Scrap Dough Pie

Don't you always have scrap dough left over when making a pie? I do. I hate throwing anything away, so I'll put it in the fridge, only to forget about it and have to throw it away later. Don't do that either. Make a scrap pie!



Scrap Pie
(Yes, this is obvious, but I don't care. I'm going to blog about it anyway.)

1. Just set aside some extra fruit to use as a pie filling. When you're done with your other pies, combine all your scraps and roll them out.
   
   
2. Mix your fruit filling (I like to do something a little different with it then the other pies so it is more special) and place in the center of the dough.
   
   
3. Fold the dough up and around the pie filling to form a little rustic tartlet.
   
   
4. Brush with egg. milk, oil, or whatever you use and drizzle with sugar.
   
   
5. Throw that bad boy into the oven with your other pies.

Bam! A delicious little treat. Kids love them!

Blue Food: Blueberry and Lime Pie

You don't like blueberry pie? Why not. You're grossed out by blue food? Well, get over yourself. You're a jerk. Stop reading my blog.

OK, Ok, Alright. You're not a jerk. Different stroke for different folks. Its not our job to preach about pie, but for 99.9% of you, when I say blueberry pie is the best, I know, I'm preachin' to the choir. To all you .1% out there, get over yourself. Ahh! There I go again. Don't pay attention to me. Lets just get to the recipe.



Blueberry and Lime Pie

• 2 pints blueberries
• 2 tsp. lime zest
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 Tbs Pimms Cup liquor
• 1/4 corn starch
  
• 1 pie crust

I guess technically this could be called Blueberry Citrus pie as the Pimms Cup liquor is a nondescript citrus flavor, but I liked the sound of blueberry lime pie. The lime zest and the Pimms helps set off the sweetness in the berries. If you don't have Pimms, I suppose you can substitute an orange liqueur like Grand Marnier or sweetened lime juice. If you don't drink, again, why are you reading this blog? Just kidding. I don't know why I am so antagonistic today. I love all my readers. Truly. Try some orange extract. If you don't have that, just add a bit more lime zest and perhaps some juice.

Directions
(pretty much the same as the Raspberry Rhubarb pie from the last post.

1. Preheat the oven to 375
   
   
2. Roll out bottom pie dough. Place in a pie pan, and pre-bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.
   
   
3. Mix filling and place in the pie crust.
   
   
4. Put a top crust on in whatever decoration you choose. You can do a whole top or a lattice. Above, I used 2 different sized juice glasses to cut out circles and overlap them as my topping. Fun!
   
   
5. Brush pie with egg, milk, or oil, whichever you choose. Sprinkle the top with sugar.
   
   
6. Bake at 375 for 45-60 minutes until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly.
   
   
7. Cool completely before eating.

99.9% of you can now dig in.

A Sweet Tart Treat: Raspberry Rhubarb Pie

This week I was pondering an important pie question: Can tart + tart = tasty? Normally you want to pair a sweet fruit with a tart fruit. Strawberry Rhubarb is classic. Peach and raspberries is the best. What happens when you take out the sweet and pair tart with tart: raspberry and rhubarb. Will they cancel each other out? Will it be too tart to take?



I was curious, so I mixed rhubarb and raspberry together in pie form to see what would happen. The results were delicious. These fruits are strong enough to maintain their individual flavors, but subtle enough for the sugar melt into the flavors so the sweet and the tart work together to form this little sweet tart. Here is the recipe I came up with:

Raspberry Rhubarb Pie

• 2 pints of raspberries
• 2 cups chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. corn starch (or flour)
• 1 Tbs rosewater
• 1 Tbs powdered ginger
• 1 pie crust

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make your pie crust. Roll out the dough and place bottom into a 9" pie pan. Here are 3 dough recipes I use all the time depending on my mood, and here are some tips to help with your dough.

Place pie pan with bottom crust only in oven and bake for about 10 minutes until the crust is hard and a bit golden. I like to pre-bake my bottom crust whenever I'm making a pie with a super soupy filling.

Mix above ingredients together and place into the pre-baked bottom pie crust. These ingredients get very soupy, which is why we need to add cornstarch or flour to the mix, to help the fruit juices thicken.

Place your pie crust top over your filling. I like doing a lattice crust top, but you can do whatever top you wish. You probably don't have to do a top, but for fruit fillings which can be pretty liquidy, I like having a top crust to help keep the pie shape when serving. Here's some tips on doing a lattice pie crust

Place pie on a baking sheet (to catch any overflow from your pie so it doesn't end up on the bottom of your stove) and put pie into the oven.

Bake for approx. 45 minutes, until crust is golden. Let cool completely before serving. It will help the filling harden so you aren't serving raspberry rhubarb soup.

Eat up and enjoy. This is the best part!

A Super Quick Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is:
Turkey Pilgrims Pumpkin Pie
We will eat until we die.
Fin.

Did you like my poem? OK, lets make a quick pumpkin pie you can easily squeeze into your busy holiday schedule!



Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

2/3 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. pumpkin**
2 egggs
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp cinamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1 2/3 c. milk

Mix everything together in a blender. Slowly add milk. The consistency of the filling once you add the milk will be very liquidy.



Pour in a pie crust. Here are the directions to my Grandmother's Quick Pie Crust recipe.



Brush the edges of the crust with milk.



Bake for 15 minutes at 450 and then lower for 30-40 minutes at 350.


If your tester looks like this, you're pie is not done.

Check pie with a toothpick or knife to test if done. When tester comes out clean with no pie liquid, your pie is done!



**You can use fresh pumpkin or canned. In my experience the canned pumpkin tastes just as good, and there are not additives in it. Around this time, stores often have the Libby pumpkin on sale pretty cheap. If you want to use fresh pumpkin, you need to cook it first. I suggest roasting in a similar fashion to the butternut squash we roasted for the butternut squash soup recipe.