’s cupcake and while I don’t know if that’s true, I do know I like pie better than cupcakes.  I found this recipe on Epicurious.  It’s really, really good.  Just make sure you have a deep dish pie pan and be sure to put a cookie sheet underneath to catch the drips.  I’m sure you can make this with regular blueberries, but the wild blueberries are perfect ~ they are tiny little blueberries.  I buy mine frozen in a huge bag at B.J.’s.

The reason you will *rarely* see a cut piece of pie picture on this blog is because I wreck pie when I cut it.  I make such a mess that I’m embarrassed to photograph it.  If I had my own cooking show, I would never make pie because then I would have to cut it.

Wild Blueberry Pie

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
6 cups fresh wild blueberries or 3 (10-ounce) packages frozen (not thawed) ~ I went with 6 cups frozen, unthawed, since mine came in a huge bag
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pastry for a double-crust pie
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, cut into small pieces ~ I didn’t use
1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water ~ I didn’t use

Preheat oven to 425°.

Whisk together brown sugar and tapioca and toss with blueberries and lemon juice in a large bowl.

Fit dough into pie plate for bottom crust.

Spoon filling with any juices into bottom shell, dot with butter, and cover with top crust. Trim top crust, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang. Fold overhang of top crust under bottom pastry and press against rim of pie plate to reinforce edge, then crimp and brush with egg wash. Make sure the blueberry filling is completely encased in dough to avoid a blueberry mess.

Bake pie on a baking sheet in oven 30 minutes, then cover edge with a pie shield or foil to prevent over browning or burning.

Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and continue to bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbling, 45 to 50 minutes more. Mine took the whole 50 minutes.

Cool pie completely on a rack, about 4 hours (filling will be runny if pie is still warm).

Makes 8 servings.

Happy Cooking!