Last week, we presented
all of our recipes for the Thanksgiving meal. Now you're going to need a dessert. And for me, Thanksgiving means pie... lots and lots and lots of pie. Enough that the sugar buzz from the pie will outweigh and tryptophan funk the turkey may induce. So here's about 20 different options that should please anyone's sweet tooth. Make a pair, haul them to the event and bask in the loving adoration of your family these pies will illicit.
Oh, and if you need a
Pie Crust recipe, you can find that
here as well...
This classic recipe has been around for years. Listen, anyone can slap a pumpkin pie together and make it passable. The recipe on the pumpkin can works well. But as with many things in life, if you take care in the details and spend just a few extra seconds to add a few twists, you can elevate the average to extraordinary. You don't have to be a master chef to pull it off, just take your time and as Alton Brown says, "Your patience will be rewarded."
Pumpkin Pie
These are the first pies I ever made. As my mother was bedridden with Rhumatic Fever, she'd instruct me on the proper technique for a Coconut Cream Pie. I'd then run down the hall to the kitchen, start cooking and then run back down the hall with questions. And from this basic cream pie recipe we tinkered with for a month or two developed into a multitude of different variations. You can really add almost anything to this cream pie filling and it'll turn out wonderfully. Here are a few of the first versions we created, which still hold up well almost 25 years later.
Chocolate Cream Pie
Coconut Cream Pie
Banana Cream Pie
Peanut Butter Pie
German Chocolate Pie
You can always go with a basic fruit pie, but sometimes you want something just a little different. We all know how delicious the combination of fruit and whipping cream is. Well it stands to reason that if you embed them in a creamy pie filling, the result would be decadent. You can use almost any type of fruit, as long as it's not too acidic, like oranges and pineapple. For those, there are other precautions that need to be made and will be outlined in a future post. But for the time being, the classic berries and cherries work wonderfully.
Strawberry Cream Pie
Raspberry Cream Pie
Blueberry Cream Pie
Blackberry Cream Pie
Alcohol Pies
Alcohol, in a pie? Yes! It only makes sense.... Your classic candies like Butterscotch and Butter Rum weren't made with just flavorings. They were made with the actual booze. And therefore, so are these pies. We've added the inebriatory ingredients and cooked them long enough to remove some, but not all of the alcohol. There is a very slight kick, but not enough to offend the tea totallers. Just tell them you used the extracts instead. They don't need to know. Or tell them after they've eaten a couple slices and see if the "placebo effect" causes them to strip down naked and go rolling in the snowdrifts. It'll be holiday "cheer" that will be discussed for years.
Pina Colada Pie
Butterscotch Pie
Butter Rum Pie
Pardon the old picture, but it's from 3 1/2 years ago, when this recipe won the first X96 Tasty Pie contest. This pie earned me a trip to Chicago, for which I thank Kerry, Bill and Gina profusely. It's another variation of the basic cream pie recipe, but great for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays. There are candy cane bits and a small amount of peppermint extract mixed in to the filling, giving it a minty aroma and slightly pink hue. The filling sits in a buttery Oreo cookie crust and then topped with rich whipping cream and homemade hot fudge. Pour the heated fudge over each slice and you'll have a slice of heaven for your holiday parties. And if you have leftover hot fudge, you could use it later, once all of the guests go home and the kids have gone to bed... wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more...
Peppermint Fudge Pie
No, it's not made from peanut butter cups, it's make to LOOK like a peanut butter cup. The Oreo Cookie crust is drenched with a layer of chocolate ganache to solidify the base. Then our classic cream pie filling is infused with peanut butter. Use the chunky style if you can so you have the crunchy nut bits throughout. Finally, it's topped with additional chocolate ganache that will thicken slightly in the icebox, but not completely solidify, so slicing and serving the pie is effortless. As you can see from the photo, it's amazing!
Peanut Butter Cup Pie
Cookie Pies
It's truly one of the more decadent pies out there. How can you reject anything that tastes like moist, fresh chocolate chip cookies. The Toll House Pie is the classic one from Nestle because, honestly, it's hard to mess with perfection. But the Peanut Butter Cookie Pie is my own variation. If you want a giant puffy loft with your cookie pies, substitute the butter for butter flavored shortening. It has a higher melting point than butter, which will allow all of the other ingredients to expand and solidify before the fat melts and flattens out.
Toll House Pie
Peanut Butter Cookie Pie
Here is the classic fruit pie recipe. It relies on the sugar and pectin in the fruit to combine into a molten pool of gelatinous goodness. Almost any combination of the berries listed will work, so you can customize it to your liking. And if the berries you love are out of season, no worries, Frozen berries make a great substitute. Just make sure you reheat the slices and top them with a dollop of ice cream for the ultimate pie experience.
Quadruple Berry Pie
Sometimes you don't want a large pie. These bite-size morsels are the perfect solution. You can make 24 pie shells in one miniature cupcake pan. Cook the shells ahead of time and then consider what fillings you'd like. This is where your creativity can shine through. The small size allows you to tinker with the flavoring to an infinite degree. I've enhanced some of the basic recipes I've made over the years by placing fruit, caramel, or other morsels in the bottom of each shell. I'll then cook up a batch of the cream pie recipe, separate out a small portion of the filling and flavor it any way I want, then fill the shells. Don't limit yourself to just these, Play around a bit and make a couple dozen for you event. Then top them all with a little bit of whipped cream and place on a platter (or one of these Mini cupcake racks) and serve to the masses.
Caramel Apple Mini-Pies
Triple Chocolate Mini-Pies
Peanut Butter Banana Mini-Pies
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