Cranberry Orange Chess Pie

 A yummy, sweet layer of orange scented custard is topped with tart cranberries for a nice balance of flavors in this delicious chess pie. 

This pie is simple to make and so different and festive and very scrumptious! I would recommend it anytime, but especially for your turkey day table or your Christmas buffet.

Chess pies are also known as sugar pies for their overly sweet nature. But, the sweetness in this pie is perfectly offset by the orange zest, cider vinegar and cranberries.

If you want to try something a little different come turkey day, I would highly recommend this festive chess pie. Also, this Cranberry Vanilla Custard Pie or this Pumpkin Roll would be tasty additions too!

Cranberry Orange Chess Pie

William Sonoma: Pies and Tarts

1 (9in) pie shell, partially baked*
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1/4 to 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place oven rack in the lower third of the oven.

In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, melted butter and salt. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Stir in the flour, the buttermilk, vinegar and orange zest, mixing well. Stir in the cranberries. Scrape the mixture into the partially baked pie shell.

Bake the pie until the top is golden brown and domed and the filling is firm, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Serve at room temperature.

Makes 8 servings.

How to Partially Bake a Pie Shell:
Line pie shell with aluminum foil and weigh down with pie weights or raw rice. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes at 375. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

* This would be lovely topped with a dollop of whipped cream and freshly grated orange zest.

Apple Pie

Simply Delicious

This is the best apple pie I've ever had! The crust is flaky and buttery and the apples in the filling are perfectly tender and engulfed in a silky carmel like sauce. When you take your first bite, your eyes get a little wide and then you can't help but smile and exclaim WOW! Thanks to my friend Judi for sharing this recipe with me and allowing me to share it with all of you.

Granny smith apples are piled high in a homemade pastry shell.

A lattice top is weaved over the apples

And a wonderful yet simple sauce made of brown sugar and butter is poured over the top.

The glaze makes for a gorgeous crust once baked.

This pie is so pretty and rustic not to mention delicious.

Cut a slice and enjoy! 

Here's the recipe as it was given to me. Leave a comment if you have any questions.

Apple Pie

Crust:
Combine melted 1 cup butter in a pan add 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar. Stir in 6 tbs ice cold water. Roll into 2 balls and store in fridge for 4 hours. take out 10 minutes before ready to roll them into crust.

When making pie heat oven to 425. Prepare bottom crust to pan. Place 6 small granny smith cored, peeled, and slice apples in pan. make latticed top. In a sauce pan melt 1/2 cup butter and add 3 tbs flour, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar and heat to boil. Pour over pie.  Bake in over at 425 for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to 350 and bake for another 30 minutes.
 

Raspberry-Lemon Shortbread Tart

This is an easy and delicious tart that's perfect for summer.

A simple shortbread crust is pressed into a cake pan and pre-baked. The cookie-like crust is then filled with berries and covered with a lemon cream. After another trip to the oven,the berries and cream set-up and you have a delectable tart bursting with summer flavors.

Below is the pre-baked crust filled with frozen berries. I used a berry medley for this one because that's what I had on hand. Fresh or frozen fruit would work and any type of berry would be scrumptious.

The combination of black raspberries and blackberries gave the tart a gorgeous deep purple color once cooked. I topped it with powder sugar...
And it was pretty darn tasty. Here's a piece topped with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream :)

My only change to the recipe would be to use a little less lemon juice, so it's not so tart. I think juice from 1 1/2 lemons would give it the right amount of zip (or maybe just 1 lemon). That extra amount of juice put it over the top. But if you like tart lemony desserts, keep it the same.


Update: My mom made this tart and used frozen berries and she said it put her bake time at about 40 minutes over the listed time! I baked mine at sea level in San Diego and she baked hers at high altitude. Maybe that's the reason?? So make sure to thaw and drain your berries well!


Raspberry-Lemon Shortbread Tart
Source: RachealRay
3 cups frozen raspberries (1 pound)
1 stick plus 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
11/4 cups granulated sugar
13/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
Zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup juice)
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Drain the raspberries in a strainer set over a bowl. Preheat the oven to 400°. Using your fingers, combine the butter, 1/2 cup of the sugar and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and blend together until coarse crumbs form.* Pour the mixture into an ungreased nonstick 9-inch springform or cake pan and press down evenly to form a crust. Bake the shortbread crust until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.

Remove the shortbread from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325°. Scatter the drained raspberries** evenly over the baked shortbread.

Beat the eggs with the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar until thick and pale yellow. Whisk in the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Pour the lemon cream over the raspberries and bake the tart until the custard is set, about 30 minutes. Let cool, then dust with confectioners’ sugar.

* The crust mixture is quite crumbly, but bakes up well. So, don't worry as you're pressing it into the pan.

** I filled my hot crust with frozen berries. I didn't wait for the berries to thaw and drain. The only problem this caused was that it needed extra time to bake. It also changed the consistency into a berry filling as opposed to a drier, cakier filling. So, if you want it cakier, make sure you drain your berries well.

Chocolate Fudge Pie w/ Kahlúa Whipped Cream

I was trying to make Kahlúa Cupcakes with whipped cream frosting, but with my pregnancy brain in full force, I forgot to add the eggs to the cupcake batter and ended up with sunken chocolate rocks. No good. While the cupcakes were baking, I made some delicious Kahlua whipped cream 'frosting' I found on howtoeatacupcake.net. I didn't want it to go to waste, so I looked through recipes for brownies, cupcakes, pudding, etc., to use it on and then I remembered this recipe for chocolate fudge pie.

I made the chocolate pie exactly as listed below and popped it into the refrigerator so it was nice and chilled. Right before I wanted to serve it, I topped it with the oh-so-yummy Kahlúa frosting and grated some chocolate curls on the top. It was wonderful. It would be nice with some Kahlúa added to the filling as well. I took this fudge pie to a party and everyone loved it and raved about the spiked whipped cream topping.

Chocolate Fudge Pie
1 3/4 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup butter
1 unbaked deep dish pie shell

Chocolate Kahlua Whipped Cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a saucepan(off heat), whisk together sugar, cocoa, salt and flour. Blend in evaporated milk and vanilla. Beat egg yolks, and stir into pan. Add the butter. Heat, stirring constantly just until butter is melted. Pour filling into unbaked pie shell.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until pie is not "wobbly" when shaken. Cool on wire rack for an hour. Chill in refrigerator for at least two hours. Top with whipped cream.

Chocolate Kahlúa Whipped Cream:

howtoeatacupcake.net

1 cup cold heavy cream

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp Kahlúa

Sift together cocoa powder and confectioners sugar. Beat cream until slightly thickened. Add Kahlúa, cocoa, and sugar. Beat until soft peaks form.

Pies for Presents

My grandpa turns 88 on October 13th. So, Happy Birthday Grandpa! To celebrate his 88 years, we're having a nice family dinner at my grandparents house today. Some people are hard to buy for, such as my dad and my brother. I never know what to get them. My grandpa falls into this category. He's healthy for being 88, but he doesn't like to go out much, except for maybe a trip to Red Lobster or a buffet once in awhile. He really has everything he needs and he's content and happy with all he has. So, I decided for a man who enjoys eating and always insists on desserts with every meal, pies would be the perfect gift.

He goes through stages with the kinds of pies he likes, sometimes it's lemon cream or triple chocolate or berry. So I asked him what he wanted and he chose Razleberry. Razleberry is a combination of raspberries, blueberries, boisenberries and blackberries. So, I used my cherry pie recipe as a guide and created my own razleberry pie.

I made two pies. One, a cherry almond cheesecake and the second, a mixed berry pie with an orange zest crust. They turned out really well. If you want me to post the recipes, let me know.

Lemon Cream Tart with Shortbread Crust

With my hubby out of town, I took some time to do a little baking. I set my sights on a lemon cream tart recipe I had been eyeing for the last week. I knew after reading through it that I would have to make some changes.

First off, I only had enough eggs for the filling, so I couldn't make the recipe's crust that called for one egg yolk. Instead I switched to a simple, three ingredient, press-in crust. There was no chilling of any ingredients or wrapping any dough in plastic. You put flour, butter and sugar in a food processor and pulse it until it starts to form little balls. Then you dump it into a spring form pan and press it in. Since I was doing a lemon tart, I put some zest in the dough for good measure.

Next it was onto the filling. The recipe called for 1 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup lemon juice (which in my experience results in a super sour filling, not what I was in the mood for). So I kept the sugar the same and started by adding a little less than half a cup of lemon juice. This was the perfect amount.

Now, I must warn you that once all the ingredients are put into the double broiler, it takes a good 10 to 13 minutes of whisking until the lemon cream thickens and reaches 180 degrees. So just be aware that you will get a great arm workout and you may need to lift weights with the other arm to balance yourself out :)

Anyway, I'm not opposed to using a double broiler, so this recipe came together really easily. Once I baked and cooled the shortbread crust, I poured in the silky, lemon cream filling and popped it into the refrigerator.

After a trip to the park with my little girl, I came home and indulged myself with a delicious slice of lemon cream tart.

The delicate, buttery crust was perfect with the smooth lemon filling. Some nut crusts can be distracting, like the pine nut ones that are commonly paired with lemon filling. But this crust worked really well and tasted like a big thick sugar cookie. The filling had a nice mellow lemon flavor, with the perfect balance of zesty and sweet.

The next morning, a friend of mine came over for a play date and surprised me with coffee and Bailey's. Yum. I in-turn pulled out my lemon cream tart. We both had a slice with our coffee and she ate every bite and said she loved it.

My husband arrived home shortly after and also had a piece. He loved it as well and said the crust was his favorite part. So there you go. I think this recipe is a keeper.

Luscious Lemon Cream Tart w/Shortbread Crust
Press-in Shortbread Crust
1 stick plus 6 T salted butter
½ Cup sugar
1 ½ flour
Zest from one lemon

Preheat 400 degrees

In a food processor, pulse the butter, sugar, zest and flour together until coarse crumbs form. Pour the mixture into an ungreased nonstick 9-inch spring form pan and press down evenly on the bottom and ½ inch up the side. Bake the shortbread crust until lightly golden, about 20 minutes. Check at about 15 minutes to make sure it’s not browning too quickly. Cool on a wire rack and chill the refrigerator.

For the lemon cream:
filling adapted from: tartelette.blogspot.com
1 cup sugar
zest of 3 lemons
½ Cup lemon juice
4 eggs
2 sticks butter, cut into 1 inch pieces, softened

Make a water bath by putting a saucepan of water over heat to simmer and placing a metal bowl over, without the bottom touching the water. Rub the sugar and lemon zest with your fingers and add to the metal bowl. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice.Cook the mixture over the water bath, whisking constantly until the cream reaches 180 degrees. It can take up to 10 minutes.Once the cream reaches 180 (your whisk will leave ribbon tracks in the cream),remove the cream off the heat and put it into a blender. Let the cream cool to 140.Add in the butter and process until perfectly smooth.Pour into a container, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assemble the tarts by spooning the cream into the refrigerated tart shell.

Coconut Custard Pie

Lemon juice and toasted coconut are combined to give this pie a unique twist and flavor. I thought about foregoing the lemon juice (lemon and coconut, hmmm?) and doing vanilla extract instead, but the lemon flavor became very subtle once baked. Toasted coconut mixed into the filling, gives it a chewy texture. This pie was simple to make and very yummy. Vanilla, almond or rum flavoring would pair well with the coconut, but if you want to try something slightly different stick with the lemon juice.

This recipe comes from the Pie and Tart book by William-Sonoma.