pie – Deep Fried Kudzu

November 14, 2019November 16, 2019

Tatte, And Pies Forever

Oh yeah. I’m starting to get in full pie mode.

I saw a post at Food and Wine a few days ago about the Boston-based bakery, Tatte — that happens to be one of the first places that Suzanne (my Cambridge bestie — she works at Harvard) and I went when I visited her.

From F&W: The first time I walked into Tatte Bakery’s Harvard Square location, I’m pretty sure I gasped. The space was striking: stark black chalkboards adorning white-tiled walls, shelves stacked high with packs of candied nuts, pastries as pretty as the custom mosaic floor. Every aspect of the place felt deeply curated, homey, and warm. Stylized just enough to be beautiful but not intimidating, the bakery was unlike any I’d ever experienced.

Here are some pics I took of our visit to the Harvard Square Tatte:

Tatte in DC will open spring 2020.

I’m starting to figure out how many pies to make this year, and leading up to that is figuring out what flavors to make. Email me your flavors and let’s collab on ideas!

I also thought this piece about pies in bar form at F&W was interesting — it would be somewhat easier to get a bunch of servings done at one time, but considering that all but a handful that I make for family and friends goes to various places in Birmingham that feeds the homeless or the food insecure, my heart wants them to be traditional, not just cranked out for the sake of efficiency. Still, though, bars are fun.

I might try that for some kind of low-key Friendsgiving one evening with people just coming in and out over the course of a few hours rather than having a set “please arrive at 7p” kind of thing. Lots of fall-inspired cocktails and savory bites set on platters everywhere. And dessert…I mean, chocolate-espresso pie bars? Yasssss.

Since I love pie, thank so many of you for sending me fun pie things all the time (and I’m a little behind on answering DFK emails since I started posting again, but I’m getting there! Thank you!). Really nice is this one of a bakery in Toronto called Lamanna’s that does a dessert pizza that *has little pieces of pie on it*. And ohmystars THIS isn’t even pie but gets my full endorsement. COOKIE.

Really considering adding this to the repertoire: creme brulee pie from the NYT

More pie talk as we get closer to Thanksgiving. Loving hearing from all of you! xoxo!

November 23, 2017November 23, 2017

Thanksgiving Pies

Last year, the number was 42 and this year, it’s 49!

We made pecan, chocolate pecan, pumpkin, sweet potato, sweet potato – praline, buttermilk coconut, chess, chocolate meringue (and just one that’s chocolate pecan bourbon that we save for the fam). Av and the boys delivered them to Jimmie Hale Mission, Jessie’s Place, Firehouse Shelter, and Community Kitchens at Grace Episcopal.

Hope you all are having a *wonderful* Thanksgiving! xoxo!

March 15, 2006

Pi Day

Once a week or so, I’ll go to Wikipedia and put in today’s date and click over to the dates of the upcoming week, just to see what holidays are being celebrated around the world. Today is Pi Day. Why? Because today is March 14th (3.14). Um, yeah. I know…

Ordinarily I’m not sure I would do anything for Pi Day, but then I remembered that when Av was in elementary school, he for some reason memorized the first fifty or sixty or so (I’m not sure, but a *bunch*) digits of pi. He *still* remembers them. Then a while back, his mom saw a ‘pi plate’ (in a pic below) – and no kidding, she bought it and gave it to us. Well, this was the *perfect* opportunity to use it.

Av had a board meeting to attend tonight, so I decided to surprise him with one of his favorite pies – Pawleys Island Pie, which I change up just a little bit from the original. He had no idea about Pi Day, but sure did like coming home to a house that smelled like a giant pie, even over in the garage!

Ingredients:
pie crust, baked and ready for filling (I use a deep dish pie crust)
1/2 c. all-purpose flour (I use White Lily)
1 c. white sugar
2 large eggs
8 tbsp. butter at room temperature (you can melt it in the microwave & cool it if you like)
a little salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips
1 c. peanut butter chips
1 c. pecan pieces

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325*
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and pecans.
In your Kitchenaid, mix together the butter and eggs, then add the vanilla. Slowly (and with the beater going at its slowest speed) add the dry mixture of the flour/sugar/chips/pecans/etc.

Take a spoon and put your mixture into the pie crust (be sure to put the pie crust on a baking sheet lined with foil – this pie is sometimes bad to run over if you get it the teensiest bit overfilled).

Bake it at 325* for about an hour (I used a deep-dish pie crust. If you use a shallow pie crust, your time will likely be more like 45-50 minutes).

All set – I had a teeny slice and it was sooo yummy.

(This is so geeky, but…..) Happy Pi Day!!

November 24, 2005August 17, 2017

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

Here’s the pie I made for Av’s family Thanksgiving – it’s a pecan pie with bourbon and chocolate. Here’s the recipe and pictures:

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. sugar
2 tbsp. butter, melted and cooled (so it’s not super-hot when you add it to the bowl)
1 c. corn syrup (Karo)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. bourbon – I used Maker’s Mark
semi-sweet chocolate chips (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust)
pecans (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust)
pie crust

Directions:

Put chocolate chips in to cover the bottom of the pie crust (that’s a pre-made piecrust here — when I make so many at Thanksgiving, I go this route):

…then, cover that with pecans. This all floats to the top when the pie cooks, so don’t worry about adding the pecans to the liquid mixture:

Stir together in a bowl the sugar, eggs, butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and bourbon:

…pour that into the pie crust (the pecan pieces float right up to the top):

Bake at 375* for 40-60 minutes until it doesn’t jiggle in the middle (but be careful not to overcook). This one came out perfectly…can’t wait to have it for Thanksgiving supper!

November 13, 2005January 6, 2020

Crystal Grill, Greenwood MS

Pie meringue almost always comes out either one of two ways: really good, or just white stuff on top of a pie. The Crystal Grill‘s pies (incl. the meringue) are *always* great.

While we were in Greenwood this time, we took these pics:

I had the coconut pie:

Av had the chocolate:

June 12, 2005March 17, 2021

Peanut Butter Pie

Shavuot begins tonight, so for the *something dairy*, I made this great peanut butter pie. It’s very similar to other peanut butter pies I’ve made in the past, but the crust is different and better. This isn’t a completely ‘from-scratch’ recipe like I usually like to do, but it was yummy and quick. Nobody always needs or wants or should be a food snob. And who doesn’t like Nutter Butters, right? This is summer…let’s take it easy.

I based this recipe from one called “Nutter Butter Frozen Peanut Butter Pie“.

For the crust:
Take 24 Nutter Butter cookies and place them in a freezer bag. Hit the freezer bag with a rolling pin (or whatever) to make the cookies into crumbles. Pour the crumbled NB’s into a good-size bowl and add 5-6 tbsp of melted butter. Mix well. Place this mixture into either a pie dish or other suitable-size dish. Once filled and even on the bottom, place in the refrigerator.

For the filling:
Cream together one 8-oz package cream cheese, one cup of peanut butter, 3/4 cup of sugar. The original recipe called for a splash of vanilla, but I didn’t think that was necessary. Once that’s all incorporated, stir in 8-oz Cool Whip or freshly whipped cream.

Finish:
Take the crust back out of the refrigerator, and spoon the filling over. Level it out on top. For a little something extra, you can melt a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips with a tablespoon of peanut butter, then drizzle that on top. Place in the freezer for a few hours or overnight.

Yummy!