Happy Pi Day and the Best Cookbook Ever!

So I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I have the best sister in the world. For Pi Day (today--3.14 for all you nerds out there), she sent me the Pie Pie Pie: Easy Homemade Favorites cookbook. This is my first cookbook devoted solely to pie, and it is quite wonderful. It outlines the necessary tools for pie-making, the most common ingredients, and has lots of recipes broken into the pie categories: fruit pies, cream pies, custard pies, chiffon pies, and (of course) candy/special celebration pies. Plus it has beautiful pictures and multiple recipes for crust--all of which I will be trying. So thanks to my sister! You are awesome!

It was quite a challenge deciding on a pie to make today to celebrate Pi Day. I finally landed on Butter Brickle Banana Cream Pie, which I will copy here:

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Butter Brickle
1/2 C sugar
5 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds

Filling
1/2 C sugar
1/4 C cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 C milk
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large, ripe bananas

Make the crust as usual.

To make butter brickle, combine sugar, almonds, and butter in a large skilled. Place over medium-high heat and cook, stirring almost constantly, until the bubbling mixture turns golden brown, about 5 minutes. Pour onto a sheet of aluminum foil and let cool completely. Crumble when dry and set aside.

To make the filling, whisk the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan. Pour in the milk and whisk until smooth. Place over moderate heat and cook, whisking almost constantly, until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble. Whisk in egg yolks and bring the mixture back to boil, and decrease the heat and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and add vanilla and butter. Let cool for 20 minutes, stirring a few times.

Spread 1/2 C of the butter brickle in the bottom of pie crust. Peel bananas and slice them and spread over brickle. Then pour filling over that, and then spread 1/2 C of the brickle over that. Spread whipped cream over the pie. Sprinkle with remaining mixture and refrigerate until ready to serve. This pie tastes the best within a couple of hours.
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My pie is in the refrigerator, and I've yet to eat it. But it looks and smells delicious. Speaking of which, The Boyfriend is in the kitchen making me catfish curry for dinner, so I've got to go. We will be celebrating in style! Happy Pi Day!

Sugar Cream Pie, in Honor of Indiana

The latest in pie news: The Indiana Senate recently passed a bill to appoint sugar cream pie as the state's official pie. If the bill also passes the House, the pie will be officially named Hoosier Pie, and Indiana will become only the third state to have an official pie (joining Vermont with apple pie and Florida with Key Lime).

In honor of Indiana, I thought it would be fitting to spend some time this week on cream pies. Sugar cream pie is an excellent beginners' cream pie because you do not need to heat it before baking it. There are many recipes out there which are all very similar. Here's one from All Recipes, a great source for...well, all recipes:

1 1/2 C white sugar
1/2 C flour
1 C heavy whipping cream
3/4 C whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (you can use cinnamon instead)
1/4 C butter, chilled and diced

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (225 degrees C).

In a medium bowl, mix together sugar, flour, and cream. Add milk and vanilla extract, and continue to stir until mixture is smooth. Pour into pastry shell. Sprinkle top with nutmeg and dot evenly with small chunks of butter.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake an additional 45 minutes.

Some people actually mix the ingredients in the pie shell, mixing the dry ingredients together in the bottom of the pie shell first and then pouring the wet ingredients (already mixed together) over the dry ingredients and stirring gently with a couple of fingers until it's mixed. Also, if the pie browns too quickly before it's done (you can tell it's done when the middle does not jiggle when you move the pie plate), you can put aluminum foil over it. Everyone has his or her own way of doing it, so experiment and find out what works best for you. Let me know how it goes!

Note that since you are cooking this pie so long, using an unbaked pie shell is best. You can make the pie crust just as you normally would, just without baking it first.

Cream pies tend to be just a bit more finnicky than fruit pies, particularly in getting them to set right. But they are well worth it in taste! Check back next week to learn to make chocolate and banana cream pies, which require heating first. Happy baking!