Pie #6 Apple Crumb Pie

Here is the recipe for today’s pie Apple Crumb Pie

And the verdict on yesterdays Mile High Peanut Brownie Pie

I would give this pie 4 stars for ease of preparation just because it has a lot of different steps.  This Pie is totally over the top when it comes to richness.  When I was making it I thought it was a bit weird and not really my idea of a pie.  I probably would probably only make this again if I wanted to put someone into a diabetic coma.  BUT THAT SAID…

It had good flavors in very small quantities my husband said it’s like a 12-15 person pie and he gave it 4 stars for taste. MY KIDS LOVED IT !! Really what’s not for a kid to love… brownies, peanut butter, cool whip it was right up their alley. But I’ll just say it’s very unique.  :)

Pie # 6 Apple Crumb Pie

First off you’ll need another crust (yeah!)

  Then you need to peel core and chop 6 cups of sliced apples ( I really used about 7 cups)

Then you add cinnamon, nutmeg, flour and sugar to a bowl and give it a mix.

Add the mixture to the apples and give it a stir.

Dump the apples into your unbaked pie shell.

 Then you mix up your crumb topping which more flour, brown sugar and flour. Once this mixture is crumbly you add it to the top of the apples.

 

It says to loosely cover this with foil and bake it at 375 for 25 minutes, then you remove the foil and bake it again for another 25-30 min.

 

FYI - I don’t think  the foil part of this is  necessary.  I have a recipe for this kind of pie already and I never cover it with foil and it always is just fine.

 

VARIATION-

This pie has a variation already in the recipe it says you could add raisins and chopped walnuts to the apples and then add the crumb topping and bake it (that sounded nasty to me so I didn’t do that) BUT what I thought might be great was instead of this normal crumb topping to use the PECAN CRUMB TOPPING that I listed as my variation to Pie #1. 

Pie #5 Mile-High Peanut Butter-Brownie Pie

Here is the recipe for today’s pie (this is the kind of pie you gain weight just by reading the title)

 Mile-High Peanut Butter-Brownie Pie  YIKES!!

And the verdict on yesterday’s Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

The critics gave it a random smattering of stars ranging from

 4 – 5.5 for taste.  The general consensus was that it had too many nuts in the filling.  But the overall taste was good. I give this a

 4 for ease of preparation just because it takes a little longer to make BUT I would make this again with a decrease in the amount of nuts.

Pie #5 Mile-High Peanut Butter Brownie Pie

Well it called for a premade crust but that kind of thing doesn’t fly around here so I made a crust.

After your crust is ready you mix your brownie mix up and add some peanut butter chips to the brownies.  (do you like how I won’t buy a pie crust but I’m okay with buying boxed brownies)

 

Once it’s nicely mix you add it to your unbaked pie shell.  I have to admit when I was doing this I kept thinking is a pie crust REALLY necessary?  Then you bake it for about 40 min.

 

You cover up the crust after about 20 min of baking with one of these things.

 

Once it’s done in the oven you have to let it cool for about 20 minutes on the counter and then about an hour in the fridge.

 

After it’s cooled you mix up the topping you add peanut butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar to a mixer and mix until smooth. 

 

Then you gently fold in an 8 oz container of cool whip.

Then you spread all of that on tip of the brownie pie and top it with mini chocolate chips and chopped nuts. 

 

The VERDICT

I would give this pie 4 stars for ease of preparation just because it has a lot of different steps.  This Pie is totally over the top when it comes to richness.  When I was making it I thought it was a bit weird and not really my idea of a pie.  I probably would probably only make this again if I wanted to put someone into a diabetic coma.  BUT THAT SAID…

It had good flavors in very small quantities my husband said it’s like a 12-15 person pie and he gave it 4 stars for taste. MY KIDS LOVED IT !! Really what’s not for a kid to love… brownies, peanut butter, cool whip it was right up their alley. But I’ll just say it’s very unique.  :)

Pie #4 Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

 Here is the recipe for today’s pie Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

The verdict on yesterday’s Rich Chocolate Truffle Pie

My taster gave this pie a 4 stars for taste.  This pie delivers on its name it is very rich.  But the consistency was a little strange you want it to be a little bit more fluffy than it turns out to be but the flavor is still good.

It gets a 4.5 stars for ease of preparation it was easy to make but I don’t think I would make it again. OH p.s. we really liked the chocolate mint pie yummy!

Pie #4 Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

First thing I did was get my sweet potatoes ready I peeled and chopped three.  You only need a cup of smash sweet potatoes so 1 should be enough.  I wanted to have extra to use for other things so I chopped up three.

Add them to a pot of boiling water and cook until tender. Drain off the water and let them cool to room temperature.  You could also used canned sweet potatoes and save yourself a step but you would need to add less sugar to the recipe because canned sweet potatoes are usually packed in sugar water and therefore extra sweet. ( you should still drain the liquid off canned ones)

Next comes the first real crust we get to make.  I LOVE making pie crusts.  This is my all time favorite recipe and sometime when I get a helper I will add a pie crust tutorial for those of you who would like to see how it works.

My all time Favorite Pie Crust Recipe

1/3 + 1 TBS of shortening

1 Cup of flour

1/2 tsp of salt

Mix this together until it get small crumbs then add

2 TBS of cold water and form into a disc

I like to roll my pie crust out on a floured dish towel.  This makes for easy pie crust placement into the pie tin.   So after I roll the crust out to my desired size I invert my pie tin on the middle of my crust (sorry I forgot to take a picture) place one hand on the back of the pie tin and on hand underneath the pie crust and dish towel and then flip it over

 

So you have something like this

  Then you start crimping your edges.  I don’t know how to describe this but I will add the tutorial I promise.

The filling is really easy you just add all of the ingredients together and mix it up really well.  I used my blender wand thingy then you pour all of it into your pie crust.

 

  *HINT* So after spilling a little bit of filling out of many of pies like this one onto my oven door I have figured out a little secret.  PLACE YOUR PIE SHELL IN THE OVEN AND THEN POUR YOUR FILLING INTO IT.  It works great every time just be careful when you push the pie all the way into the oven.

 

 

 

 

 

TThen add your nuts and bake for 45 ish minutes or until it’s set

Then you can mix your whipped topping this recipe calls for hazelnut liqueur so in my house will just be using cool whip :) ENJOY!

P.S. It smells heavenly…

The VERDICT

The critics gave it a random smattering of stars ranging from

4 – 5.5 for taste.  The general consensus was that it had too many nuts in the filling.  But the overall taste was good. I give this a

4 for ease of preparation just because it takes a little longer to make BUT I would make this again with a decrease in the amount of nuts.

Pie #3 Rich Chocolate Truffle Pie

 Here is the recipe for today’s pie Rich Chocolate Truffle Pie
 

The verdict for yesterday’s Rustic Autumn Fruit Tart
I would make this again.  I made a tiny little one for our family and my kids gobbled it up in a second it was a big hit.  My kids said that they would give it 5 stars for taste and I give it a 4.5 stars for ease of preparation. The other review is posted in the comments!

Pie #3 Rich Chocolate Truffle Pie

This pie was also very easy to make and was very quick.  First you melt in the microwave one bag of semi-sweet chips into 3/4 cups of heavy whipping cream it took mine just over 1 minute to melt.  I stopped once at 30 seconds and gave it a stir.

 

Mix all of the chocolate into the cream until it’s nice and smooth.  Then you let this sit until it’s room temperature.

 

This recipe calls for a chocolate cookie crust.  The wonderful store I went to didn’t have chocolate crusts (grumble) so while the filling was cooling to room temperature I made a crust.   I used a gallon size zip top bag and beat the heck out of one and half rows of chocolate sandwich cookies with my rolling pin.

After you get your cookies into crumbs you mix them together with melted butter until they are moist and start to stick together.

 

Then you dump your crumbs into a pie tin and start forming a crust.  I have found that using a glass to push the crumbs down makes this process go very quickly.  Then I baked this for about 10 min at 375 degrees.

After your chocolate has reached room temperature you stir in your powdered sugar and vanilla.

 

Meanwhile in a small bowl you mix another 3/4 cups of heavy whipping cream until soft peaks form.  From there you mix in the chocolate mixture 1/3 at a time until it’s all incorporated then you pour it into your crust and refrigerate it for 8 hours.  P.S. if you made your curst don’t forget to let it cool before you add the filling!

After it’s done in the refrigerator garnish it as desired.  You could whip up the remaining heavy whipping cream add vanilla and sugar and add that to the top and then add some mini chocolate chips or chocolate shavings or raid your kids Halloween candy and chopped up a few mini candy bars for the top.  I’ll post a picture of the finished product when it’s all finished.
Variation-
So I love mint and chocolate together so that is where my idea comes from today.  AND because I just happened to have some Andes baking chips in my pantry.  So I only wanted a small ramekin sized one AND I wanted it to be a few less calories so this is what I did.  I melted 1/2 cup of Andes chips into about 2 TB spoons of milk.  Then I let that cool to room temperature.  Once it was room temperature I gently folded it into some light cool whip and place it into my ramekin and then placed it into the refrigerator.  A dollop of cool whip on top followed by a sprinkle of a few more chips and ENJOY!

The Verdict

My taster gave this pie a 4 stars for taste.  This pie delivers on its name it is very rich.  But the consistency was a little strange you want it to be a little bit more fluffy than it turns out to be but the flavor is still good.
It gets a 4.5 stars for ease of preparation it was easy to make but I don’t think I would make it again. OH p.s. we really liked the chocolate mint pie yummy!