Holiday Baking

This was the dessert spread I made for Thanksgiving. In the background you can see an Elmo tablecloth. We usually don't decorate for Thanksgiving with Elmo, but we also celebrated my niece's second birthday at Thanksgiving. Elmo was her idea!



Thanksgiving always gives me the opportunity to test a variety of pie/tart crusts to determine which ratio of butter/shortening creates the most flaky and tender crust. It's still a work in progress, but some recipes have become staples with my family. The chocolate tart above is one of them. It's quick, easy, and requires only a few ingredients - flour, butter, chocolate, eggs, cream, and sugar.


My mom loves pecan pie, but my husband and I have never been big fans because most pecan pie fillings are too sweet and mushy. A few years ago a stumbled across a recipe that isn't too sweet. Another plus of this recipe is that there's no corn syrup in it (most pecan pie fillings use corn syrup as the main ingredient). My recipe uses good quality maple syrup to provide a more complex flavor to the filling without making it too sweet. Now my husband looks forward to eating my pecan pies!


This year I branched out and tried a variety of fruit pies. Naturally I made a double crust apple pie (I've been making this pie since I was twelve). It's my brother's absolute favorite, and I often make it for his birthday instead of a cake. Lately I've been running into a lot of problems with the filling - but more on that sad topic later. The pie still looks beautiful, and more importantly it's still loved by my brother!


My oldest sister requested that I make a cherry pie. She was craving it, so I made one for the first time. I have to admit that I didn't taste it. I couldn't manage to spend precious stomach space and calories on a pie that I'm not too fond of eating. My sister and dad loved it, so that was good enough for me. I used tapioca to thicken the cherry filling, and I used tart cherries.


The blueberry pie was a disappointment.I used frozen wild blueberries from Whole Foods because fresh blueberries are really best in the summer. The filling was too dense, and the ratio of filling to crust was disproportionate. If I make this again, I have to alter the filling to make it lighter, and I'll use fresh berries. I'm actually not a big fan of blueberry pie, but years ago when I attended my brother in-law's medical school graduation in Maine, we ate at a lobster shack along the ocean. The blueberry pie they served there was phenomenal - light, flavorful, and the crust was crisp and flaky. Since then, I've been dreaming about that pie, and one of these days I'm going to dedicate some real research and time into recreating that delicious pie.



This year's pumpkin pie had it's positives and negatives. The texture of the filling was light and creamy. Unfortunately the taste wasn't as dreamy as I'd hoped. It was too spicy - I put way too much clove and nutmeg into the filling.


I thought I didn't like banana cream pie because I must have only eaten one long ago with artificial banana flavor. Regardless, I thought I'd try to make one this year. After looking at nearly a dozen recipes, I found one that looked delicious on the Cooks Illustrated website, and I thought, "Heck. Why not try it?" The recipe is actually pretty ingenious. The custard is light and silky made with real vanilla beans. And in order to prevent the crust from getting soggy, the bananas are placed between two layers of custard. (In most banana cream pie recipes the bananas are put directly on the crust followed by the custard.) Another method the wonderfully innovative folks at Cooks Illustrated utilized was to make the crust a grahm cracker/pastry crust hybrid. Actually pieces of crushed grahm crackers are rolled into the pastry crust so that the crust has a bit more heft in order to stand up to the wet custard. I wish I could post a link to the recipe from the Cooks Illustrated website, but you have to have an on-line subscription in order to view the recipe. (If you like to cook or bake, I would highly recommend getting a subscription to the website. As a subscriber you have access to all the recipes, equipment reviews, and you can physically view archived and current Cooks Illustrated Magazines.)

The pie turned out fabulous! It took center stage at Thanksgiving, and it's now a new family favorite. My middle sister already requested it for her birthday! Who knows which pies will show up next year. Maybe a lemon meringue pie, a key lime pie, or even a sweet potato pie...