Hot Potato!

I always wanted to try a sweet potato pie, but there are so many recopies to choose from! Unfortunately I do not think I found the perfect one yet! Though it looked pretty the recipe needs some work! (perhaps it is baker error) but the mixer could have been used once again!

I will give this one a few more tries, if anything I am persistent! The bake time was significantly off, the center was super runny right up till the end, and when I was worried of it cooking too much I had to take it out, it set up fine, but resembled more of a gelatin that smooth and creamy! Non the less I will provide you with the recipe and will update you in the future of any changes/successes! Good Luck!

Sweet Potato Glazed Pie

filling:

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons flour

5 oz evaporated milk

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups mashed cooked sweet potatoes (emphasis on the mashed!!!)

glaze:

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/4 teaspoon flour

2 tablespoons evaporated milk

2 tablespoons melted butter

Pre heat oven to 375

First i boiled the potato to get it nice and soft, i probably could have let it go longer. You want to make sure it will produce a well mashed potato! I used i medium sized potato about a pound.

combine the sugar, flour, milk egg and vanilla... I would recommend using the mixer for this friends! And also make sure to mash the potato before you mix it in with the rest of the ingredients!

Stir in the sweet potato and pour the ingredients into the uncooked pie shell

as for the glaze, combine the sugar, flour, butter and milk

drizzle mix over sweet potato filling.

Bake at 375 for 60 minutes!

test my inserting a knife, if it comes out clean then the pie is ready to be taken out!

I will most definitely be trying this recipe again in the near future I have some good ideas involving brown sugar and a broiler!

Once my friend reports back about how it tasted I will fill you in!

cross your fingers for good news!

Make lemon Pie instead of Lemonade!

Make Lemon Pie!

My husband loves lemon flavored stuff as well as blue berry, once I combined them both into a lemon blueberry cake, it was pretty good, but latter confessed it was a little too rich for him!

So I sought after an alternative, and this is what I found!

The recipe was very good, but as usual I just figured out some thing that I probably should have done! like dare I say use a mixer for the filling! I didnt let the cream cheese soften enough so when I creamed it with the butter and sugar I didn't get the job done! So it was a little lumpy, still tasted good though!

So here is the recipe!

Lemon Cream Pie

Crust:

you could either use a graham cracker or regular pie crust, I prefer the regular pie crust for winter and graham cracker for summer, not sure why just do.

Filling:

8 oz cream cheese
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp flour
2/3 cup milk
1/4 cup lemon juice

Lemon topping:

1-1/2 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

line pie pan with pie crust of choice, and set aside.

cream together the cream cheese and butter, make sure it is nice and creamy! It will make the end product so much better! add the sugar and egg yolk, make sure everything is well blended!

next you will add your flour, milk and lemon juice... after a good little mixing pour it into the pie crust and bake for 35 minutes

after removing the pie let it cool off enough to place in the fridge to chill.

for the lemon topping you will be making almost a lemon curd, which is tart and delicious!

in a small bowl you will need to dissolve the corn starch with a 1/3 of a cup of water, just enough to get it all moistened.

bring the rest of the water to boil in a sauce pan. once it has reached boiling add the moistened corn starch and cook until transparent.

once you have gotten to this point add the butter, sugar and lemon juice.

Remove sauce pan from heat and mix it up until everything has fully combined and it has a nice smooth fairly thick texture... on the verge of pudding.

pour the mixture over the baked pie and place back into the refrigerator to cool.

Serve the pie cold! it is best that way, we ate it a little warm and it was not as good.

Serve it with some yummy home made whipped cream and enjoy! a little bit of summer during the winter.

I will be trying the recipe again, but using the mixer and possibly with a graham cracker crust and will repost some better pictures of it.

Meanwhile enjoy trying this recipe out, it is fairly quick and simple and provides a yummy treat especially in the summers!

peCAN

I tried making a pecan pie last year for Christmas, it was a huge failure!

Thankfully not because of me! Our oven was on the fritz for the holidays (one of the elements were broken and it took extra long to cook everything) and we didn't know until the we kept checking the turkey and it just wasn't cooking!

My pie never cooked clean through, I hate making a cut in the center to check, if I had I probably could have saved it by putting it in longer, but I didn't want to scar my first pecan pie, needless to say I scar them from now on! It is not the end of the world to have score in the center, it is just going to get eaten anyways!

So this is my second attempt at pecan pie:

Pecan Pie

1/2 cup light Karo syrup

1/2 cup molasses

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

1 pie crust

Preheat oven to 350

Mix syrup, eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla then stir in pecans

pour filling in to pie tin lined with crust.

I usually decorate the top with a design of pecan halves, but the pie looks delicious no matter how you present it!

bake on center rack for 70 minutes (bake less if you have an oven that runs high, I have a gas stove it usually cooks evenly and took 70 minutes!)

cool at least 2 hours before serving!

The secret ingredient here is the molasses, it gives it a really rich full flavor... mmm and smells incredible!! The best part about baking is all the amazing smells! I wish I could smell like sugar vanilla, and cardamom forever!

Thanksgiving

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with loved ones. We went to B's parents house on Thursday and enjoyed a lovely meal! Then on Friday went to my parents house had another lovely meal, and spent all Saturday recovering from the massive amount of food we had eaten over the past two days!

But the best part was to have four full days with my handsome man!

I also go to spend time with my kitteh, and our little pooper Elvis!

It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend!

I hope you all had just as wonderful a Thanksgiving as I did!

Blueberry Breakfast

This past Monday I was searching the house for something

to grab and take into work for breakfast,

since I had no such luck

I made the plan to head home after work

and make some muffins for the next morning!

I decided to break out my gorgeous mint green kitchen aid,

since it is the baking season

I polished her up and made a very special place

for her on the kitchen counter!

The next mission was to bake!

I found a yummy recipe in a book I bought a while ago.

The recipe called for raspberry jam to be swirled in the top,

unfortunately B finished off his jar of jam,

so I used what was left on two and improvised on the rest!

I used blueberries, since these are Bs favorite type of muffin,

and the other I used grape jelly we received as a wedding present

from a dear old friends, Mrs. B and Mr. M.

And this is what the delicious little treats looked like:

Now that the real baking season is upon us,

you can probably expect to see a lot more recipes up,

other than just pies! I hope you enjoy!

Upper Crust

One thing my good friend R always insisted is that you keep a recipe to your self, one thing you do well and you never share, it is your thing, your special thing! So I decided it is my crust, it is nothing special but for some reason i just works with everything. I always get compliments, and it always rolls out perfect and browns up divine. It is the one recipe that is so ingrained in my head I think I could make it on demand perfectly even if my life depended in it!

So this I will keep to my self, the rest i will happily share!

Even-though I have decided to keep this one secret I will divulge a few helpful hints!

Most recipes call for chilled water with ice cubes, usually 2-3 table spoons, I say use it sparingly!

You never really know how the crust is going to turn out until you get your hands in it, this is where I can say this knowledge comes with practice! You will find when you have made your 50th or so crust you notice that by the time you are finished cutting in the butter you can tell just how much water you will need. The most important thing to remember with liquids you can always add more but you cant take it away!

I recommend NEVER using a machine, the fun of baking is getting your hands dirty, like making mud pies when you were little! it also helps with knowing what you need; a little more flour, more water... you develop a tactile sense over time and soon it become a feeling you have with dough something you just know.

It is hard to not sound all mystical about baking, it is part science but part faith and about a quarter luck. One ting B is driving into my brain s you can follow a recipe exactly, but itdoesn't mean it is going to turn out exactly the same as it should. So when I start sounding fairly (mystical) just know the more you make it the more you will understand, there comes a point where you just know.

One of my last tips for dough, it is ok to be rough with it, people treat dough so carefully and gently, afraid it is going to crumble and afraid of making a mess. Again think primal urges when you bake, make a HUGE mess, get flour everywhere have fun! I find giving my dough a little bit of a beating to be very satisfying as well as gets all the little crumbs in a row... when I roll it out it tends to crack less. Also a resting period for dough is crucial! somerecipes it is ok to roll out straight away, but for the most part 15- 20 minutes int he fridge is a good idea.

Now this is my final bit of wisdom that I can not emphasis nearly enough so listen carefully!

Doubling a dough recipe is a VERY BAD idea! I learned form my amazing Auntie G that you do not double recipes unless the recipe says so! it never turns out the same, take the time to make the second batch it is worth it and you can always taste the difference!

here are a few recipes I have collected, all are very good and can be used with various different pies. (If I reference any crust int he future and forget to give the recipe you can bet you will find it here! otherwise I will let you know how to make the crust.)

Basic Crust

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup ice water

1 teaspoon sugar

combine the flour and salt

cut in butter until mixture consists of coarse crumbs

add 1 table spoon at a time of water

until the dough sticks together

and you can roll into a ball.

refrigerate over night

Gluten/sugar Free Crust

3/4 cup rice flour

1 teaspoon honey

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/3 cup butter

2 tablespoons cold water

mix together rice flour, sea salt, and xantham gum well

cut in the butter and honey

add the cold water a little at a time

until you reach the desired consistency.

This dough can be kind of sticky

so roll out between two rice floured sheets of wax paper.

Sour Cream Crust

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter

6 tablespoons sour cream

in a medium bowl mix the flour and salt

cut in the butter and then the sour cream

knead briefly on a floured surface

This recipe requires no rest time!

pot luck suprise!

I apologize for not posting yesterday like I said I would, but I will be putting out a few today:
special pie crust recipes
sweet potato pie with glaze
and possiby one more! We will see!

But I just wanted to say the Creme Brulee pie may not have been the prettiest pie ever, but it sure was delicious!!!
B and I spent the day with our very good friends R & K, we had a delightful day shopping yesterday (B got many new shirts that making him even more handsome). After a long day we all went out to eat and came back to our house to try out the pie! I think we were all a little nervous to try it, but thank God for such wonderfully supportive freinds and husband, they all tried it! and thanfully it did not taste burnt or anything, it had a very nice flavor, creamy, and smooth with a crispy crust! it was very delightful! And K gave me some good hints about how they do the Creme Brulee at the resturaunt, so next time K will be there to help me torch the top! She said that the 1/3 cup of sugar the recipe called for to spread over the top was way too much! She said it needs a really thin layer so it melts evenly, that having that much means it is that much more the heat has to melt! So I am putting in my request for a torch! we will see what Santa puts in my stocking!!!

3rd times a charm...

Sort of. So I tried the creme brulee pie again, and while I still burnt the sugar the filling came out fantastic! I finally figure out how to cook it and made some adjustments to the recipe. So my darling friend K suggested I use a torch to melt the sugar, but I was too impatient and tried it out in the broiler again. (did you know there are two settings on a broiler?) Obviously I didn't, apparently there is a low. So the sugar got burnt but not as bad as last time i think we can still actually eat it!

So I consider this a success, and will be making it the next time we go see our friends K & R with the kitchen torch! :)

Creme Brulee Pie

filling:

3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks beaten
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon vanilla

Here are a few of filling my suggestions to start off with:

Have all of the ingredients ready, because you really do not want to leave the unattended on the stove!

Second bake the pie shell first so it has time to cool down a bit!

Now in the original recipe they said to cook in a heavy sauce pan, well both times I had trouble burning the bottom and not getting it to thicken up very well,

so I decided to try a double broiler and it is sooooo nice!

It thickened up very well, there was no burning,

and it allowed you more room for if you

forgot something and had to step away!

To start get your water boiling

in a metal bowl dissolve the cornstarch in the cream,

(I found a whisk works best

throughout this whole process!)

I whisked it up a bit before I put it over the stove

to get some air through the cream

After you put the bowl over the water

whisk it around for a bit to get it all warmed up

next add the condensed milk and the beaten egg yolks

It took a good 20 minutes of whisking,

(trust me it is definitely worth it!)

It will thicken up pretty good,

I kept it going until when I pulled out the whisk

you could still see the imprint,

like a pudding consistency.

at this point while it is still over the heat

you can whisk in the vanilla and butter

make sure the butter is melted before you take it off the heat.

Now that everything is thoroughly mixed and the pie shell is nice and cool, it is time to pour the mixture in to the shell.

I placed mine in the fridge for about 2 hours

to let it finish setting up and cool down.

Now the tricky part!

after it is allowed to cool

you want to cover the top with sugar,

the recipe called for 1/3 of a cup,

but I just sprinkled it on until it was evenly covered.

In the future I will use a kitchen torch

(hopefully my husband will take that as a hint for a Christmas present!)

The broiler is too scary for me

you cant really see too well what is going on

and before you know it, this happens!

We didn't cut into it yet,

but I I am sure it will be eaten tonight!

I will let you know how it tasted!

I apologize for not posting the past two days,

I have been home sick, and am starting to feel a bit better!

I will make it up with a couple extra postings this weekend,

on my go to pie crust recipes,

as well as some other pointless facts!

Have a lovely day!