Holiday Baking - PIES!

Well today, Thanksgiving Eve, was a full day! Jaidyn, Mackenzie, and I made pies with mom's homemade piecrust.




We set the table for tomorrow's dinner, and we even managed to get our daily and weekly chores done! I AM BEAT! Don was kind enough to bring home pizza and a movie so that I didn't have to cook tonight, and now that I have finished getting the brined turkey going, I am finally able to relax.

It was a good day. Baking, Christmas music in the background, happy children. What More can I really ask for?

Like I said earlier it was pie day today, and our first order of business was to get the pie crusts made.


Once the crusts were made, we were good to go on our pies!

Apple Pie:

The Helper: Maddie (she kept me company)

The Ingredients:

two of Mom's unbaked piecrusts
9 Macintosh apples
flour
sugar
salt
cinnamon
nutmeg

The Directions:

Mix together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.


Peel, core, and slice apples. Place in bowl.


Mix apples with flour mixture until apples are coated.


Turn into pastry lined pie plate, and dot with butter.


Cover pie with second pie crust, and poke holes to allow steam to escape.


Wrap edges with foil to prevent excessive browning.

Bake.



Pumpkin Pie:

The Chef: Mackenzie

The Ingredients:

1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
(OR 1 3/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice-thank goodness I had this on hand because I used all of my cinnamon in the apple pie)
2 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 (12 fluid ounce) can Evaporated Milk

The Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl.


Beat eggs lightly in large bowl.

Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture.


Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

Pour into pie shell.



3.Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. (Do not freeze as this will cause the crust to separate from the filling.)




Pecan Pie

The Chef: Jaidyn




The Ingredients:



1 (9 inch) unbaked deep dish pie crust
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup pecan halves or broken pecans


In a medium bowl, beat all filling ingredients except pecans with wire whisk or hand beater until well blended.


Stir in pecans.



Pour into pastry-lined pie plate.

Cover edge of pastry with 2- to 3-inch-wide strip of foil to prevent excessive browning.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until center is set, removing foil for last 15 minutes of baking.