More cupcakes...

Yes, I guess I have been on a cupcake making streak, not pies, but we'll get back to that soon. In the meantime, here's some patriotic cupcakes made in honor of the 4th of July. The white are carrot cake with cream cheese icing, the red are dark chocolate and the blue are rich vanilla. All were a hit.

And more cupcakes...

A co-worker fell in love with these from the "Hello Cupcake" book, so I did a batch to take to work. I'm not a fan of all that buttercream icing, but she is, so here they are.

Other baked goodies...

Sometimes I do bake other things and thought I would share these yummy chocolate ganache cupcakes with you. The recipe is simple and uses Hershey's syrup (I used the new dark chocolate one) to make them extra chocolatey. Tom loves jimmies and although I usually object, I let him put them on these... since they were for his Dad on Father's Day.

Can she bake a cherry pie?

Yes! I love this time of year when every farmer's market and fruit stand is bursting with sweet cheeries. Yes, I know sour cherry pie is the norm, but these cherries are too fabulous not to try. I used very little sugar and very little else to create a delicious cherry pie. This did remind me that it has been a long time since I made a lattice crust. It's harder than I remember.

Strawberry Truffle Pie

YUM! I decided to put a creamy layer of chocolate cream under the strawberries to really make is special and was very pleased with the results. It is delicious. Only change for next time is to make the chocolate layer slightly thinner and the berries thicker.

Fresh fruit from California...oh the choices for pie...

Well after a fabulous weekend in Monterey we stopped at one of my favorite fruit/vegetable stands on the way back and the strawberries are gorgeous, but it is also cherry season, so I was torn about which to make first. Well, since the BF hasn't had a pie for a while and he doesn't really like cherry, the choice was obvious. Now...how to make it extra special... I think I know and will report back with results.

Chocolate Almond Amaretto Ricotta Cheese Pie

Thought I'd try another version of the ricotta cheese pie. I wasn't as please with it. Two big changes (other than subbing Amaretto for the Chambord) was that I used an almond butter cookie and ground almonds for the crust, which was nice, but not as good as the chocolate cookie crust and I added some ground almonds to the filling, which I didn't like at all. The reviews were good, but all agreed, especially the BF's Dad, that the Raspberry version was better...next up...who knows?

Ricotta Cheese Pie

Many moons ago I had a boss whose Italian mother made traditional Italian Cheese Cake, AKA, Ricotta Cheese Pie. I decided to change things up a bit and make one, but far less traditional than hers. I made a Chocolate Chambord Raspberry one. I was pleased with the results. A nice rich texture and not-too-sweet taste were the result. A crushed chocolate cookie crust enhanced the chocolate flavor... This leads me to wonder if I could create an Oreo pie. Oreos are the BF's absolute favorite cookie. Doesn't matter what I bake, no matter how delicious, Oreos come out on top of his list of favorites. I don't mind...much, but would love to create something fantastic that could rival them...in a pie.

Lime Meringue Challenge

Bruce, of Bruce and Shari, grows large crops of beautiful key limes, but doesn't particularly like the main dairy ingredient in a typical Key Lime Pie...sweetened condensed milk. My challenge was to make a Lime pie that kept the tart bite of the key limes but had the lovely texture of lemon meringue. I decided to use a 50/50 mix of dairy to fruit juice, so after squeezing about 25 limes I had 1 1/2 cups. When I tasted the juice I discovered that it was beautifully sweet on it's own and didn't require the usual amount of sugar, so I cut back there and created my pie custard. I decided to make the meringue a bit sweeter than I usually do to offset the tart custard. Will it be a hit? We'll see.

Lemon Meringue Part 2

Well the pie was a success, but I don't think the lemon zest in the crust made much of a difference either way. Here's a picture of the finished pie.

Lemon Meringue Part 1

We were invited to dinner at Betsy and John's and we're bringing dessert. Lemon Meringue was the request, easy enough. As I said earlier, I think I've got that recipe fine tuned...for now. But what can I do to make this one special??? I decided to tweak the crust a bit and add some grated lemon peel to it. Can you have too much lemon flavor? We'll find out. Here's a photo of the crust before it gets lined with foil and loaded with beans to prebake.

Coconut Cream Hit

So, the lastest pie was a hit, but I'm still not satified. I bumped up the coconut in the pie but want more coconut flavor. I used about a 60/40 dairy to coconut milk ratio, but I think I need to reverse that. I also think I overcompensated for the first runny one and this one is a bit thick, once cold. Still, it was yummy either way.

Pecan Tassies Part 3 and 4...

At the request of the BF, I made Pecan Tassies for the family Easter picnic. I decided to make two batches and to tweak them in between and see which were better. Batch 3 was made with a 50/50 mix of brown sugar and Karo syrup and Batch for 70/30 Karo to brown sugar. Batch 3 was the clear winner. It had enough of the pecan pie texture and matching sweetness and flavor from the brown sugar. Next up the crust... I think it needs more butter and less cream cheese, but we'll see.

Back to coconut cream...

I have been thinking about the recipe and think I have a new idea to really punch up the coconut flavor. I think I will use straight coconut milk in the custard and grind some flaked coconut up in the crust and substitute some of the flour with it.

In the meantime I have been making marshmallows, no not for pie, for bunnies and peeps for Easter...

Pecan Tassie Success?

Well so far I have made two batches of Pecan Tassies. I decided early on not to use Dark Brown Sugar because it has too much molasses flavor. I also decided to stick with one crust recipe while testing fillings and then tweak it once I had the filling perfected. The first batch was a mix of butter, light brown sugar, eggs and vanilla. It was OK, nothing to brag about though. To me it seemed dry and nothing like the pecan pie texture that I wanted. For the second batch I replaced some of the brown sugar with Karo light corn syrup. This was a big improvement but still not exactly what I want. For the next batch, I plan on replacing more of the sugar with Karo and adding a bit more butter...stay tuned.

Pecan Tassies

While not really pie, I decided to make some pecan tassies for a co-worker's birthday this week. Pecan is her favorite pie, but it doesn't really work for a crowd and is a bit messy for a meeting treat. I'm working on a recipe right now. The crust will be a mix of pastry flour, cream cheese, butter and salt. Just working out the proportions. The filling is so sweet, that I don't want any sugar in the crust, but the cream cheese provides some added richness. For the filling, I am thinking about subbing the traditional Karo syrup of a pie with brown sugar, since it's in smaller doses. I will make some with light and some with dark brown sugar. I'll let you know the results.

This is an apple pie that I made for Thanksgiving 2007. I used some small turkey and apple cutters to make the vents and then decorated the crust with the cut outs. It was lovely and baked to a golden perfection with just a light milk wash. It passed the test of BF's uncle, who is a pie lover... I'm going to have run the Lemon Meringue that I recently perfected by him soon, since it's his favorite.

Why Pie

I am starting a blog because I bake a lot of things, but especially love to bake pies. I bake pies over and over, tweaking my recipes until my Chief Pie Tester (BF) proclaims that it is the best whatever-pie he has ever tasted, or he begs me not to subject him to another whatever-pie for a while. Then I move on to another pie. Right now I am working on coconut cream pie. The first one tasted great, but the texture, well runny doesn't begin to describe it. The second was better, but not close to being GREAT.