Happy National Pie Day: I Ate All the Pie!

In commemoration of this monumental national holiday, I baked myself an individual pie in a ramekin and then I ate all of it. Because I can. Hey, the holiday doesn't give me the day off of work, so I earned my own mini-vacation in pie form.

What kind of a pie do I eat if left to my own devices? Chocolate chess pie, of course. It's intoxicating when it's fresh out of the oven. Then I warm up some caramel sauce, drizzle it on top, and sprinkle with flakes of sea salt. My second choice would be banana cream pie, but I prefer to leave my banana cream pies overnight in the fridge before I eat them. And we all know I wasn't going to let this pie sit overnight. It had to be consumed immediately. See the evidence below.

Before stuffing it in my face.

Middle of stuffing it in my face.

The last bite. I eated all of it. And I regret none of it.

National Pie Day has me thinking about some new goals for my pie project in the coming months:

• Get my online store up and running. I've run into some obstacles with this, but I just need to bite the bullet and go one way or the other. I've started with Payvment, but it's pretty limited in terms of turning on and off shipping for individual items, so if anyone has suggestions of better online Facebook shop platforms, I'm all ears. 
• Dream up my spring menu. I can't wait for all the wonderful fruit that spring brings with it: 
• Apricots (only perfect honey-sweet ones though, like the ones I read about in Lucky Peach Vol. 2. That article killed me. David Chang and the whole gang continually prove themselves geniuses.)
• Kiwis
• Early cherries
• The best of Meyer lemons, limes
• Juice-filled, blood red, homegrown strawberries
• Start taking more seasonal subscribers. I'm planning to open up orders for cookie boxes, pie boxes, candy and southern treat boxes (for local customers) and any combination thereof.
• Take more photos and share more recipes!
• Go to more events at 18 Reasons. And by more events, I mean start going to events because I've never been, and that is a damn shame. Like these DIY Dessert events that happen every so often. Caaaake.

So that is what has been on my mind in this long break from substantial blogging. I love the blog, but I want to grow myself and this little project of mine in a lot of different directions, so it's been secondary to other things for a bit. But I promise to check in often. As always, keep in touch! E-mail me, Tweet me, Facebook me for anything your heart desires!

Plum-Pear Port Mini Pies and Sweet Potato Mini Pies

On Monday night, after a long day at work, I decided to work through some recipes I'd been meaning to try and send them to my friend Mike in Los Angeles for his review (and enjoyment too). My friend Will also came by, and I owed him a pie from the raffle, so I threw together a bourbon apple pie crumble pie for him. He was eating it before it came out of the oven, and brought it to his friend's house, where it promptly disappeared.

For me, fall is all about thanking the summer for all that delicious, vibrant fruit, and turning to warmer flavors like sweet potatoes (or yams), pumpkin, squash, pecans, bourbon and port, and lots of butter. With that in mind, I decided to try out two new recipes, and they were an absolute success: Sweet Potato Pie and Plum-Pear Port.

Placing the Bourbon Apple Pie beside the baby pies and the momma sweet potato pie

Plum-Pear Port in the foreground, and sweet potato just in front of it

Sweet Potato Pie gets its time in the spotlight

And here are the recipes!

Sweet Potato Pies (recipe modified from Paula Deen's)

Mine has less sugar, and you can totally get away with it!

Ingredients

2 cups of whipped sweet potatoes (you'll need about 2 large sweet potatoes or 3 medium-sized ones, and I'll explain how to whip them below)

3/4 - 1 cup sugar (depending on how sweet you like it; brown sugar could also work nicely)

1/2 stick melted and cooled butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

1 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Roll out the pastry and transfer either to a 9-inch pie plate or cut with circle cookie cutters and press lightly into buttered muffin tins. Trim and decorate pastry, and then place it back in the fridge to set up. 

2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into evenly sized cubes. Then steam them for about 20 minutes, or until soft. Transfer to a bowl to cool. Once cool, mash with a potato masher (or a wooden spoon or some other mashing implement), then transfer to a mixer and whip them up. You can do this by hand, but I got a KitchenAid for my birthday, and it is the single-best gift of all time.

3. Scoop out 2 cups of whipped potatoes and put into a bowl. Combine with the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, salt, and spices. Mix thoroughly. Add the milk and continue to mix. 

4. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool to room temperature. 

You can add a meringue to this, but I love how it tastes by itself. 

Plum-Pear Port Pies (recipe modified from BHG)

Mine is heavier on the plums because I love their tartness

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

Squeeze of a lemon

1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 cups chopped plums (I leave skins on)

2 cups cored and chopped pears

2 tbsp port (you can omit this if you feel like it, but add in some more lemon)

1/4 tsp vanilla

Pie crust for either a double-crust pie (you can do a large lattice, or tiny muffin-tin pies like I do)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Roll out the pastry and transfer either to a 9-inch pie plate or cut with circle cookie cutters and press lightly into buttered muffin tins. Trim and decorate pastry, and then place it back in the fridge to set up. 

2. Combine sugar, lemon, cinnamon, a pinch of salt with all of the fruit and allow it to juice for about 30 minutes. Then pour off the excess. Add lemon juice or port and vanilla. Transfer the mixture into the pie tin(s).

3. Roll out the remaining pastry for the lattice crust, or do whatever you want really with the top a crust. A crumble would be a good choice since this pie is REALLY juicy. It could soak up some of the excess.

4. Bake 1 hour-20 minutes if you are baking a large pie, or 1 hour if baking in muffin tins.  

One Day, Ten Varieties of Mini Pies

This wasn't even the messy part

Today I baked 10 varieties of mini pies. It took me about 9 hours total, not including the extra time I took to go for a run in the middle and to bake a batch of peanut butter cookies for a sick friend and an order I am shipping off to Los Angeles in the morning.

Why did I make 10 varietes of miniature pies? Who the hell does something like that? Is that what you're asking? Well, I had an order of two dozen mini pies today, and I wanted to showcase all my best work. The list went as follows:

1. Banana Cream Pie (so. effing. cute. the layers! the wafers fit perfectly! the whipped cream!)
2. Peanut Butter Cream Pie (the essence of comfort food)
3. Blueberry Lemon Curd Pie
4. Pecan Pie with Sorghum
5. Date-Pecan Pie
6. Apple-Pear Pie
7. Strawberry Mint Pie
8. Blackberry-Nectarine Crumble-Topped Pie
9. Lemon Chess Pie (oh, of course!)
10. Peaches and Cream Pie (my favorite... it tastes like peaches on homemade ice cream)

Now I'm sipping on a lemonade with fresh mint in my bed, saying goodbye to this exhausting day

Hello, Monday. You always arrive too soon.

Songbird Apple Pie

Last week, my roommate and I (and our respective friends) stayed up until 2 AM decorating this pie for her Speakeasy as Pie Mix Tape cover and our Pie Speakeasy coming up in September. Maria is one of those endlessly creative people who keep me inspired even when I feel like I just want to give up. I had almost dropped this Speakeasy project (which I'll explain in a future post) for a few weeks because things got stressful, but her excitement is infectious.

This pie is for her and for her beautiful voice. I'm lucky enough to hear her sing almost every day.

Maria hard at work

Cutting out the leaves

I used a mixture of Gravensteins and Golden Delicious to get a smooth pie with chunks of crunchy, cinnamon sugar-covered apples

Close up on the songbird

Close up of the handmade leaves

The final product

Lemon Buttermilk Pie with Blueberry Topping

When I finished my half-marathon, I celebrated with a nap and a buttermilk pie with fresh blueberry topping. Buttermilk pie has such a homey taste, and it's low-fat. Just because the crust has butter and shortening in it, that doesn't mean it's unhealthy. ...Right?

Best of all, this recipe only requires one bowl to mix the pie. Then just heat up the blueberries over the stovetop.

My mother gave this the stamp of approval. Therefore, it has been deemed worthy of your tastebuds.

This is what the plain buttermilk pie looks like. It's good, but a bit bland. You gotta top it with fruit or whipping cream or chocolate or basically whatever you prefer.

The finished product. This is subtly sweet, not overpowering. I love that.

Lemon Buttermilk Pie with Blueberry Topping

Recipe Adapted from Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie by Tartelette

Ingredients
For the pie:
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 stick of unsalted butter (I used Smart Balance actually)
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon)

For the topping (you can also double the recipe and save some for later, yummm):
2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp lemon juice

Directions
1. Roll out your dough the usual way and pre-bake it in a 350F oven for about 20 minutes. I just put parchment paper over the top and poked holes in the bottom, as I'm too lazy and cheap to buy the pie-specific baking beads or use beans.
2. Whisk together all the pie ingredients in one bowl. Pour the mixture into the prebaked pie shell.
3. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. The center should be set and not jiggly when you remove it from the oven. If the crust browns before the center is done, cover it with foil.
4. Allow the pie to cool. While the pie is cooling, place half the blueberries in a pan on the stovetop and mix together with the sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice. Cook for about 5 minutes or until soft. Then add in the rest of the blueberries and cook for about another minute. Allow the topping to cool as well.
5. Before serving, top the pie with the blueberries and place in the fridge to cool completely.

Take a bite! Or, like me, 3/4 of the pie!

Currently

Listening to
Pretty Lights: Country Roads
It's like down home bluegrass mixed with totally danceable electro. I want more music like this in my life.
Listen and download their other remixes online.

Eating
Double Chocolate Zucchini Brownies. Surprisingly moist, though the ones in the center are worlds better than the corner pieces. Those are too dry. If I had to make these again, I would add natural peanut butter. Without a doubt, they would be so much better. These were perfect after my morning run.

via A Dash of Sass

Lusting After

This sweet potato latte from YakiniQ in Japantown. I will have one this weekend, and I will add a shot of espresso to it. 

via SFoodie

Have a fantastic, food-filled weekend, everyone! I have some life-reassessment to do, and I am very much looking forward to it. 

"Georgia Peach" Peaches and Cream Pie

Aerial View of Summertime

White peaches are one of my all-time favorite fruits. I love the way the juice runs down your hands when you bite into a good peach, how the skin falls right off when you blanch them, how they perfume your entire kitchen when you leave them to ripen on the counter top (I have a very small kitchen, mind you). 

But it's hard to find a good white peach in California. They are few and far between. Too many times, they are picked before they are ready and shipped over on giant trucks, either bruised or eternally unripened. So when I found some at the local farmer's market that I could smell from a few feet away, I knew it was time for a peach pie. 

And not just any old peach pie, but a traditional peaches and cream pie, which tastes pretty much exactly like peach ice cream, except it warms your mouth and the fruit almost melts on your tongue. Then the crust adds a contrasting crunchiness that will have you coming back for seconds. Or, in my case, for breakfast, since I've been eating this one before work for two days in a row.

It's also a very simple recipe. So go ahead and try it. You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain (literally, you might gain a few pounds after eating the entire pie to yourself, so share it please). 

Pretty crust, sculpted by my talented roommate, Maria, and my wonderful friend, Marie

This recipe also taught me how to blanch a peach, which I highly recommend you do in order to remove the peach skin. It has never been appealing to me to leave the skin on any fruit in a pie, and if you try to remove it with a peeler, you'll lose way too much of the peach-meat. Trust me. 

My roommate made little musical notes with leftover crust (look sideways, you'll see it)

Peaches and Cream Pie 

Recipe Adapted from Nathalie Dupree's New Southern Cooking

PRINT THIS AS A RECIPE CARD!

Ingredients

one 9" pie shell (I used a butter-shortening crust with 1 added tbsp sugar)

4 peaches, skinned and sliced 

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup heavy cream

OPTIONAL: A generous sprinkling of brown sugar

OPTIONAL: Butter and egg for a butter-egg wash

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a 9" pie pan. Roll out the pie crust and line the pan with it. 

2. Mix together the flour and sugar. Pour 1/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the crust. 

3. Place the peaches into the crust. Add as many or as little as you want, but I like myself a really, really peachy pie. 

4. Pour the rest of the sugar-flour mixture over the peaches. Pour the heavy cream over everything. Stir the peaches around so they are completely covered in cream. They can be above the cream, but you want them all to have a chance to have a taste of it!

5. OPTIONAL STEP: Sprinkle a generous helping (about 1 tbsp) of brown sugar over the top. Alternatively, you can do this halfway through baking. Cover the crust with an egg wash and butter. 

6. Bake for 50-70 minutes, or until the middle is just set. You'll know it's not ready if you jiggle it, and the middle shakes. If the crust gets too brown, cover it with a ring of foil. Serve hot or cool.

NOTE: If you're not happy with your peaches, add in a nectarine or two instead. You want the brightest, juiciest fruit for this. 

This is what the pie looked like after I took a slice for breakfast yesterday morning. Then I ate said slice while watching the sun rise over San Francisco. Not too shabby. I love my city. I love my pie. 

Strawberry Radish Summer Salad

After a friend delivered a giant bag of fresh butter lettuce and radishes to my house straight from her garden, I started craving a humongous salad. Like, enormous. No, bigger than enormous. I kind of wanted to be able to live in the salad.

But I was realistic about it. Also, I was realistic about the fact that that sounds totally crazy and most people are not in LOVE with salad... until they try one of mine. So go ahead and indulge in this simple treat. It's only about 150 calories for the entire meal. Which is why I had a huge hunk of tri tip with it. That part is optional.

I apologize for the awful photo quality. I took these at my parent's house and only had my iPod instead of my Nikon.

Strawberry Radish Summer Salad

Ingredients (approximations; you can use whatever ratio or variation you like)

6-8 radishes, sliced thinly

10 strawberries, sliced

3 cups butter lettuce, loosely packed

handful of sliced almonds

part of a red onion, diced

3 celery stalks, thinly sliced

Balsamic vinegar (I used a fig balsamic that was to die for)

Olive Oil

Directions

Combine all ingredients (up to the vinegar and oil) in a large salad bowl. In a small bowl, mix together your preferred ratio of olive oil and vinegar and pour over individual servings. If you have some feta or chevre lying around, throw some of that on there. As I always say, Do whatever. Just do what tastes good.

San Francisco Meets Southern Chocolate Shortcake

I know I'm a bit late, but I thought I'd share the dessert I made for July 4 this year. It was a wonderful, gooey yet cakey shortcake recipe that I adapted from Paula Deen's classic chocolate strawberry shortcake. She put RE-DICULUS amounts of sugar in hers, so I toned that down a bit, and I also used sustainable cocoa and King Arthur cake flour. So it was feel-good bad-for-you food. Yummsies.

This flour is the BOMB dot com.

I also used Clover buttermilk. So fresh.

Still in the pan. It cracks a little, but don't be concerned.

I had to summon my strength not to put my face in it.

The final result. Wish I had my nice camera, but my desperation to eat overcame my desire to take photos.

Chocolate Strawberry Shortcake

Recipe Adapted from Paula Deen's Savannah Country Cookbook

Ingredients

2 cups cake flour

3/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup shortening (or butter)

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

3 egg whites

1 quart of fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

whipping cream (drool)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 

2. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl (except strawberries and whipping cream). Mix it up, scraping the bowl constantly. If you have a mixer, mix on high for 3 minutes after incorporated, otherwise just stir really fast to try to get a lot of air into the batter. Build up those arm muscles!

3. Pour into a greased and floured 13x9 inch pan

4. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

5. Cool completely (the hard part). 

6. Cut into slices with a very sharp knife. Serve with a ton of whipped cream and sliced strawberries. 

It's Too Darn Hot to Bake... Let's Drink Instead

I can't possibly bear to cook, let alone bake, in this heat. Instead, I've been drinking lemonade like it's going out of style. Now, where is someone to make me a mint julep and when am I going to find the time to sit outside and bask in the sunshine?

On the horizon for this evening when I return to San Francisco and the fog: homemade granola bars for my backpacking trip this weekend.

Here are some lovely southern summer drinks to finish out the long day.

Bourbon Whiskey Iced Tea via something edible

Image via Vintage Victuals, along with a fabulous recipe

Decaf sweet tea with mint (non-alcoholic!) via a sweet pea chef

Strawberry Arnold Palmer via Disgustingly Good 

I'm gonna make myself at least ONE of these as soon as I get home. Probably more like three though.

My Local Ingredients

Thought I'd give you an idea of the all-local ingredients I use in my lovely kitchen here in San Francisco.

I use Clover milk and butter, made in Berkeley

Peaches and Apricots from the Burlingame Farmer's Market

I buy sugars in bulk from Rainbow Grocery and store them in glass containers. I buy pecans from Earthbeam (I'm on the Peninsula a lot, if you couldn't tell, plus these pecans are sourced from a Santa Cruz, CA-based company) 

Peaches are lovely things. They remind me of poetry.

I cook with organic Clover butter for my final recipes, but usually experiment with the regular ol' stuff

A shot from the Parkside Farmer's Market in Burlingame. A refreshing change of pace for that town. 

Flour and Sugar,
Carrie Melissa

"That's SO in Season" Fruit Pies

Two nights ago, I spent four hours frantically baking miniature pies and cookies in my kitchen. Though the first batch was a disaster (more on this in future posts about pie crust problems), the second batch was juuust lovely. I mean, look at those little tiny pies up there. Adorbs. I made blueberry, apricot, and peach pies for a friend in LA. Then I sent everything off in a big box in the morning. UPS says it will arrive at his doorstep in about an hour. What can I say? He's a lucky man.

My roommate named these pies the "That's SO in season" pies after a saying that her best friend always uses. Instead of referring to things as "awesome" or "sweet," he says "Dude... that's so in season." It's a little joke about the smugness of San Franciscans and their locavore/organic/all-natural/granola tendencies, but it's also just a hilarious and strangely apt way of saying that something is just right or just as it was meant to be. 

Fruit pies are a southern summer staple. In my house, they were served with homemade ice cream, whipped cream, or Cool Whip. Sigh. Drool.

Here are some photos followed by a foolproof recipe for seasonal fruit pies.

This image via makeandtake; it shows how to cut out the mini crusts with Tupperware

Pressing Pie Dough into Tins

Cut out a smaller top for the pie, and make sure to press it firmly onto the base

It's super easy to make little lattice crusts for the blueberry pies. They're juicy, so this works well for them.

Easy as Pie (Note: pie is not easy)

Then sprinkle with sugar, wrap 'em up, send 'em off

"That's SO IN SEASON" Fruit Pies

Ingredients

Pie dough of your choice (enough for a 9" pie pan)

4 cups of seasonal fruit, sliced (I split this into 4 bowls and made 4 types of fillings)

3 tbsp cornstarch (or flour, but I prefer cornstarch because it congeals better)

3/4 cup sugar

Squeeze of a lemon

Pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

OPTIONAL: Milk (for brushing over the tops before baking)

OPTIONAL: Powdered sugar (for sprinkling over the tops after baking)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Cut the pie crust out into circles and press up against the sides of a non-stick muffin tin.

2. Mix together the fruit, cornstarch, flour, and spices. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over everything, depending on how tart you like your pies.

3. Pour into mini pie crusts. Cut out tops for the crusts and press them onto the bases, or create little lattice crusts from your leftover pie dough pieces.

4. Optional: Brush with milk (this will make them shiny and pretty for presentation purposes)

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are slightly brown. Remove from oven and allow to sit in pan for about 10 minutes to cool. Remove from pan by inserting a knife around the edges. The pies should pop right out. If they don't, your crust is a wee bit too, well, crusty. You've either added too much fat, not enough water, or you didn't mix the dough well enough. Take heed. Learn from the process. It's very zen.

6. Let cool on a wire rack. You can sprinkle them with powdered sugar once they're cool, but these babies taste best when they're warm from the oven. 

Enjoy these. After all, they're SO in season.

Flour and Sugar,
Carrie Melissa