The Pie Blog

Snape's been Pied!

2011-07-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

As you are probably aware- unless you've been living under a rock for the past year- the last movie in the Potter saga opened today. So last night I found myself in line for the sold out finale with a mass of people, many of whom were wielding sticks.
Actually, I should probably admit that I had a stick as well... only mine was tucked into the waistband of the gray skirt that I raided from my mom's closet. Yes, I did dress up.

Anyways, before I start recounting tales of irritating movie goers who scream when shirts are removed (we endured the preview for whichever of the Twilight films is next and then later on the removal of the two lead males shirts as you will, or have seen) and cry pretty much all the time and insist on giving a running cometary and... yeah, lets move on to the pie.

Due to the official release of pt.2 of the Deathly Hallows being today, I decided to pie Snape (Alan Rickman). I found the picture on Google images- I believe it belonged to a t-shirt but I can't confirm as, at the moment, I can't find it again. Regardless of where it came from here he is:

Snape's been pied!

This was my first try at putting a face onto a pie and, as an afterthought, I probably should have shaded the entire piece rather than just his hair. However, as it turned out his face got little pastry warts all over it and his hair stayed smooth which, if the picture were more detailed you'd be able to see.
The pie itself is 6 cups worth of huckleberries and, as grueling as it might sound to pick berries for five hours, huckleberry pie is worth every minute- though, if you can find someone else willing to pick them definitely take them up on the offer (thank you Misha!).

Birthday Pie #5- Canucks (Mack's Pie)

2011-04-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

So along with this apology for not posting in the last couple of months, I must explain that I myself don't actually watch Hockey.
*Gasp* A Canadian who doesn't watch hockey? Yes it's true...
On the other hand a number of my friends love the game.
This pie was made for one of them who, as you can tell, is a major Canucks fan

Canucks Pie

His Birthday was actually a few months ago but pies always seem to be appreciated
As a variant from my usual pumpkin pie (of the canned variety) I tried a recipe I found during one of my garage sale book collecting trips.

Almond Pumpkin Pie

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Crust
For a pie crust recipe see my previous post Birthday Pie #1-Maia's Pie

Almond Layer:
1 Cup of finely chopped almonds (I used a food processor... so much easier and faster than doing it by hand)
1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
3 tbsp. of softened butter
2 teaspoons of flour
1/4 tsp. of almond extract

Combine the nuts, sugar, flour and almond extract, tossing with a fork until they are well blended. Spoon this mixture into an unbaked pie crust pressing it firmly into the bottom and sides.

Pumpkin Filling:
1 (15 ounce) can of pumpkin (Yes, the pumpkin itself still comes from a can...)
1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour this mixture over the almond layer in the crust.

Bake for 15 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking for around 40 minutes. Cool.

Birthday Pie #4-Nic's Pie / Grad 2011 Pie

2011-02-17T21:12:00.000-08:00

Whoops!
It would appear that a few months managed to slip by without my noticing.
To make up for it this will be two posts in one.

Birthday Pie #4-Nic's Pie
Yet another blueberry pie. I really need some variety, especially when it comes to birthday pies.
This one was made for a friend who, as you can probably guess, loves cycling. I was a few days late in giving it to him, as he was away during much of the weekend on various rides.

The rider is supposed to be going downhill but I got the camera angle incorrect when taking the photo, so if you could just rotate your computer screen clockwise somewhat (I suppose your head would be easier) and pretend the photo is orientated the right way, it looks a lot better.

Graduation Pie

As you may guess from the photo this is my graduation year. For one of the grad events being held at our school, we, the students, were required to bring a potluck dish. We were assigned dishes (Appetizers, Salads, Main courses, and deserts) by last name. This unfortunately means that I'm always assigned appetizers. While I have no objections to appetizers, particularly small savory pastries of sorts, they do limit one's creativity.
I actually designed this year's grad logo and so decided it would make a good pie.

Grad 2011 Pie

I'll admit I was lazy. The pumpkin filling came out of a can. I've come up with a good excuse though. On top of baking a pie that evening I also had to study for a test...

Blackbird Pie

2010-10-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving. Turkey, cranberries, mashed potatoes, and who could forget the pumpkin pie?
Well it turns out that would be me. Thanksgiving rolled by without my so much as touching a pie pan. Instead I baked an apple crumble which, though it turned out delectable, I neglected to take a photograph of.
To make up for the lack of... recent pies, I've decided to share a pie that I made a couple of months ago. It was my school sculpture art project, or rather, experiment with 3D pie decorating. I realize that all of my decorating has been 3D to an extent but for the most part my designs, being rolled pastry, have been flat and reside to a larger part in the preceding dimension.
Most of you will be familiar with the childhood nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence'. For those who aren't, the most commonly known version now is:

Sing a song of sixpence,

A pocket full of rye,

Four and twenty blackbirds,

Baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened,

The birds began to sing,

Wasn't that a dainty dish,

To set before the king?

Often another two verses are added to it:

The king was in his counting house,

Counting out his money,

The queen was in the parlor,

Eating bread and honey.

The maid was in the garden,

Hanging out the clothes,

Along came a blackbird

And pecked off her nose!

There are multiple theories as to where the rhyme originated. Some say that it was used as a code by pirates when they went recruiting. Others that it represents the dishes prepared by a few cooks on occasion in the medieval days. They would pre-bake a pie shell and place live songbirds inside, covering the pie with a top, also pre-baked.

Of course I'm not a pirate, nor had I any inclination to put real birds in a pie. Instead I created my own version of 'blackbird pie'.

Blackbird Pie

You might not be able to tell from the pictures but the birds are 3D.
Here's a picture of one of the birds before it got woven into the pie:

Each head is pastry wrapped around a berry, attached to a cut out pastry body, and then shaped slightly and given a beak. The moment I had taken the photo of the finished pie, I ate each of the heads... mmm bird brains.

As you may be able to tell from the braid around the edge, this pie was done when I still was incapable of creating a fluted pie crust without it falling apart.

I've recently discovered cakes and a few of my future posts may shift away from pies and into the world of cakes. Of course I still hold the belief that pies are best but I do enjoy baking and decorating cakes.

Speaking of cakes I have a carrot one in the oven at the moment and I think the timer may be about to go off.

Good luck in all of your baking ventures.

~Emma

Oh, and if you were wondering it is a blueberry pie.

Birthday Pie #3 -Pumpkin Phoenix (Eam's Pie)

2010-09-26T14:28:00.000-07:00

I love working with pumpkin pie. It's so cooperative. You get a nice flat surface for designs, don't have to worry about unevenness of berries breaking the pastry on top, and it doesn't rise or fall.
Yesterday for my friend's birthday I wanted to try an intricate design, and thus, instead of my usual berry, decided to bake a pumpkin pie.
In my last post "Chicken Pot Pie" the pie I was writing about depicted a Rooster. This pie has a phoenix on it and was made for the same person.

Phoenix Pie

I love how it turned out (although a couple of the pieces did break when I was baking it.
Because the last pie I tried making without a lattice weave on top ended up slightly burnt around the edges (this pie is not currently anywhere on this blog) I tried using tinfoil placed around the edges of the pie to prevent this.
If you've been following any of my previous posts you'll notice that I continually mention my failed attempts at fluting the edges of pies. Amazingly I actually had success this time!
When I made the Lion Pumpkin pie, the design was set into the pie initially and baked with it. With this pie I placed the design separately on a baking tray and added it to the pie at the end. I think that this works better, although if the pieces are extremely thin (as parts of the phoenix's wings are) you are likely to break the pastry when you try to transfer it onto the pie.
If you couldn't already tell the star/flower beside the phoenix is just halved almonds.
If you are attempting to create designs for pies, keep in mind that they can't be overly intricate or they will likely fall apart. After googling phoenix I found an image I liked. I then simplified the head and the tail to make them manageable, and left off one of the wings. If you want to try this particular design you can find it at rapidcow.com.
Good luck if you do try

~Emma

'Chicken Pot Pie'

2010-09-13T21:22:00.000-07:00

I made this for a friend of mine who happens to own (and love) chickens. Originally I was going to put a chicken on it, for the "chicken pot pie" title, but changed the design to a rooster as a chicken didn't look quite as nice.

'Chicken (Rooster) Pot Pie'

Nothing particularly special, it has my normal flower on it and is, as most of my pies are, blueberry. This is however the first pie I managed to brown specific parts of (this was done by brushing the design with milk). It's also the only pie I have successfully managed to make shiny.
You can see that I have, yet again, failed to flute the edges, and (having run out of time) haven't managed to cover it up with anything (braid or cut out shapes) either. Ah well, they can't all look perfect.

~ Emma

A Roaring Pumpkin Pie

2010-09-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

This was my first non-berry pie. I got the image from a pumpkin carving design (templates meant for pumpkin carvings are a great resource for fancy pies) online. Because the pie was pumpkin, it was ideal for setting cut out pieces of dough onto and expecting them to stay reasonably in place.

Lion Pumpkin Pie

It's not my proudest moment admitting that the pumpkin filling for this pie came from a can. Everyone I've spoken to about pumpkin pie does seem to be under the impression that canned pumpkin generally turns out better than fresh pumpkin (as far as pies are concerned), so perhaps cheating on the filling here was worth it. If you've made a pumpkin pie from scratch I'd love to hear how it went.

~ Emma

Birthday Pie #2-Chocolate Raspberry Tart (Mom's Pie)

2010-08-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

This isn't actually the second birthday pie I've made, merely the second I'm going to mention here. Today was my mom's birthday and I had my mind set on making her a Chocolate and Raspberry tart. Yesterday, after she went to bed, I began making the dough. By one in the morning I had the tart in it's pan. I baked the tart using rice as weight in a baking bind.
I used Pâte sablée, an enriched sweetened dough, for the tart. The filling was simply halved raspberries (for which I had to bother my neighbor and father in order to get enough) and snipped mint leaves, with a chocolate ganache poured overtop. In the end, despite the ganache being an improvisation, in accordance to what ingredients I had on hand, the tart came out very well. You will note that there is a crack in the tart, this likely due to the tart being placed in the fridge before it had sufficiently cooled. The crack resembles a tree though and so it's appearance in the tart did not mar it's overall appearance too drastically.

Between three people half the ten inch tart disappeared. Most of the rest was given away, some to my neighbors for all their help (both with raspberries and the use of their fridge as an attempt to keep the tart a surprise for my mom), and some to other friends.
Tomorrow, with luck, my pastry making tools and supplies will increase, as my mom and I are going to go shopping for a few things (such as a new rolling pin, more pie plates, tart rings, baking beans... the list goes on).

~Emma

The Marketing of Pie

2010-08-22T17:51:00.000-07:00

Where I live there is a Farmers Market every Saturday between May and September. I've been meaning to go for the entire summer but have, until now, been busy. A few days ago I phoned a friend, who is also a major pie lover, to see if he wanted to bake pies for the market. The next day we spent over nine hours baking pie.

Our assortment of pies and tarts

Going (more or less) from left to right there is: Peach pie, Lemon meringue, Butter Pecan (pie and tarts), Blueberry, Pumpkin, Apple, and Key lime (pie and tarts).
The Market lasted from ten (though we got there at eight) until two. By noon we were down to around eight slices, and an hour later we were sold out.

Peach Pie

I've never had a peach pie before. Still haven't, we sold it all. Apparently it was delicious though.

Key Lime Pie

The Key Lime was one of our top sellers. Most Key lime pie recipes call for a graham cracker crust. As neither my friend or myself were particularly fond of graham cracker crusts we used a normal crust.

Maple Walnut Pie

Maple Walnut pie is amazing. Though it uses over a cup of maple syrup, and is thus an extremely expensive pie, it is worth it. Surprisingly it was the last pie to be cut into (though the tarts went fast).

~Emma

Edit:
Oh, I forgot about my marketing pitch: The Quadra Island Farmer's Market & Bazaar is ongoing for another two weeks, Saturday 10 to 2. Be there! We have pie.

Birthday Pie #1-Maia's Pie

2010-08-19T22:22:00.000-07:00

Around a year after I began making pies I made a 'birthday pie' for a friend of mine. Since then I've made multiple birthday pies (though I forgot to take photos of most of them) which I'll add to this blog eventually.
This was for a friend who had (and still has) an obsession with Harry Potter. On the pie is the golden snitch surrounded by miniatures of the other balls used in Quidditch (along with, what at that time was my signature flower).

Maia's Birthday pie

It was a blueberry pie (my usual). The edges lack of decoration was partly due to running out of time, and my lack of ability when it comes to creating a normal fluted pie crust (something I mentioned in my previous post).
I used a basic berry filling recipe (which I don't remember, though I know I used more berries than the recipe called for).
The crust was a simple shortening crust, as opposed to a butter one. I rarely use any other pie crust unless I am making a puff pastry pie, or a tart of some kind.

2 cups of flour
2/3 cup of cubed shortening
3-6 tbs. ice cold water
pinch of salt

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Using a pastry blender cut the shortening in until the mixture is crumbly and the shortening is in pea sized pieces.

Sprinkle in the ice cold water, one tablespoon at a time, mixing it in by tossing the mixture with a fork. Continue adding water until the mixture is able to be formed into a ball. Cut the ball in half and create two 1 to 1-1/2 inch disks. Wrap these in saran wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least half and hour. It is then ready to use. (Note that this is a recipe for a double crust. If you are making an open pie this recipe should yield two.)

It's simple, all (or at least, almost all) the best things are.

~Emma

Men may come and men may go... but Pie goes on forever.
- George Augustus Sala, 1882

The beginning

2010-08-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

So to start off I thought I'd write a post about the first pie I made.

About a two years ago, perhaps a little longer, I was going over to a friends house for dinner. I can't remember if it was for any event in particular, I don't believe it was. In any case I decided that I was bringing desert. After a couple of hours poking through various cookbooks and hundreds of recipes for cookies, cakes, puddings, and various other desserts, I finally settled on pie. Following a visit to the store, in order to get blueberries, I began my first attempt at baking a pie. It turned out pretty well for a first.

The pie that began it all

The braided edge was the result of my failed attempt at a normal fluted pie crust. The flower, to hide the beginning and end of the braid. And the bird was simply to make it less boring.

I have forgotten what recipe I used for this pie (by now you should be getting the idea that I tend to forget things a lot), but in future posts (when I remember) I will detail the pie's creation.

Oh, and just in case you are wondering, the pie did pass the taste test.

The Pie Blog

2010-08-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

This is the start of my pie blog. It's about pie, though I suppose you already guessed that. I'll try and update at least once a month or so about pies that I, and others, have created, as well as with recipes, both for pie fillings and crust.
Be patient, I'm new to the blogging world.

~Emma