Category: Pie

Renny's Recipes: Blueberry Hand Pies

8/28/2019

Hey guys! I know it's been awhile! I was working on a few recipes and trying to find a way to sleep in the middle of everything else in life and so the blog took the hit. But I'm BACK today with a DELICIOUS recipe! If you follow us on social media (DO you follow us on Social Media? Because... ahem, you should) you'll remember that I posted this picture:

And told you I had something delicious brewing. So here it is, blueberry hand pies! We've talked about hand pies before. They are fun, tasty, and "handy" (hahahahaha.) I was talking to my mom about making them and wanted to do it in a fast and efficient way. So, I experimented a little bit and here is what I came up with to make a lot of hand pies all at once!

So, I came up with this idea of rolling out the pie crust dough and filling the hand pies so it wouldn't take so long to get each individual pie done. My mom thought about using a ravioli slicer. That would be a great idea, except I don't have one.

I toyed with cutting the dough to a perfect square and making hash marks, but in the end, I liked the method I came up with.

You roll out your pie dough, and then use a big round cookie cutter to mark the spot for each one. In this photo I cut each one out individually, but you don't have to. Just use the cookie cutter to make a mark in the dough so you can see where the center of your hand pie is. You can wait until you put the top crust on before cutting it out completely.

I used a cookie scoop to get the blueberry filling on the center of each circle. Once each circle had a dollop of filling I rolled out the top crust and laid it over everything. Then I was able to center my cookie cutter over the blueberry filling lump to cut out each hand pie.

Then, if you want to get fancy, you can use a fork to press down the edges to make them look pretty, but you don't have to. You can press them together with your finger.

I would recommend using a knife to cut slices in the top however. Place the hand pies on a cookie sheet.

Then you put your hand pies in a pre-heated oven (to 400 degrees Fahrenheit) and bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on how dark you like them.

My little one loves to help me bake, and she LOVES blueberries, so she really enjoyed the filling while she helped me make these hand pies.

This filling is amazing guys! Here is the recipe!

Blueberry Pie Filling

1 lb blueberries, washed
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP cornstarch
1 TBSP lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla

Pour washed blueberries into a pot and cook over medium heat about 3 minutes.
Stir in sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice until there are no lumps
Bring to a boil, stirring regularly
boil for 5 minutes
remove from heat and stir in vanilla

You can add more sugar if you like it more sweet, but to me, this had the perfect level of sweetness.

I could not stop eating this blueberry filling! After making our blueberry hand pies I had a little extra leftover. I enjoyed it atop some ice cream!

These hand pies are fun and easy to make! If you recall, we have our pie e-book, For the Love of Pie, which you can buy in our Etsy shop!

Also, if you subscribe to get our emails (why wouldn't you?) check your emails out today for a special surprise!

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Pecan Pie-Why Mess with a Good Thing?

11/13/2018

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This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for your support

When we were working on our pie book and developing new recipes, one of my friends asked me if we made Chocolate Pecan Pie. She hadn't seen a recipe for it, but was thinking that the combination of flavors sounded good. I told her that I would give it a try and bring her one if it was successful. So, I started scouring Pinterest for the many versions of Chocolate Pecan Pie available.

One of my first tries.

Most of the recipes I found simply added chocolate chips to the pie, along with the pecans. So, I tried a version of that idea. It seemed promising. The pie looks really delicious, right? Well, my husband was unimpressed with the flavor. I have to admit that I was as well. I feel like the best part of the Pecan Pie is the custard below the pecans. In this case, the chocolate overpowered that creamy texture and rich flavor. Not to mention that as the chocolate chips cooled and rehardened, it made the pie difficult to slice! So, I checked off the chocolate chip method as a fail.

One of the beauties of Pecan Pie is that it is really super easy to whip up. A lot of the recipes I found made the process so much more difficult, so I gave those a hard pass. One day I was discussing the Chocolate Pecan Pie idea with Maddy and she suggested I toast and candy the pecans with brown sugar and cocoa powder to see if that would give the hint of chocolate that we wanted. I thought, "Genius!" So, I gave it a try. The pecans came out really tasty after I toasted them in a skillet with butter, brown sugar and cocoa powder. And, the crumbs from the toasting left a sort of chocolate swirl through the custard part of the pie. But, when it was baked all together, the flavor of the chocolate really didn't come through at all. I still liked this idea though, and may explore it further.

To make a long story short, the Chocolate Pecan Pie didn't make it into the ebook and my friend hasn't received her pie. A couple of other suggestions I may try are:

Add chocolate syrup or cocoa to the custard mix.
Simply bake the pie in a chocolate crust.
Just drizzle chocolate syrup over the pie after it is baked!

But really, I think the moral of this story is that not every really good thing has to be chocolate! I know, I know, unbelievable! But I have tweaked my Pecan Pie recipe over the years until it is a family favorite, with the perfect balance between the amount of pecans and the custard below them. My husband is firmly in the camp of not messing with the Pecan Pie at all! It is his all time favorite! Sometimes you just don't mess with a good thing.

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Pilgrim Style Pumpkin Pie Using Turban Squash!

10/22/2018

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**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. But, all opinions expressed are

Today's post will be educational as well as delicious! As you can imagine, there is a story behind how this post came to be. Here it is.
My husband and I were watching PBS the other night. There was a special on about Fall in New England. As part of the special, we learned that when the pilgrims made pie, they didn't have much flour at the time for a pie crust, so they would bake custard right inside of the pumpkin. Then, they would slice the pumpkin in pie shaped wedges. Their pie had a spiced milk custard in it and the pumpkin was still just like the squash that it is and you would get some custard and pumpkin all at the same time when you took a bite.
Well, loving history like I do, I decided that I needed to try this method and of course take it a step further. Why not put actual pumpkin custard inside the pumpkin? So, I went to the store and not only did I find pumpkins for pie, but some other really great squash that I knew would work as a substitute for pumpkin if I wanted. Click on or hover over the pictures for descriptions.

Pie Pumpkins

Carnival Squash

Then I saw the Turban Squash! I was sold on that guy! He just looked ready to be my pie!

I knew I could cut out that top part and fill the squash with filling!

The directions on the Turban squash said to bake it at 350 degrees for an hour. I decided to try that without cleaning it out first. I did clean out the smaller pumpkins and baked them without seeds. What happened is the pumpkins and carnival squash were done after around an hour. The Turban Squash took 2 hours.

Pumpkin before baking.

I love the scallops of the Carnival Squash.

Here is how the Carnival and Turban squashes looked after being baked. The Carnival squash browned a little more than I would have liked, but it is okay. In retrospect, I could have taken them out a little sooner, I will explain why in a moment.

That is the Turban Squash after I cut the top off of course. It was so nice and tender inside and the seeds pulled out very easily. Then, I scooped out the flesh into a bowl to use as the "pumpkin" puree.

At this point, I decided to fill the shells 3 ways. In the little pumpkins, I used the vanilla custard. This is when I learned that I had baked the pumpkins a little too long because they developed leaks in the bottom and I lost some of the custard. This is the recipe I used:

Baked Vanilla Custard Cooked In A Pumpkin

You can see in this picture that some of the custard leaked out, so it didn't end up as full as I had hoped. I also feel like it had baked a little too long. So, this is something you will need to watch, but this was an experiment and it was okay. It tasted pretty good anyway.

You can see where it leaked. I lost one pumpkin altogether. If this hadn't happened, the custard recipe would have filled 2 small pie pumpkins.

In the Carnival Squash, I decided to make Maddy's Vegan Pie. She liked it, even though she doesn't usually like squash. I thought it was cute to serve it with the lid on.

Vegan Pumpkin Custard

Oh! And one thing I forgot to mention in the recipes is that I put a pan of water on the bottom shelf of the oven when I baked these.

For the Turban Squash Pie, I used the squash puree and followed our normal pumpkin puree recipe to make the filling. You can find that recipe here. Here is how that pie turned out. If you hover or click on the pictures, there are descriptions.

The Turban Squash ready for the filling.

The Turban Squash with the filling, baked.

A slice of the pie. Notice the layer of squash at the bottom of the custard.

One thing I wanted to mention about the Turban Squash is that I think it would be an awesome squash to bake a stew in! You wouldn't need to bake it as long as the pie had to bake and getting that bite of squash mixed in with your stew would be delicious. Doesn't that sound like a great Fall dish? I may have to try that and let you know how it goes.

In the end, this was an interesting, educational and time consuming project. I think it would be great to use this method with kids as part of a Thanksgiving history lesson. Also, it was really fun discovering a new, super cool looking squash like the Turban and a cute one like the Carnival! But, when all is said and done, I am really thankful that I have the flour and the means to make pumpkin pie the way we do in our day! Remember, the custard recipes I have given you can also be baked in a custard dish or regular pie shell.

Speaking of pie, if you haven't yet gotten your copy of For the Love of Pie, you can still get a 20% discount through tomorrow with code PIESPECIAL! Don't miss out, because after tomorrow the price goes back to normal. In this special e-book all about pie, you will learn how to bake not only Pumpkin Pie, but many other pies not already published on this blog. Some are original pies, invented by us that we are sure you will enjoy! Be sure to check it out!

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Renny's Recipes: Blueberry Hand Pies

Pecan Pie-Why Mess with a Good Thing?

Pilgrim Style Pumpkin Pie Using Turban Squash!

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