Pie Club Week 5: Almond

One month in already, only 47 pies left to make this year!
Well, pie 5 was almond, and it was super delicious! To make this almond pie, I used my famous pecan pie recipe, and just subbed in almonds. I used slivered almonds in the filling, and sliced, natural almonds on the top. A total of about 2.5 cups of almonds!

I prefer almonds to pecans, so I was really excited about this pie. Almonds are already harder than pecans, but I toasted both kinds of almonds before baking to make sure they kept a nice texture, and to bring out their flavor.

The flavor profile of this pie was less buttery than the pecan version, and as my sister said "had a cleaner taste". One person said they would have liked more filling and a little less nuts, but still loved it.  The other 8 people who ordered it thought the amount of almonds were perfect. My friend Mandy was sweet enough to share her almond pie with all our co-workers, and it was a huge hit! Many people asked me if they could place an order for one right then! :) A couple people said that it was perfect in the morning with coffee.

This pie was delicious at room temperature, cold or heated up a la mode! After a day or so, a honey like syrup leaks from the filling and when combined with the flaky crust, happily reminded people of baklava! I did not receive any bad feedback about this pie, and will definitely keep making it!

Pie Club Week 4: Nectarine Galette

Week 4 was supposed to be Apricot Galette, however, I could not find any apricots. I was a little disappointed because they are supposed to be in season right now. However, I settled for nectarines, which turned out to be a nice substitute.

I really love galettes, and they can be made with almost any fruit. If you are not familiar, a galette is defined as: a term used in French cuisine to designate various types of flat, round or free form crusty cakes. So, basically a simple pie (crust and sweetened fruit) which is not baked in a pie pan, but the crust is folded over the top of the filling and it is baked on a cookie sheet. Often, there are preserves spread between the crust and fruit (apricot is most traditional), and nuts may also be added to the filling.

Galettes are so easy to produce and really highlight the ingredients you use. My sister and I especially love to eat a slice of this pie for breakfast with some hot tea or coffee!

I was not very familiar with nectarines, but being a stone fruit, thought it would be a good substitute for apricots. They turned out to be very pleasantly mild, and reminded us all of an apple more than an apricot or peach. After cleaning, pitting and slicing, I combined the nectarines with some sugar, cornstarch and I love to add some lemon zest for brightness. Placed the fruit in the center of a large disk of pate brisee, folded the edges of the crust over the filling, brushed with mild and sprinkled some demura sugar on the pastry. Baked until golden, and served with some freshly whipped cream. It turned out delicious, and my brother said "anything made with your pie crust will always turn out amazing". That was the best compliment!

The nectarines reminded us of apples, and were very simple and sweet tasting. I expected them to be a littel sour, but they were not at all. I left the skins on, and they were very tender. Overall, the apple version I make is still my favorite, but I would use nectarines agian!

P.S. I forgot to take a picture of it before it cut into it! But, it was beautiful. Fail. 

Pie Club Week 3: Avocado

Week 3 was Avocado and Chocolate Avocado. I love avocados, so I was very interested to make pies out of them, however I also had a hard time imagining them in a sweet form. I made 3 pies so that I could get a range of flavors and become more familiar with this ingredient in a pie.  No one in the club, or my family, had heard of or eaten avocado pie. Thank goodness they were trusting because one of them turned out amazing!

Avocado is an interesting ingredient to use in desserts and pastries because of its creamy texture, silky mouth feel due to it high fat content and mild flavor which allows it to easily combine with other ingredients. Also, it does not require baking or a lot of manipulation. Avocados are basically ready to use, and all 3 varieties I produces were no bake pie.

I made two different chocolate avocado pies, and one was okay, but the other was perfection! The first one I tried had a chocolate cookie crust, creamed avocado sweetened with condensed milk and mini chocolate chips. It was pretty simple, and the color was nice. I was not fond of how the chocolate chips looked with bright green filling. It was not the most visually appealing pie.

I also did not love the flavors of this pie, or the texture. The filling was of course creamy, but since the pie is chilled, the chocolate chips were really hard and not pleasing to crunch into. I am also not a huge fan of sweetened condensed milk, so it was a little too sweet for me. There was also lemon juice in this filling, which helped to cut the sweetness a little, but this one was not our favorite.

Next, I made just an Avocado pie. This one had both lime and lemon juices and was also sweetened with sweetened condensed milk. This pie had a graham cracker crust and was also chilled. It ended up being very similar to a margarita pie. It was smooth, creamy and pleasantly citrus. I think it would be better in the summer months. This was my sister in law's favorite of the 3 avocado pies.



Finally, I made the second chocolate avocado which turned out amazing and very surprising! This pie ended up being gluten free and I didn't even plan it that way! The crust was very interesting, and I will use it again with other pies. It was a spiced crust and was made from nuts, dates, cocoa powder, cinnamon, a little honey and nutmeg. It is a very flavorful crust, but when combined with the chocolate avocado filling became more mild. I produced 6 of these pies, and only 1 person did not love the crust. When I make this in the future, I will may use smaller amounts of the spices, but overall I love it!
Now, for the filling, it was simply creamed avocado with a little lemon juice and a pinch of salt, blended with melted dark chocolate. It was so dense, and super satisfying, chocolaty delicious! If I had not told anyone, they would have never know that the filling was avocado. The fatty texture in from the avocados made the filling so rich and smooth, this pie reminds me of chocolate silk, but so much healthier! There is no flour, and the only added sugar is from 1 tablespoon of honey used in the crust. I finished this pie with little stars of freshly whipped cream, and was so pleasantly surprised with this pie!

I will defiantly produce this one over and over again! I learned so much from avocado pie week, and it was so fun and delicious!

Pie Club Week 2: Coconut Cream

Week 2 was Coconut Cream, and this week I only made one recipe version. Most people have had coconut cream pie before, so I knew what I wanted in this pie. The coconut cream I made had coconut custard on the bottom, and sweetened whipped cream on top of the custard. I made the custard with coconut milk, whole milk, sugar, egg yolks, salt and cornstarch and then folded in toasted coconut flakes. I also topped the pie with toasted coconut flakes. I used my pate brisee recipe for the crust.

Overall, the pie was very delicious and I only received very positive feed back about his pie, including "I would definatley purchase this pie in a bake shop" and "This is the best coconut cream pie I have ever had". I really enjoyed making and eating this pie! It was perfectly smooth, creamy and light. The custard had a very pleasing mouth feel, and smelled amazing! Since I toasted the coconut, it had a very nice texture and did not stick in my teeth like coconut sometimes will. It held shape perfectly and was visually appealing.

The only thing I will work on to improve upon this coconut cream is that I would like there to be more coconut flavor in the custard. I used vanilla with the coconut milk, but I think I will take that out of the recipe. Also, I would like to infuse some coconut flavor into the custard through a steeping process, or something similar, to get more true coconut flavor. I try to use extracts, especially with a flavor like coconut. I am excited to experiment!



Pie Club Week 1: Pineapple

I have decided to dedicate this blog, (which I have hardly used) to documenting the 52 different pies I am going to make in the next 52 weeks! I am making these pies to help develop my menu for a business that I will be opening, and to perfect the recipes I will use. I created a pie club, where my friends and family can becomes members and choose 1 or 1 of each pie from the 4-5 I make each month to enjoy and give me feedback on. I am super excited about this pie club!!!

Week 1: Pineapple Pie
I tried 3 different recipes for pineapple pie, and there was one clear winner. I made a lattice pie, which included canned pineapple, sugar and cornstarch.

The second pie was a double crust with fresh pineapple, eggs, sugar, flour and lemon.

And the third, was a pineapple meringue pie which included canned, crushed pineapple, sugar, eggs, cornstarch, vanilla and butter.

I was really hoping the pie that I used fresh pineapple and lemon in would be the best, but it turned out that simplicity won. The first pie, which was the most simple and had the fewest ingredients, was by far the best; and very delicious. 

The double crust pie with the fresh pineapple had a perfume aftertaste, which was not pleasant, and with flour as the only thickener it did not set up the way I wanted it to. I could have used cornstarch in the pie as well, but I wanted to experiment with other thickeners. 

The meringue was also good, but not as good as lemon meringue, so why bother? :)

Overall, I found pineapple pie to be a very delicious option. It smelled heavenly during baking and as it cooled.  Pineapple pie is beautiful when baked, and I received amazing, positive feedback about it, including "This pie is better than golfing!". The flavor was not overly sour or sweet, but a very nice in between and I love that is used simple ingredients. The density of the filling was perfect with the flakiness of the crust, and was balanced even more with some fresh whipped cream. this pie reminds me of pineapple upside down cake, but even a little  better due to the flaky crust! A wonderful, non-traditional, fruit pie that I will definitely bake again.



things i love this week....

i have never done a posting like this, but i have seen them on other blogs and always find them very inspiring. there are so many things i love, and so many talented people, that i thought i would group my favorites together weekly. here is the first:


I want this piece so much! It combines my love for retro styling and doxies! find this and others in this cute etsy shop.

The strawberries that are already growing on my strawberry plant.

my new banners for my two etsy shops. you can shop my cute and funny stitching here. or my aprons, bags, and home accents here.

my four year old nephew, carter playing william's guitar! :) he actually wasn't too bad.

our new doggie --tracker. he was adopted from our humane society.

i did a make over of a scarf i have had for a few years and was a little bored with. i love the added punch of color.

this piece is so perfect! find it here.

my 6 year old nephew, rob and i had a science night this week! it was so much fun. we grew crystals.

This is a side walk in down town Lincoln, Ne. I love the design of it.

for the love of coffee

i do not love coffee. i love the smell of it, but not the taste and i don't drink it. people i love, however, love and drink coffee so i find myself making it. i had heard that coffee grounds could be re-used so i decided to do some looking and see what people are using them for. i found a lot of great uses! so, in the spirit of not being wasteful and using what we already have, i thought i would share them with you...

*one use is as an scrub for you skin! grounds can be course or finely ground. just rub on your skin in the shower and rinse off. also, i found some great recipes for scrubs using coffee grounds. this one was the easiest and most adaptable if you want to add your own ingredients:

Homemade Coffee Scrub

-1 cup coffee grounds

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-1 T vanilla extract or oil

-1/4 cup olive (or any other type) oil

mix together and keep in a sealed container. the oil preserves the grounds so they will not mold. will stay good about a month. i used sesame oil and almond extract and it smells so good!

*some say coffee grounds are good for getting rid of cellulite. i do not have any experience with this, but it's worth a try! just rub on troubled spots a few times a week while in the shower. voila!

*coffee is good for plants! i have heard this one before, but forgot about it. add the grounds to potting soil for your house plants or your garden. (the grounds will mold eventually, so they work best outdoors) keep grounds in your freezer during the winter and use them in the spring.

*coffee can be used for stain on wood, clothing, baskets, even to darken your hair or skin! to use on your hair, brew the coffee and apply to your hair when it cools to room temp. rub the grounds on your skin and leave on for 20-30 minutes. repeat to achieve a darker stain.

*fresh coffee can be used in your fridge as a deodorizer in the place of baking soda.

*use to keep your drain smelling fresh. dump about coffee grounds down your drain and follow with 5 cups of boiling water. will keep your drain fresh about a week.

*coffee grounds can also be sprinkled along your doors to keep ants away.

great ideas for coffee lovers and friends of coffee lovers alike!