For some reason, my family has NEVER made pumpkin pie as part of our Thanksgiving. We always opted for a delicious pecan pumpkin pie instead. I have always wanted to make a traditional pumpkin pie. This recipe is just perfect. So simple and soooo delicious.
Ingredients:
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin (about 2 cups) 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk 2 large eggs 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon salt 1(9-inch) unbaked pie crust
Preparation:
Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, and eggs together until well combined. Add spices. Pour into an unbaked pie crust. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Read More »
Every year we all look forward to this pie. Our Mom has been making it for Thanksgiving for as long as I can remember. We ONLY have it once a year and it's my absolute FAVORITE thing for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving just wouldn't be the same without it. In 1998 my niece, Rebecca was born on Thanksgiving Day so that was the only time that we didn't have our traditional Thanksgiving Dinner together. Instead we all had some sub-par food at a diner near the hospital where Karen gave birth. I do believe however that our Mom brought some Pecan Pumpkin Pie to the hospital for Karen so she wouldn't miss out!
Our Mom's sister, Aunt Bernice was just visiting from California and we were talking about the pie recipe. She told me that the original recipe came from Better Homes and Garden Magazine from some time in the 1960's. I think it's amazing that over 50 years later both our Mom and Aunt are still making this pie every year for Thanksgiving. I told you it was GOOD!
If you love pecan pie and you also love pumpkin pie you MUST try this!
Ingredients:
3 beaten eggs 1 cup canned pumpkin 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup dark corn syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 9" unbaked pie crust 1 cup chopped pecans
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl mix all ingredients, except for the pecans. Pour pie mixture into prepared pie crust and top with chopped pecans. Bake for about 1 hour or until the middle of the pie is firm, not jiggly (how's that for a technical baking term?) Cool completely before serving (I like it chilled in the refrigerator) Top with whipped cream (Our Mom always served it with Cool Whip)
Mother’s Day is coming up, and since so many of you brave souls will be attempting a celebratory brunch, I thought I’d post this much-requested lemon bars recipe, in case things don’t go as smoothly as anticipated.
Preparing brunch can be tricky anytime, let alone under mom’s watchful (aka “extremely concerned”) eyes. Can someone please get her a mimosa and walk her into the garden?
So, even if a few poached eggs break, or the toast gets a little too golden-black, no worries! If you finish the meal with these gorgeous, and absolutely impossible to mess-up lemon bars, she'll be as proud as she will be impressed. Our moms may have taught us the importance of a good first impression, but its America’s restaurateurs who discovered the importance of a delicious last impression. There's nothing like a well made pastry tomake one forgive a tough steak.
Other than a baking dish, there’s no special equipment or techniques required. Both the shortbread base and the lemon custard take only minutes, and are simply hand-mixed in a bowl.
Basically, if you can move your arm in a circle, and effectively set a timer (there’s one on your phone), your lemon bars should look just as good as these (maybe better – see meringue note below). Anyway, whether you’re going to make these for Mother’s Day or not, I hope you give them a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 16 Small Lemon Bars:
For the shortbread crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup room temp unsalted butter (1 stick)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
Bake crust at 350 degrees F. for 22 minutes
For the lemon layer:
2 large whole eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp grated lemon peel
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes
Garnish with powdered sugar; or top with *meringue (the extra egg white whipped with 1 tablespoon of sugar) and brown with torch.
*My Meringue If you decide to turn these into lemon meringue bars, do yourself a favor and actually measure the sugar. I couldn’t be bothered to check a recipe, so I only tossed in a teaspoon of sugar, and it should be closer to a tablespoon. The technique is the same; beat the extra white to the ribbon stage (where drips of white stay on the surface for a few seconds), and then add the sugar and continue whipping until you have nice, glossy peaks. My “by eye” batch worked fine, but it was a little too dry, and not quite sticky enough. Be advised. View the complete recipe
When I looked at some other tarte tatin recipes on YouTube, I noticed that very few showed the “flip on to the plate” step. They would just skip from the out of the oven shot to the final beauty shot. The reason of course, is that very few tarte tatins come out of the hot pan perfectly, and if they showed that, then you may not think they are as awesome as their profile says they are.
So, it’s with much pride that I show you the whole ugly scene that is the tarte tatin dismount. The good news is, it’s very simple to slap everything back on the crust before it cools, and none will be the wiser. This is even easier if you’re doing a version with very soft and tender apples and lots of caramel, which is my preference, as you’ll see.
If you do a Google image search for a classic, old recipe like this, you usually see a lot of photos that look alike, but that’s not necessarily so with tarte tatin. You’ll see an amazingly diverse array, which is fascinating since they were all made with the same few basic ingredients. Most of this is a result of cooking time in the pan before baking.
Some feature firm, barely cooked apples, while others cook the fruit all the way down to a buttery, caramelized jam. The beauty of a recipe that uses just pastry dough, butter, apples and sugar to make the magic, is that no matter how yours comes out you’ll enjoy it. Of course, you’ll want to hedge your bets with some vanilla bean ice cream to be safe. I hope you give this classic French treat a try soon. Enjoy!
This is a super rich, light and creamy no bake dessert. It only has a few ingredients and takes just minutes to put together. If you love peanut butter you will LOVE this dessert, the only problem is waiting for it to chill in the fridge for a couple hours before serving. I suggest leaving some in the bowl to lick while you wait!
Ingredients:
1 graham cracker crust 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature 1 cup creamy peanut butter 3/4 cup confectioners sugar 8 oz container Cool Whip chocolate syrup, for drizzling
Preparation:
In a large bowl beat together cream cheese, peanut butter and confectioners sugar until smooth. Fold n cool whip until completely combined. Pour filling into a graham cracker crust and refrigerate for at leasts 2 hours and up to overnight. Drizzle with chocolate syrup and serve cold. Read More »
4 cups of frozen blueberries thawed (or fresh) 1/2 cup of sugar 7 tablespoons of cornstarch 1 tablespoon of cinnamon 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice 3 tablespoons of juice from thawed blueberries, or grape juice or water 2 pie crusts (I used a frozen deep dish pie crust for the bottom and a ready made rollout crust for the top)
Preparation:
Mix together sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon in a small bowl set aside. Toss blueberries with lemon juice and reserved blueberry juice. Pour sugar mixture over blueberries and toss to coat. Pour blueberry mixture into prepared cold pie crust. Cover with top crust and seal ends around entire crust. Make slits in the top of crust to vent. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until pie crust is golden brown and blueberry juice is bubbling. Cool completely before serving. Read More »
Because I grew up listening to baseball on the radio, whenever I heard the word “rhubarb,” I wouldn’t think of something edible and delicious like this amazing Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, I’d think of fights.
Back in the early days of radio, when they wanted to get the sound effect of an angry mob, they’d tell the performers to repeat the word “rhubarb,” over and over. It sounds heated and contentious, yet the listener doesn’t hear any specific words.
Baseball announcers of the same era began to call baseball fights “rhubarbs,” since they sounded so much like those radio effects. I didn’t learn about this until recently, and it made me think of all the games I’d listened to during all those summers, and how never once when I heard “rhubarb,” did I think of pie.
That was until I got this wonderful recipe from my mother Pauline, who I believe got it from my Aunt Angela. As you longtime readers know, both are fantastic bakers and while I love all their pies, this might be my favorite.
So, when Matt Cain drills Matt Kemp in the back this summer, and he charges the mound prompting an ugly benches-clearing brawl, and the play-by-play guy says, “we’ve got ourselves a real rhubarb now,” I will think of this pie. This delicious, rough and tumble pie. Enjoy!
I wanted to find a quick and easy dessert to bring to a friend's block party and a friend of mine suggested this. It was super easy to make, pretty and it set up very quickly which was great since I made it last minute.
Ingredients:
1 8 oz tub Fat Free cream cheese, softened
1 tub light cool whip
1/2 cup sugar
1 low fat graham cracker crust
strawberries sliced
kiwi sliced in half moons
blueberries
raspberries
Preparation:
With a hand mixer beat together softened cream cheese and sugar until completely combined. Fold in cool whip to cream cheese mixture and spread evenly into prepared pie crust. Place in refrigerator to set for at last 30 minutes before you add fruit. Add fruit in any decorative way you would like and place back in refrigerator for another 3-4 hours(overnight would be best) before slicing a serving.
This is banana recipe #2. I decided to make "my" version of a banana cream pie using the ingredients I had in my kitchen. It came out delicious and it's very easy to make and of course is another way to use up those overripe bananas in my freezer.
Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas, sliced 2 overripe bananas, mashed 1 box of fat free/sugar free vanilla pudding mix 1/3 cup of fat free cream cheese, softened 2 cups of light cool whip 1 low fat graham cracker pie crust
Preparation:
In prepared graham cracker pie crust arange slices from one banana in one layer on the bottom of crust. Next, mix together mashed banana and vanilla pudding powder until combined. With hand mixer beat cream cheese into mashed banana mixture and beat until smooth. Fold in 1 cup of cool whip into mashed banana mixture until combined and pour into pie crust. Take slices from 2nd banana and arrange in one layer ontop of banana cream mixture. Lastly, take additional cup of cool whip and spread evenly on top of sliced bananas. Refrigerate pie for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving.
I found this recipe while browsing around some of my favorite food blogs. This was posted on Brenda's Canadian Kitchen and it looked so good and sounded so simple that I just had to try it. I absolutely love any kind of lemon dessert but this now may be one of my new favorites. It's light and lemony and has just enough tartness to cut the sweetness. It's the perfect summer dessert. I used fat free cream cheese instead of regular and you could not tell at all. I also left out the vanilla because I had just run out but I didn't miss it at all either.
Ingredients:
1 -8 oz fat free cream cheese at room temperature
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon of lemon zest
1 graham cracker crust
Preparation:
Using a hand mixer beat together the softened cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and lemon zest until smooth and creamy. Pour mixture into a prepared graham cracker crust and refrigerate overnight. Serve with whipped cream.
I was trying to find a new RED, WHITE and BLUE dessert to make for the 4th of July and I thought this was really a cool idea. RED velvet cake, BLUEberry pie and WHITE cream cheese frosting YUM! It was absolutely delicious too. I will be posting the blueberry pie recipe later this week or if you want you could use a store bought pie.
*Next I'm going to try different flavors of Pie/Cake combinations since it was such a big hit!!
Ingredients:
1 box of red velvet cake mix
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup water
1/3 oil
1 blueberry pie baked and cooled
1 container of cream cheese frosting
Preparation:
Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Grease a large round cake pan very well (a deep pan if you have one). Pour 1/3 of cake mix in the bottom of the pan. Then take the baked and cooled blueberry pie and flip it face down into the cake pan (remove pie tin from bottom of pie). Pour the remaining cake batter ontop of the pie until it's completely covered.
VERY IMPORTANT!! Place the cake pan on a cookie sheet covered in foil before baking. Unless you have a very deep cake pan the cake batter will most likely run over the top and pour over onto your oven if you don't have a pan underneath to catch it.
Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Check cake every 5-10 minutes after 45 minutes of baking. When a toothpick insterted in the middle of cake comes out clean it's done.
Let the cake cool COMPLETELY before trying to unmold it. You can run a knife around the outside edge of the cake pan to loosen it before it's cooled.
Once cooled turn pie stuffed cake out on a flat platter. Frost generously with cream cheese frosting. You will need to do an initial crumb coat of frosting and refrigerate until set and then finish with a final layer of cream cheese frosting to make smooth.
*Note - it's easier to slice neatly if the pie stuffed cake is cold from the refrigerator.
