Saturday, April 13, 2013

Pie Club Week 6: Zucchini

Week 6 was zucchini pies!
For this week and the ingredient, I made two pies, 1 savory zucchini and 1 sweet zucchini. They were both really good, and the sweet version was really surprising! I love zucchini and look forward to it every season because it has a delicate flavor that is sweet, creamy and versatile. It goes so well with other ingredients and can be used with breakfast, lunch, dinner and now even dessert!

Many people have had savory zucchini pie, and are familiar with the flavors. They are typically similar to a quiche, in texture and ingredients. This one that I made had the standard zucchini (I used green and yellow), eggs and Monterey Jack cheese. For spices, I used oregano, parsley, salt and fresh pepper and a surprise-I spread a thin layer of dijon mustard on the crust before baking. I used my lard crust for this pie, which I always do with a savory pie.


This pie turned out so delicious! The oregano balanced the flavors and the parsley brought a freshness. The dijon was very subtle, but added a delicious tang that was more noticeable the day after I baked the pie. As always, the lard crust was perfection! I liked this best warmed up for breakfast, however, it can also be eaten cold any time of the day. One comment I received about this pie really made my day. A couple hours after it was delivered, the pie club member sent me a note that said "I'm on my third piece of zucchini pie. I'm digging it, clearly!" I think this one is a keeper!





6.2 Week Sweet Zucchini:
I had never tried a sweet zucchini pie before this week, but was looking forward to it. I treated this like a fruit pie since zucchini is basically a fruit, but is treated as a vegetable; and also because it has such a mild flavor that I wanted to spice it like an apple pie. I used a double crust, diced the zucchini, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, all spice, ginger, lemon juice and an egg to thicken the filling. For this pie, I sprinkled the top with cinnamon sugar just before baking.



The pie turned out delicious! It tastes like apple pie, but without the tartness of the apples. The zucchini did not get mushy, and had the texture of apples. The filling thickened perfectly into a carmely consistency, and the crust got perfectly sweet and crunchy with the cinnamon sugar on top! My family said they actually like this better than apple pie! I couldn't believe it. I disagree, I still love apple pie more, but this is a really nice alternative in the spring when apples are not in season yet. I will make this pie again.

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