Apple Praline Pie | A Baker Is Born

I'm no spring chicken . . . . it's taken me the best part of my cooking life to finally make a great pie, repeatedly.

This is despite the fact that my mother had a reputation as one great pie baker.  This is despite the fact that I (I think I) paid attention at her elbow. And despite the fact that I have tried many recipes, many times, and end up wanting to throw the rolling pin through the kitchen window.

It was last fall when I felt I'd mastered the pie crust I always wanted to make, thanks to this recipe. This is the vodka recipe, developed by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, managing culinary director at Serious Eats. He developed the technique while working at America's Test Kitchen, though, so Chris Kimball gets all the credit :(

Still it's a great recipe ~ and it's even better when it envelops this pie.

My sister-in-law Liz gave me this recipe and she got it from a friend's mother.  No credit on the recipe card, but the closest thing I found to it on the Internet is this.

What I found different about this recipe -- and utterly delectable -- is the fact the it's a double-crusted pie, with the the praline topping on top of the second crust. Talk about gilding the lily!

So, if you have no fear of making your own pie crust, give this apple pie a try.  You can also use Pillsbury's crusts.  The friend's mother who shared this recipe quietly confessed that she used refrigerated crusts.  "Didn't used to," she says, "but they've gotten so much better and they're just as good."  Good in a pinch, but not when I can ~ now, anyhow ~ pack a couple disks of this dough in the freezer!

And if you want to learn more about picking just the right kind of apples, read my piece on the Kitchen Journals, a beautiful and informative website.

Praline Apple Pie
For the pie:
Pastry for two crust pie -- your favorite or mine
6 cups thinly sliced, peeled apples (I used Northern Spy)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 reaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter

Prepare your pie crust. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl gently toss the apples with the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt.  Spoon into pastry lined pan. Dot with small pieces of the butter. Top with second crust, and cut several slits for venting. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes or more, until the apples are tender and crust is golden.  Cover the edges of the crust if it starts to brown too much.  (My SIL advised me that her pie took at least an hour, maybe more. She warned me to "wait til it's bubbling through the slits some." Good advice.)

For the topping:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons half and half
1/2 cup chopped pecans*

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Sir in the brown sugar and half and half. Slowly bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in pecans. Spread over the top of the baked pie. Place pie on a baking sheet to catch any spills. Return the pie to the oven and bake 5 minutes more or until topping bubbles. Cool at least an hour before serving.

* Although I used pecans the first couple times I made this pie, you'll see walnuts in these pictures. Just a little cheating!

A Last Fresh Taste of Summer | Tomato and Corn Pie

Thyme

I'm well aware that fall is fast approaching -- it's my favorite time of year! I get to celebrate my wedding anniversary and (a milder celebration!) for my birthday.

Still, it's hard to let go of summer, knowing that this beautiful fall season is short-lived and it's a harbinger of five months of snow on the ground in Pennsylvania!

I want to savor these precious waning days of summer. A tomato and corn pie has long been on my list of "things I gotta make." And finally I did it and it was worth the wait.

It's a perfect farewell to summer freshness, celebrating two of my favorite foods. Although corn and tomatoes can be found year-round, they are at their freshest best in summer.

They pair together exceptionally well. Mr. Rosemary tells me that as a child, his family would make meals out of just corn and tomatoes, although then, as now, he shies away from the fresh tomatoes.

When I first explored which recipe I was going to try, I was sorely tempted to make one from Smitten Kitchen. Double-crusted, with plenty of cheese, and a bit of mayonnaise, this pie was a favorite of James Beard and Laurie Colwin. How could you go wrong with endorsements like that?

Still, I'm standing guard over my waistline and feeling a need for moderation. So I turned to this lighter version from Eating Well.  It was very satisfying despite being scaled down some. I changed the recipe only slightly, upping the cheese (I'm no saint!) and using basil instead of time. The original recipe also includes a whole wheat pie crust, but I opted for convenience and used store bought pastry.

I ended up eating this myself, over several days, mind you. But I wonder, if I added bacon or sausage, would Mr. Rosemary go for it? A question that will likely never be answered.

Tomato-Corn Pie
Adapted from Eating Well
Makes 8 servings
Pastry for one crust pie, your own or store-bought
3 large eggs
1 cup low-fat milk
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
2 medium tomatoes, sliced
1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 1 large ear)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried
1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F.
Roll the dough into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Transfer to a 9-inch pie pan, preferably deep-dish, and press into the bottom and up the sides. Trim any overhanging crust. Line the dough with a piece of foil or parchment paper large enough to lift out easily; fill evenly with pie weights or dry beans. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the foil or paper and weights. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes or up to 1 hour.
To prepare the filling: Whisk eggs and milk in a medium bowl. Sprinkle half the cheese over the crust, then layer half the tomatoes evenly over the cheese. Sprinkle with corn, basil, 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper and the remaining  cheese. Layer the remaining tomatoes on top and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Pour the egg mixture over the top.
Bake the pie until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

Headed to Maine | Blueberry Cheesecake Pie

We'll be leaving for a Maine vacation shortly and I'm very excited about it. I've never been there and it's a trip that's been on my bucket list. (So is Italy -- Tuscany, Naples, Amalfi, Palermo, I don't care. Soon.)

And is it just coincidental that in recent weeks a couple blogs I frequent wrote about their trips to Maine? Joy the Baker enjoyed a schooner trip (and lobster) and Karen at The Back Road Journal posted about Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park and Rockport.  And after I commented on Karen's blog, I heard from Linda, another Maine blogger, who gave me some great insider information.  If my appetite wasn't whetted before then, it sure is now.

And although the scenery is the biggest attraction, food comes in at a very close second.  And I don't think there's anyplace that has two foods more synonymous with its name than lobster and blueberries, is there?

I don't have lobster very often so I'm anxious to wrestle a couple. Blueberries I get plenty of, since we have 10 bushes of our own. I know Maine blueberries are different: they're wild, low bush berries, mine are the cultivated, high bush. Supposedly Maine berries are sweeter, but I'll reserve judgment, since I like my own pretty darn well.

In the meantime, if I wasn't ready already, this pie helped put me more in the Maine frame of mind. I made  pie filling with my frozen berries and it was just great. I make a pretty darn good traditional cheesecake, if I do say so myself,  but this pie is less cheesecake, more blueberry and it's a very nice change of pace from my usual blueberry sauce topped cheesecake.  Would it be any different with Maine blueberries?

Blueberry Cheesecake Pie
makes about 10 servings
adapted from Eagle Brand

1 recipe blueberry pie filling (see below)
1 unbaked pie shell -- your own pastry or purchased
1 8 ounce brick of cream cheese, softened
1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Combine 1 cup of the blueberry pie filling (reserve the rest for topping) and pour into the pie crust.  Bake 15 minutes.

In a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese until fluffy.  With motor running, gradually pour in the sweetened condensed milk, eggs, lemon juice and vanilla.  Pour into partially baked pie.

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and bake an additional 25 minutes or until set.  Cool. Chill. Spoon the remaining blueberry filling over sliced pieces as you serve them.

Blueberry Pie Filling
adapted from food.com
2 pints (4 cups) blueberries, fresh or frozen)
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon lemon rind
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Combine 1 cup berries with 3/4 cup sugar in pan on stove. Simmer on low heat until sugar is melted and mixture is very liquid, about 5 minutes.  Combine cornstarch and water in a bowl and then add to the pan with the blueberries.  Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil and is clear and thick. Pour hot mixture into a large bowl and let cool until warm.  Fold in the remaining 3 cups of blueberries, lemon rind  seasoning s and butter. Let cool before adding to pie crust or using in the cheesecake pie recipe above.

Tomato and Zucchini Pie | Not-so-original-but-oh-so-good

It seems that everywhere I've looked this past week or two I found yet another version of a tomato pie -- with corn, with bacon, with ricotta, with spinach, with cheddar, with mozzarella. They all sound wonderful.

I'm up to my earballs in tomatoes and I've canned many a pint (perfect for a twosome) of a roasted tomato sauce and eaten many a tomato sandwich. (Or "sammich" as my friend insists on saying.)

Still, I wanted to find new and different ways of using the tomatoes that are ripening faster than I can pick 'em.

Although I've been wanting to make a tomato pie for some time, I avoided it, mostly because I knew I'd end up eating it myself. (Unfortunately, I don't live with a tomato lover! Doesn't he know we call tomatoes "love apples"?)

But I wanted to make one so much I decided to go ahead and portion myself out slices and freeze them for quick lunches for a taste of summer later. And so I did.

So although it's not original, here's my tomato pie. What makes it special to me is that so much of it came from my back yard -- the veggies from my garden, the eggs from my neighbor, the basil from my back deck.

(If only I could {would} make puff pastry!)

Enough to make you feel like an authentic homesteader!

Tomato and Zucchini Pie
adapted from Pepperidge Farm
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 medium green onion, chopped
2 small zucchini, sliced into rounds
4 Italian plum tomatoes, sliced into rounds
2 eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Unfold the pastry on a lightly floured surface and roll the pastry into about a 10 inch square. Snip the corner to make a circle. Press the pastry into a 9 inch pie pan and fold the excess edges under to make a rim.
Layer the cheeses, onions and herbs in the pan. Arrange the zucchini and tomatoes slices in concentric circles on top.
Beat the eggs, half-and-half and black pepper in a medium bowl with a whisk. Pour the egg mixture over the vegetables. Sprinkle with the 1/2 cup Parmesan.
Bake for 45 minutes or until set.  Let cool for 20 minutes before cutting into wedges.

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Cook's Note:  Although the concentric circles of veggies looked very pretty, actually cutting the pie into pretty wedges wasn't so.  Next time I'll chop most of the vegetables and make a pretty arrangement of just a few slices on top -- just for pretty.