Baked Sunday Mornings: Peaches and Dream Pie

This weekend's Baked Sunday Mornings selection was another great, summery pie: The Peaches and Dream Pie. Isn't that a fabulous title? Once again, the Baked guys have taken something that is traditional and garden-variety, such as a peach pie, and turned it on its head.

It all starts out with a generous pile of peaches (the recipe gives you the option to use either canned or fresh, but I went fresh because the peaches are peaking right now and they looked fabulous!), diced and spread out in a standard pie crust. Next, you mix up an interesting mix of eggs, honey, sour cream, salt, flour, and dark brown sugar, and pour it all over the peaches in the crust.

Finally, you make up a topping made only of flour, dark brown sugar, and cold butter that is worked into the other ingredients until you have, basically, sand. It is pretty much the same type of topping you would put on top of a crumb or coffee cake, and it is divine. That was the smell that pervaded my house while this pie was baking, and it really made me want to pick at the hard, yummy crust that formed on top of the pie when it came out of the oven. But I resisted, because I was serving this to my husband's family the next day and I didn't want to have to explain why there was a big hole on the top of the pie!

When everything was said and done, this pie baked up beautifully, was very easy to make, and received rave reviews by everybody who tried it. What more could you ask for? Please check out the results of the other members of Baked Sunday Mornings by clicking on the blogroll, here.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Blackberry Pie

For this installment of Baked Sunday Mornings, we had the pleasure of baking a Blackberry Pie. I'm not too familiar with baking pies that have a fruit or berry filling; this was my very first berry pie, actually! I've made apple pies before, and I've made key lime, but otherwise I prefer to make non-fruit pies, such as pecan. That said, I was really looking forward to switching things up a little!



The filling is a very simple mixture of fresh blackberries, butter, granulated and dark brown sugar, lemon juice and zest, flour, and salt. It smelled amazing before it even went into the oven. Plus, it only took about 10 minutes to assemble (not including the pie dough, of course).



Speaking of the pie dough, I do find this one pretty easy to work with. Granted, I don't have a ton of experience with dough (mostly because I haven't entirely overcome my fear of working with it!), but I have never had a problem with the Baked version. It baked up flaky and tender, just as it always does.

The finished product was aromatic, perfectly brown and bubbly, and tasted wonderful. I confess; I made this a while back, for Easter dinner. I saw that it was coming up in our recipe rotation for July, and I decided it would be a good thing to bring. I think this would be just the thing for a Fourth of July barbecue or party, though. It's a very summery pie, and I think it could only be enhanced by some vanilla ice cream on top!



Please do check out the other Baked Sunday Mornings blog posts this week; the blogroll can be located here.

Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie

And now, I present to you my fifth and final Cinco de Mayo recipe: Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie! I just had to end on a high note, and this one definitely takes the cake (er, pie?). I found this amazingly flavorful pie in my latest copy of Cooking Light Magazine, and I thought of it when I was planning my Cinco de Mayo menu. I'm glad I did; otherwise this wonderful gem may have slipped through the cracks, and gone unmade. That would have been a real shame.



Now I know Cinco de Mayo was technically yesterday, but so what? You hardly need an excuse to make this pie. I mean, it's straight from a "light cooking" magazine, so anytime can be pie time! If you need any more convincing, I suppose I could try harder....

You start out with a graham cracker crust, enhanced with a big sprinkle of cinnamon and lightened by using part butter, part egg white for the binder. I made mine even more cinnamon-y by using half cinnamon-flavored graham crackers.

Next, you make a spicy chocolate pudding. Man, is this stuff good! It's got both unsweetened dark cocoa powder and real, melted dark chocolate, which makes it taste oh-so-rich. Espresso powder strengthens the chocolate flavor, while a dash of cayenne pepper makes the whole concoction a whole lot more intriguing. The pudding was a snap to make and I found that part of the recipe much more painless than I expected it to be.

Finally, after chilling the pudding layer for a few hours inside the pie crust, you slather on your final layer. Now, this is the one part of the recipe that I may try to improve upon in the future, because you use Cool Whip. Just Cool Whip. Nothing homemade, or complicated. But that kinda disappointed me, because I do try to make things completely from scratch a lot of the time, and my husband could tell right away that this came out of a tub. That's okay, though. The pie was still unbelievably delicious and decadent, especially for a Cooking Light pie. It's the stuff of healthy-living dreams, I promise!

Mexican Chocolate Cream Pie
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 1 (9-inch) pie

Ingredients
5 sheets honey graham crackers
5 sheets cinnamon graham crackers
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon, plus more for garnish
1/4 tsp. salt, divided
2 eggs, divided (1 egg white for the crust, 1 whole egg and a yolk for the pudding)
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
Cooking spray
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. instant espresso powder
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper (cayenne pepper)
1 3/4 cups reduced-fat (2%) milk
2 oz. dark chocolate, chopped
1 (8 oz.) container Cool Whip Lite, thawed

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare the crust: crush the graham crackers in a food processor, until the crumbs resemble sand. Add 2 Tbsp. sugar, the cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp. salt and pulse to combine. Drizzle in the egg white and the 2 Tsp. butter until the crumbs are moistened. Transfer the crumb mixture to a 9-inch pie plate that has been coated with nonstick cooking spray. Press the crumbs across the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Bake at 375 for 9 minutes or until fragrant and lightly toasted. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

2. To prepare filling, combine 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, espresso, cayenne, remaining 1/8 tsp. salt, egg, and egg yolk in a medium-sized bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Place the milk in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until milk reaches 180 degrees or until tiny bubbles form around edge (do not boil).

3. Gradually add hot milk to egg mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Return milk mixture to pan; cook over medium heat 10 minutes or until thick and bubbly (mine only took about 5 minutes), stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add dark chocolate; stir until smooth.

4. Place pan in a large ice-filled bowl for 10 minutes or until mixture cools, stirring occasionally. Spoon filling into crust, and cover surface of filling with plastic wrap. Chill for 3 hours or until set; remove plastic wrap. Spread the Cool Whip evenly over the pudding layer; sprinkle with ground cinnamon to garnish.

Key Lime Pie

Boy, do I love me some Key Lime Pie! I always have, as far back as I can remember. It may just be the only type of dessert that can sway me, at a restaurant, from ordering a chocolatey confection. And that is no small feat! I just love the puckery tang, the sweet, crumby graham cracker crust, and the perfect fluff of browned meringue on top.

So imagine my delight when I happened to stumble across a big package of fresh key limes in my local international foods market last weekend! I don't know if I've ever truly realized that key limes are so much tinier than regular Persian limes. I got about 2 lbs. of key limes for under 2 bucks, which I believe is a fair price although I wouldn't really know. It seemed good! I was eager to test them out. I've never made a from-scratch Key Lime Pie before, let alone with authentic key limes. But I set out to change that.

I debated for a bit about what type of crust I should do, and what type of topping I should do. I love the graham cracker crust, but I've also had Key Lime Pies with a more standard, not-too-sweet pie dough that I think is really good. I also considered a fresh whipped cream topping on this. In the end, the graham cracker/meringue combo won. I wasn't disappointed; it was a good choice!

One minor note I thought I would mention: it's very important to chill the finished pie after about an hour of cooling on the counter. I learned this the hard way! We had to leave the house right after this came out of the oven, and we didn't get back for about 4-5 hours. When we arrived home, the meringue had shriveled up and pulled away from the sides of the pan! It still tasted awesome, it just didn't look nearly as pretty as it did when it first came out of the oven (and fortunately many of my pictures were taken while it was still attractive!). So if you're serving this to company or just want your pie to remain beautiful, chill it for several hours before you enjoy it.

Key Lime Pie
adapted from United Cakes of America
makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray
10 full sheets (5 oz.) graham crackers
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
6 Tbsp. granulated sugar, divided
1 (14-oz.) can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs, yolks and whites separated (whites at room temperature)
2/3 cup fresh key lime juice
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Using a food processor or a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin, crush the graham crackers until they are fine crumbs. Add 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar and the melted butter to the graham crackers, tossing to coat crumbs with butter.

2. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper, spraying the pan with nonstick cooking spray both under and on top of the parchment. Press the graham cracker mixture into the prepared pan, making sure it is even. Bake on the center rack in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant. Set on a rack to cool.

3. Make the filling by whisking the egg yolks until well combined. Add in the condensed milk slowly, whisking the whole time. Slowly drizzle in the lime juice; the mixture will thicken as you whisk it. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust.

4. Return the pie pan to the oven, and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling is just set and no longer jiggly. Remove the pan from the oven, return it to the rack, and allow it to cool.

5. Make the meringue by setting the egg whites and the cream of tartar in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk the whites at a medium speed until they form soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining 4 Tbsp. sugar, one Tbsp. at a time, and continue whisking the whites at medium-high speed. Once the whites have formed stiff peaks, stop the mixer.

6. Crank up the oven to 400 degrees F. Spread the meringue onto the cooled pie, ensuring the entire surface is covered and the meringue seals the edges. If desired, fluff the meringue into little peaks or other designs on top. Return the pie to the oven and bake for an additional 5-6 minutes, just until the meringue is browned on top, making sure not to over-brown. Allow the pie to cool at room temperature for about 1 hour, then put it in the refrigerator for at least another 3 hours before serving.

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

This is it. The pie I had been waiting a year to make. It's the Baked Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie. Ever since I first purchased the original Baked cookbook, nearly a year and a half ago, I have had my eye on this recipe. I arrived late to the pecan pie party of life. I never tasted one until 3 Thanksgivings ago, and it was love at first bite. I vowed to make one myself at that moment. Finally, three long years later, I am making good on that promise. And it is quite a doozy.

As with anything the Baked boys come up with, this is a fresh, exciting riff on a traditional pecan pie. Take your ordinary model, then jazz it up with a shot of bourbon and a healthy sprinkling of semisweet chocolate. The result is a purely sinful, nutty, interesting dessert that definitely belongs up there with the big boys at the Thanksgiving goodie table.

Now, I have always had an irrational fear of pie dough, but since I trust the Baked book I decided to just stick to their Classic Pie Dough recipe. The recipe calls for butter, no shortening, and the use of a food processor to easily throw everything together. It all sounded good to me. Things went smoothly, I'm happy to say, and then I put half the dough into the freezer, for another use, and half into the fridge, to firm up before the next steps.

Thanks to a phone call to my mom (the most seasoned pie baker I know!), I made the decision to blind bake my crust. Although the Baked book did not explicitly state to do so, I felt it was a good way to ensure the crust would be cooked completely throughout, and would not become soggy after the pie filling was put on top of it. It was super simple: I placed parchment paper on top of my empty pie shell after pricking the shell a bit with a fork. Next, I filled the parchment with dried split peas and rice, until they measured 1 pound. I placed the pie shell into a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes, then removed it to cool.

I froze the cooled crust until it was time to bake it again with the filling. At this point, I wasn't sure whether the whole thing would work well, but I needn't have been concerned. The crust was just as I wanted it to be after everything was said and done. It's funny; when I tasted it I could tell it was an all-butter crust. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I did notice that it was less flaky than the pie crust I'm used to. I know shortening lends that unique texture to pie crust, so maybe next time I'll try that out. But for this, I was happy with my crust.

And the rest of the pie? How was that, you ask? Well, it was heaven! I will say this, though: if you attempt it, be warned that it is very rich and very chocolatey. Just a little slice will be more than enough! I toned down the bourbon in this and used semisweet chocolate that I cut into small chunks, instead of the recommended chocolate chips. The chocolate was a dominant flavor in the pie, and while it was decadent scrumptiousness, it didn't taste like an everyday pecan pie. But then again, that was kind of the point of making a Baked pie! I loved this, and I was very happy to have conquered my first from-scrach pecan pie. Happy Thanksgiving, indeed!

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie
adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients
For the Classic Pie Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. fine salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
3/4 cup ice cold water

For the pie:
2 cups pecan halves, toasted
3 large eggs
3/4 cup light corn syrup
3 Tbsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. bourbon
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate pieces

Directions
Assemble the pie dough: 1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together. Cut the cold butter into cubes and toss the cubes into the flour mixture to coat. Put the mixture in the bowl of a food processor and pulse in short bursts until the pieces of butter are the size of hazelnuts.

2. While pulsing in quick, 4-second bursts, drizzle the ice water into the food processor through the feed tube. As soon as the dough comes together in a ball, remove it from the food processor and divide it into two equal balls. Flatten to a disk and wrap each disk first in parchment paper and then in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the disks until firm, about 1 hour. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before proceeding with the recipe. Only half the recipe, or one disk, will be used for the pecan pie.)

Make the pecan pie: 1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Dust a work surface with a sprinkling of flour. Unwrap the ball of chiled dough and put it directly on the work surface. Roll out into a 12-inch round. Transfer the dough to a pie dish and carefully work it into the pie dish, folding any overhang under and crimping the edge as you go.

2. Prick the pie shell a few times with a fork. Place a layer of parchment paper on the pie dough, pressing into the edges gently, then fill the pie shell with dried beans or rice. "Blind bake" the pie shell for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

3. Wrap and freeze the crust until firm, about 2 hours, or up to 3 months. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Coarsely chop about 3/4 cup of the pecans. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until combined. Add the corn syrup, sugars, butter, salt, vanilla, and bourbon. Whisk again until combined. Stir in the chopped pecans and set the filling aside.

5. Spread the chocolate pieces evenly along the bottom of the frozen pie shell. Slowly pour the filling on top of the chocolate chips. Arrange the remaining 1 1/4 cups pecan halves on top of the filling.

6. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, then cover the edges of the crust loosely with aluminum foil and bake for another 30 minutes. Test the pie by sticking a knife in the center of the filling. If the knife comes out clean, the pie is done. If the knife comes out with clumps of filling sticking to it, bake for another 5 minutes and test again.

7. Cool the pie on a wire rack and serve warm or at room temperature. The pie can be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for up to 2 days.