Pie Presents

Saturday I had made 4, yes FOUR pecan pies. I committed myself to giving the 6 doormen pies and Saturday was the day to finish it all off. I went a little frantic trying to use homemade dough for all of them and when I realized I had a bad batch of dough I had to put myself in timeout while Joel reminded me it was okay that since I was baking in bulk to just relax, use store dough and make the filling. So that's what I did. I only ended up taking pics of 3 of the wrapped up pies, I was too busy baking to take pics. Sunday I was planning to visit a friend and their new baby so made them a Dreamy Apple Pie from the Pioneer Woman's blog, apple pie filling with a pecan crumble on top. Turns out we missed each other so I lucked out and gave myself the pie present:) It was the first time I'd ever made a crumble, it turned out really quite yummy. I'm excited to perfect it as I'll be making this for my family for Christmas. Notice the apple corer - my new fave tool!

Dreamy Apple Pie: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/11/dreamy-apple-pie/

 Pecan Pies for Presents

 Love this apple corer - makes it so much easier (and fun!).

This is what makes the filling so...dreamy!

 Making of the crumble - needs a bit of work but still tasty!

2 Pies, 1 Night!

Last night I got cracking on some pecan pies. I've decided to give the doormen of my building pies this year for the holidays so have six to make by the weekend. I had two things of frozen dough in the freezer so the whole thing was pretty easy. I love just being able to grab homemade dough out of the freezer - so simple! The recipe is from my mom and is super easy but I learned the key to making it work is to really be patient and let the melted hot sugar/syrup/butter mixture completely cool down before adding the final ingredients - eggs, vanilla and salt. I may have gotten a little impatient last night and didn't let it cool down so when I added the eggs the hot sugar cooked the eggs so I had to throw it all out and start over. Lesson learned! So I just took a deep breath and started the 2 pies over again. I got much better at rolling out the dough. The transfer of the dough to the pan has been a tricky (read messy) thing so far but I read a tip on the Pioneer Woman's blog and rolled the dough out on wax paper and then just flipped it over in the pan - genius. I also had a little help from Joel who worked on the edges, trimming the excess and shaping the top. He decided against the fancy pants edges and went for a more rustic feel, which still looks great! Unfortunately I can't tell you how they tasted since they're presents but I'm confident they'll be yummy!

  Pour in the mixture...

Top off with pecans...

Before going in the oven... 

The finished product!

Chocolate Pecan Pie!

This weekend I made homemade dough again, the same recipe I've been using and it turned out great. It freezes well so Saturday was just for dough and then Sunday I made my first chocolate pecan pie. It's nice to break it out so I'm not doing dough and pies in one afternoon and now I still have 2 more dough balls in the freezer to use whenever. The chocolate pecan pie turned out well but slightly overcooked as it wasn't as gelatinous as I'd hope. Don't get me wrong, I'll probably eat the whole thing. Here are some pics of dough prep, me and my new favorite food and the final pie!


Chocolate Pecan Pie: http://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=recipes/show/chocolate_pecan_pie
Dough: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/p-p-p-pie_crust_and_its_p-p-p-perfect/

Crisco is now essential to my life!

Can you see what little counter space I'm working with?!

Chocolate Pecan Pie...

served with whipped cream!