Pie

[Johnny L.A.]

A couple of years ago I made my first pie. It was apple, made from the nasty apples from the tree in the back yard. ('Nasty', as in they're mushy, small, and not very sweet.) The results were acceptable. Pretty tasty, considering the main ingredient. My next pie was pecan -- my favourite. I made a cherry pie using canned pie filling from the supermarket. Meh.

The thing is, I do like cherry pie. Since I don't have a pitter and don't want to spend the time, is there a particular brand of cherry pie filling that's better than others? Is there a way of 'doctoring' canned cherry pie filling to make it really good?

I'm thinking of trying a pumpkin pie this year. Maybe even a sweet potato pie. Generally speaking, I'm not into cream pies. I mean, I like them well enough; but I prefer fruit. Ditto citrus pies (lime, lemon).

Recipes, I guess?

[needscoffee]

I'm sure I saw frozen pitted pie cherries at the supermarket.

FWIW, if you find fresh sour cherries, pitters are cheap, and you can always pit them while you watch TV. The canned fillings are all overly gummy and overcooked. It doesn't seem like making a pie to just pour a can of pre-made pie filling into a crust.

[needscoffee]

The best pumpkin pie I've had is the standard recipe on a can of Libby's, but with 1/2 & 1/2 instead of evaporated milk. It's not a huge difference in calories, but it tastes 100x better.

Sour Cream Peach Pie is good. My sister makes the Nora Ephron version from the book Heartburn.

Put 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup butter and 2 tablespoons sour cream into a Cuisinart and blend until they form a ball. Pat out into a buttered pie tin, and bake 10 minutes at 425 degrees. [Or use any pie crust recipe or pre-made that you prefer.]

Beat 3 egg yolks slightly and combine with 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons flour and 1/3 cup sour cream. Pour over 3 peeled, sliced peaches arranged in the crust. Cover with foil. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees and bake 35 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 10 minutes more, or until the filling is set.”

[Fried Dough Ho]

The Mrs. Smith's Natural Juice Pies (frozen) are about the best frozen pie on the market and shockingly good, all things considered.

I LOVE making pies and if you want to get into it, I can't recommend Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible highly enough. It talks at length about the science of pie crusts as well as troubleshooting problems. Frigg'n brilliant, actually and one of the few cookbooks from my 200+ book collection I look at more than once a year.

[Fried Dough Ho]

The Mrs. Smith's Natural Juice Pies (frozen) are about the best frozen pie on the market and shockingly good, all things considered.

I LOVE making pies and if you want to get into it, I can't recommend Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible highly enough. It talks at length about the science of pie crusts as well as troubleshooting problems. Frigg'n brilliant, actually and one of the few cookbooks from my 200+ book collection I look at more than once a year.

[Duke of Rat]

I finally got my pie crusts to where I like them by using the recipe in the ubiquitous Better Homes and Gardens (red and white checkerboard tablecloth cover) cookbook from the 50's. The only difference is that for the shortening, I freeze butter flavored Crisco and add it to the dry ingredients by shredding it in a coarse, manual cheese grater. This gets the shortening chunks the right size, gets them in ther fast, and reduces the amount of mixing needed. Just add a little ice water as you go and damn tasty pie crust.

When I was growing up, we had dozens of cherry trees with those sour little cherries on them. Man, those make the best cherry pie. Some sort of blight wiped the trees out years ago, I sure miss that particular pie.

[Tethered Kite]

Yes, BH&G is my go-to-crust recipe also. I use 1/3 real butter and 2/3 lard. Lard is much better tasting to me than Crisco. But I think I'd try that butter flavored Crisco. I also add 1/4 cup white sugar to the flour. A friend said my pie tastes like candy!

In fact I'm some proud of my pies and still have my county fair blue ribbon on the refrigerator. Nearly broke my arm patting myself on my back.

Johnny, you can buy canned sour cherries. A sprinkle of almond extract goes nice with the cherry flavor. Be sure to top the filling with a couple little pats of butter for a nice rich pie.

[silenus]

I make a killer Peach Pie. The secret ingredient is Southern Comfort.

[leftfield6]

Ummm, Pie.

Sorry, that's the best I can do at the moment, but now I have a huge pie craving.

[BobArrgh]

When I was living in Indonesia during the 1970s, I was in a Home Economics class and had to make a pie. I ended up making a mango pie using a recipe for apple pie. It was freaking awesome, and I made a second one for Thanksgiving that year. At the time, the only apples we could get over there were Fuji apples (I think), and they were sort of mushy, not very tasty, and almost prohibitively expensive. The mangoes were cheap, plentiful, and juicy.

I think mangoes are somewhere around a dollar each, so it might be a little expensive, but definitely worth trying.

[BrotherCadfael]

What you want is a can (actually two cans) of pitted sour pie cherries, not cherry pie filling. It may take some work to find them - not all stores stock this item, and those that do charge a pretty penny for them.

You can also find quick frozen pie cherries in bulk - Agway used to sell five- or thirty-pound containers.

[MLS]

There is a brand of canned cherries called "Oregon Fruit" that is excellent. The canned "pie filling" is a gloppy, goopy, oversweetened mess. If your stores don't carry Oregon Fruit, you can actually order it on Amazon! They have a recipe inside the label. I add a little bit of almond extract, sugar and either uncooked tapioca or just enough cornstarch to thicken somewhat. The filling should be mostly fruit with just barely enough thickening to make it hold together.

[Push You Down]

I made a great pink lemonade pie that I got from a 50's cook book. It opened my mind about new pie possibilites. They effin' ROCKED pies back in the day.

[boozilu]

Get a pitter -- Mr. Boozilu thought I was crazy for buying one but devoured the pie. If you like fruit pies, try a triple berry pie with raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Three-B...ie/Detail.aspx.

I also love this sweet potato pie recipe -- http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-P...-2/Detail.aspx. I've been making it since I can't find canned pumpkin anywhere (although the recipe on the Libby's label is terrific).

[Alice The Goon]

This summer I really got into some Pineapple pie. I used fresh pineapple when they were on sale for a dollar each, but you can use canned, too. They're so good!

[The Devil's Grandmother]

Originally Posted by MLS

There is a brand of canned cherries called "Oregon Fruit" that is excellent. The canned "pie filling" is a gloppy, goopy, oversweetened mess. If your stores don't carry Oregon Fruit, you can actually order it on Amazon! They have a recipe inside the label. I add a little bit of almond extract, sugar and either uncooked tapioca or just enough cornstarch to thicken somewhat. The filling should be mostly fruit with just barely enough thickening to make it hold together.

I like "Oregon Fruit" too, but the real trick is to get a bag of the dried tart cherries from Trader Joe's and soak them in brandy. Cut them in half to make sure they are really seedless. Add (just the cherries, drink the brandy) to pie filling with cinnamon. Grated granny smith apple also makes great thickener.

[teela brown]

This is a good time of year to make a peach or blueberry pie. Blueberry is the easiest - no peeling or pitting or chopping required. And it makes a killer pie! Be sure to use tapioca as the thickener - you'll get a clear, delicate glaze rather than a gravylike sauce, which is what happens when you use flour.

[Johnny L.A.]

Thanks for the tips so far. I'm not into Pie Mode yet (I'll probably wait until the end of October, or November), but I'll definitely put the tips to use. I especially like the idea of freezing the shortening and grating it with the cheese grater.

Originally Posted by needscoffee

Sour Cream Peach Pie is good. My sister makes the Nora Ephron version from the book Heartburn.

My paternal grandmother used to make sour cream-raisin pudding, which was also used as pie filling. Egad, I wish I hadn't lost the recipe!

Originally Posted by Fried Dough Ho

I LOVE making pies and if you want to get into it, I can't recommend Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible highly enough.

I ordered a new copy from an amazon seller (at half the price of the book on the link).

Originally Posted by teela brown

This is a good time of year to make a peach or blueberry pie.

I'm not a huge fan of peach pie. Peach cobbler, though...

[Alice The Goon]

Well, snub me, then! I'm taking my pineapples and I'm going home!

[Johnny L.A.]

Good idea! Go home and make pineapple pie... and send it to me!

Snubbage not intentional!

[Alice The Goon]

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

Good idea! Go home and make pineapple pie... and send it to me!

Snubbage not intentional!

You'll have to wait until it gets cold- it's way too hot now for baking when you only have swamp cooling and no A/C. But you really should make a pineapple pie- the sweet/tartness of the pineapple makes a great foil for the crust (storebought- I'm not maniacal about this). So yummy!

[Little Nemo]

Originally Posted by Alice The Goon

You'll have to wait until it gets cold- it's way too hot now for baking when you only have swamp cooling and no A/C. But you really should make a pineapple pie- the sweet/tartness of the pineapple makes a great foil for the crust (storebought- I'm not maniacal about this). So yummy!

You've got me thinking about the possibilities now. Maybe a cream pie with pineapple and coconut.

[Alice The Goon]

Originally Posted by Little Nemo

You've got me thinking about the possibilities now. Maybe a cream pie with pineapple and coconut.

There are lots of recipes online based on that. Fresh pineapple does not go well with dairy products, but canned is fine.

[Left Hand of Dorkness]

The Pie and Pastry Bible is great, but Insanity Rose is in full swing in it. I don't make her recipes any more unless I do a T minus first: I put 0 at the moment when you eat the pie, and then I work backwards through the recipe to figure out how long each step takes, to determine when I need to start it. It's not uncommon to need to start 15 hours or more before you plan to eat her pies. Makes me craz.

My go-to recipe for crust is from Joy of Cooking, only I use butter instead of lard. I like the flavor, and the texture is quite good--less flaky, more tart-like. Wild blueberries make my favorite pie, but I like 'em all. I'm the pie-guy in my extended family (mother-in-law is the cookiemeister, my wife is the queen of cakes).

As for a pitter, I use a bent paperclip. With a little work you'll get the technique, and it's super-easy, plus it makes you feel like MacGuyver.

[Miss Woodhouse]

My favorite crust recipe is from Christopher Kimball's The Cook's Bible. It's half butter half shortening and you freeze the fat for 15 minutes and mix it a food processor. Flavorful and flaky, so good.

I heard a great tip for apple pie on the radio a year or so ago and made apple pies last holiday season that were raved over. Don't use one single variety of apple, use three. Granny Smith for texture and tartness, then you need a crisp sweet like Fuji or gala or honey crisp, and then one sweet/soft like rome. I also added a little cardamon as well as nutmeg and cinnamon. The three different apples give the pie a depth and balance that one variety just can't match.

[Ruken]

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

The thing is, I do like cherry pie. Since I don't have a pitter and don't want to spend the time, is there a particular brand of cherry pie filling that's better than others? Is there a way of 'doctoring' canned cherry pie filling to make it really good?

As other mentioned, you want canned cherries, not canned filling. Just cherries in water. The Oregon stuff is expensive IIRC, $3+/can and my pan can make a 4-can pie if I roll out the crust enough. Some places that's all you can find. In IL I was able to get some other brand (I forget) for $1.10/can, and I can get Kroger brand here in VA but I forget the price.

I think someone else mentioned frozen cherries. I tried these once and they worked fine. Better color I think (the canned ones tend to be dull.) Just mix them frozen with the other filling ingredients and bake as you usually do.

It's hard to find fresh cherries because the season is really short. We had a tree once and it would ripen all at once and be good for only ~10 days.


Mmmm pie