Tag: pie

This pie turned out quite well. Everyone at Pie Night loved it. The caramel was a bit boozier than I thought it would be, but I coulda been doing it wrong. Recipe comes from Dennis Wilkinson. As is normal, I’ve modified it slightly.

Crust

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 stick cold butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• dash salt
• 1½ ounces cold water
• 1½ ounces vodka

Pretty standard crust, except there’s a bit more liquid than I normally would use for one crust.

1. Mix the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor
2. Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon pieces
3. Add the butter to the flour mixture
4. Pulse the food processor until all the chunks of butter are less than pea size
5. Transfer the flour mixture to a bowl
6. Combine the water and vodka into a cup
7. Add the liquid to the flour, alternately adding some and mixing it with a pastry cutter or fork
9. Work the dough until the liquid is pretty thoroughly combined and the flour forms a ball
10. Mush the dough into a disc
11. Wrap it in sandwich paper
12. Chill for a half hour to an hour in the fridge
13. Roll into a crust
14. Place the crust in a 9 inch pie plate (deep dish works better, but I didn’t do that)
15. Crimp the edges
16. Weight with foil and pie weights
17. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes, then remove the weights and bake for 10 more
18. Remove from oven and allow to cool

Caramel

• 1 cup sugar
• ⅓ cup water
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 ounces Grand Marnier (original recipe calls for 1 ounce, but I don’t have a 1 ounce measure)
• 1 orange

1. Grate all the zest from the orange
2. Combine sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan
3. Cover and bring to a boil
4. Remove the cover and continue boiling until sugar starts turning brown
5. Swirls the pan on the burner periodically until the sugar is reddish brown (it really does turn a reddish brown)
6. Add the cream and Grand Marnier
7. Stir until dissolved
8. Continue boiling until it’s pretty thick (original recipe says thread stage which I have no clue how to judge)
9. Add the orange zest
10. Pour it into the pie shell
11. Cool

The caramel was boozier than I expected. Perhaps sticking to the original amount mighta made it more acceptable to me, as I don’t drink or eat anything with more than a trace of alcohol left in it. I kinda expected it to have cooked off considering how long it was boiling.

Filling

• 4½ semisweet bakers chocolate
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• ⅔ cup sugar
• dash salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 eggs
• 1 can (14½ ounces) Guinness stout
• ¼ cup water
• 1 packet gelatin
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1. Combine the water and gelatin in a small saucepan
2. Separate the egg yolks and discard the egg white
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave
4. In a medium saucepan, combine the cocoa powder, corn starch, sugar, and salt
5. Whisk in the cream
6. Whisk in the egg yolks
7. Whisk in the Guinness
8. Whisk in the chocolate
9. Cook and stir the mixture over medium-high heat until thick enough to coat a spoon
10. Heat the gelatin until it dissolves
11. Whisk in the gelatin
12. Remove from heat and strain the chocolate through a strainer into a bowl
13. Whisk in the butter
14. Pour into the pie shell (the one with the caramel, not a new one)
15. Cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator until set

At this point, I had some leftover chocolate, though not a lot. I really should have used a deep dish pie plate. C’est la vie.

Serve with whipped cream.

Click through to the original recipe to see a lovely photo. I didn’t get a good photo of my edition of the pie.

The French Leek Pie I made for Pie Night was gone in 11 minutes. It was super easy to make. I used the French Leek Pie recipe at allrecipes.com, with some minor adaptations.

• 1 pie crust
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3 leeks
• 1 pinch salt (to taste)
• 1 pinch pepper (to taste)
• 1 cup cream
• 1 1/4 cup shredded Gruyere cheese (more or less)

1. preheat oven to 375°
2. grate the Gruyere
3. chop the leeks
4. melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat
5. add leeks
6. cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until soft
7. reduce heat to low
8. add salt and pepper
9. stir in cream and shredded Gruyere cheese
10. heat on low until mixture is warmed through
11. pour mixture into the pie shell
12. bake for 30 minutes, or until the custard is set and golden on top

This was one of the pies I made for last night’s Pie Night. It’s delicious. Recipe adapted from Icebox Pies, which Sharon gave me last year. It’s turned out to be quite the excellent pie book.

Ingredients

• 3 cups half and half
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup couscous
• 1/2 cup dried apricots
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 crumb crust
• 1/2 cup apricot preserves

1. lightly beat egg yolks
2. chop dried apricots finely
3. combine half and half, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan
4. bring pot just to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low
5. slowly drizzle about 1/2 cup of the half and half mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly
6. whisk the egg yolks into the saucepan
7. add the couscous, dried apricots, and nutmeg and stir to combine
8. simmer, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and almost all the liquid has been absorbed (about 5 to 7 minutes)
9. remove the pan from the heat
10. stir in the vanilla
11. scrape the mixture into the crumb crust
12. in a food processor, process the apricot preserves until smooth
13. spread the preserves over the pie with a spatula
14. wrap in plastic wrap
15. refrigerate at least 3 hours

No photos, because I didn’t have space on the memory card for my camera.