Pie

I am the middle child of a family of seven girls, no boys.  As you can imagine (or some of you may know) raising seven kids is a lot of work!  My mom was lucky because her mom lived about 20 minutes from us when we were growing up.  My grandma, Bernadine, or Bernie for short, was a school teacher.  But when she retired, she dedicated her time to helping my mom to raise us girls.  She did not live with us, but she came to our house early each morning and stayed there till after dinner most days.  She cooked, cleaned, chauffeured, gardened, taught little ones to read and write, helped with homework, did laundry, etc.  She was an awesome and fun loving grandma and I miss her deeply.

One of my fondest memories of her was the way she taught me to bake pies each Thanksgiving morning.  She was so patient with me.  She showed me how to work the pie dough gently, touching it as little as possible to create a flaky crust.  I remember being in awe of how she could peel and apple with only one peel.  We loved eating those long curly-Q peels.  She would let us take the extra dough and roll it out to make little cinnamon rolls.  Those were one of my favorite things at Thanksgiving.  We would spread butter of the dough and lots of cinnamon sugar, then roll it up and slice it and bake the little rolls in a pie tin.  Thanksgiving morning was always a happy time in my home of cooking together and eating yummy appetizers, and just enjoying each other’s company.  I miss cooking with my grandma so much.  I just miss her.  A lot.  I wish so much she was around to see my kids and love them like she did me.  And out of all my parents’ son-in-laws I know she would have loved my husband the most.  In fact, I met him shortly after she passed away and I think she had something to do with bringing us together.

Well, I still love to make pies and every time I do I think of “Grammy” making pies right alongside me.

I made several pies for this past Thanksgiving.  I tried some new recipes and I loved them all.  I am going to share them with you.  I hope you know how to make crust by hand because it is just so much yummier and so much more fun.  I will give you my recipe for crust but if you don’t know how to do it I would suggest finding a tutorial online.  It is easy, but you may have to practice a few times to get the right amount of water added…that’s the only hard part.

Today I am going to share the recipe for this little beauty:

This was probably my favorite pie this year.  It has a consistency very similar to very moist cheesecake.  It was tart and sweet and just super yummy.

I found the recipe in Better Homes and Gardens.  You can find it HERE.  It called for lemon but I went with lime because I love key lime pies so much.  It was delicious!

Lime Velvet Cream Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 unbaked pie crust, pre baked half way using pie weights
• 1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
• 2 Tbsps. Cold water
• 6 egg yolks
• 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
• ¼ c. whipping cream
• ¼ tsp. salt
• zest of two limes (or lemons)
• ¾ c. lime juice (or lemon), fresh is best
• whipped cream for topping

Directions: In a small bowl, soften gelatin in water for 5 minutes. Microwave for 10 seconds. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk. With an electric mixer beat on high speed for a couple minutes until well combined. Beat in gelatin, whipping cream and salt on law speed. Add lime juice and zest and mix to combine. Pour into prepared crust.

Bake 22-25 minutes or until center of pie looks set when gently shaken. Cool on wire rack. Cover loosely and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Top with sweetened whipped cream before serving.

 

Basic Pie Crust

Yield: 2 crusts

Ingredients:

• 3 c. flour
• 1 c. butter flavored shortening (Crisco) OR 1/2 c. butter flavored Crisco and 1/2 c. butter
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 9-11 tsps. ice water, drizzled one tsp. at a time

Directions: Chill all ingredients well.  Combine flour, sugar, and salt in bowl. Cut in shortening to make a coarse meal. Sprinkle a tablespoon of the water over the flour mixture. Stir with a fork. Keep adding a tablespoon at a time and stirring in between. Add just enough of the water to form a soft dough. Handle it as little as possible. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Flatten slightly and wrap in plastic. Chill in fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out the crusts on a lightly floured surface to about ¼” thickness and a diameter 2 “ larger than pie plate on each side.

 

I would love to know a fast and easy way I could add a printable version of my recipes to my posts.  I use Windows Live Writer.  If anyone knows how, please let me know.  In the meantime, you can print by highlighting the recipe and then printing your selection.