7 Tips for the Perfect Pie + Recipes

I am proud to call myself my family's resident pie-maker and I enjoy making pie for the holidays, celebrating birthdays, for the county fair and my church's ice cream social.  Making pies really is a simple process, but there is a lot of fear in doing it right.  So I'm here to share my 7 tips to help you make the perfect pie!

Easy Lemon Pie

Spring is in the air and this Lemon Pie is so easy, you have no excuse other than to make it and enjoy a slice of this flavorful and delectable pie.

It's 3/14 and National Pi Day!  Now Pi Day isn't only a special holiday celebrated by math enthusiasts, it's also a great excuse to eat one of my favorite desserts - pie!

I just love making and eating pie!  I don't know what it is about pie.  Maybe it's because pies always look so pretty, or maybe it's because they always make me feel special, or maybe it's because they simply taste good.  Whatever the case maybe, you can't go wrong having a slice!

When thinking about what pie to create for Pi Day this year I was inspired by the sunshine we've been having lately, Easter around the corner, and my Mother-in-Law.  My Mother-in-Law is a delicious cook and baker, and while many know her for her perfect scotcheroos, another one of her desserts she loves to share in the spring is her lemon dessert.  The lemon dessert is made in a 9 x 13 pan and is layered with a simple crust, cream cheese layer, lemon layer and then whipped topping on top.  The flavors are delicious and you can't help but smile when you eat it, so I wanted to transform her dessert into a pie!

I decided to start the pie with a graham cracker crust.  I felt like the slightly sweet crust was a great foundation to top with the sweet and zesty layers.  After the crust is baked let it cool and add the cream cheese layer.  I think this is the key layer of the pie that just takes it over the top.  This layer is a great compliment to the lemon and is sweet and rich.  The final lemon layer is what makes you feel like it's spring or summer.  The pudding top has the tartness your looking for from the lemon, yet is mellow, so all ages can and will enjoy it!

Easy Lemon Pie

1/2 cup Butter
2 cups Graham Cracker crumbs
2 Tbsp Sugar
4 oz Cream Cheese
1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup Whipped Topping, plus extra for topping
2 - 3.4 oz box Instant Lemon Pudding
2 1/2 cups Milk

Mix melted butter, graham cracker crumbs and sugar together and press into a 9" pie plate.  Bake the crust at 375° F for 7 minutes and then cool.

After the crust has cooled, cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Then stir in the whipped topping.  Spread the layer on the bottom of the pie crust.

Beat together the lemon pudding and milk with a whisk and pour over the cream cheese layer.  Chill the pie thoroughly in the refrigerator before serving.  Serve with a dollop of whipped cream on top of each slice!

This pie is delicious and so easy, and is the perfect way to celebrate Pi(e) Day and would be a great addition at your Easter dessert table!  What's your favorite pie?  Remember to Comment for a Cause and be sure to check out all of these other great pies posted today to celebrate Pi Day!  Thanks to the Coleen, The Redhead Baker for hosting all of us:

• Beef Stew Pot Pie with Homemade Puff Pastry Topping by Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Brownie Mint Pie by Family Around The Table
• Chocolate Coconut Cream Pie by Strawberry Blondie Kitchen
• Chocolate Mint Pie by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart by The Redhead Baker
• Chocolate Velvet Pie with Meringue Crust by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Cinnamon Streusel Topped Carrot Pie by Cooking With Carlee
• Coconut Chess Pie by The Spiffy Cookie
• Crazy Easy No Bake Key Lime Pie by Jonesin' For Taste
• Easy Buttermilk Pie Recipe by West Via Midwest
• Easy Lemon Pie by Corn, Beans, Pigs & Kids
• Lamb, Basmati Rice, and Grape Leaf Pi(e) by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Mini Lemon Meringue Pies by Cookaholic Wife
• Mixed Berry Mini Pies by Bear & Bug Eats
• Old Fashioned Coconut Cream Pie by Everyday Eileen
• Shamrock Shake Pie by Kate's Recipe Box
• Smoked Salmon and Herb Pie by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Strawberry Lemonade Pie by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Strawberry Pie by Palatable Pastime
• Torta Pascualina (Spinach Ricotta Pie) by Caroline's Cooking
• Upside Down Apple Pie by Jolene's Recipe Journal

Pi{e} Day Link Up Party + Easy Sour Cream & Raisin Pie

Happy 3.14, also known as Pi Day, where everyone that loves pie (which includes me 😉) has an excuse to eat pie!  I love to not only eat pie, but also make pie.  Something about making the crust, rolling it out, making the filling, getting creative in the kitchen - making pie gives me a sense of accomplishment and happiness.

One of my go to pies in my recipe collection is my Easy Sour Cream & Raisin Pie.  It is a go to recipe because it is super simple and is a fast pie to make, as well as it's a favorite of both My Farmer and my Father-in-Law.  In fact my Father-in-Law has requested this pie from me for his birthday the last few years.

Easy Sour Cream & Raisin Pie

1 cup Flour
5 Tbsp Powdered Sugar
1/2 cup Butter, softened
Dash Salt
1 cup Raisins
2 tsp Cinnamon
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Sour Cream
1 - 3.4 oz box Instant Vanilla Pudding
1 1/2 cup Milk
1 - 8 oz container Whipped Topping

To start, make your crust by blending the flour, powdered sugar, butter and salt with a pastry blender and press into a 9" or 10" pie plate.  Bake for 10 minutes at 350°F.  Let the crust cool and begin to make your filling.

For the filling, start by boiling the raisins.  After the raisins have boiled for a minute, drain off the juice and add cinnamon, brown sugar and sour cream.  In a mixing bowl combine the vanilla pudding mix and milk.  Then stir in 2/3 cup whipped topping.  Add raisin mixture and combine.  Pour mixture into cooled pie crust and then top with the rest of the whipped topping.

Besides having a slice of pie today, I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate then having a Pi{e} Day Link Up Party.  I have partnered with my old Country Fair Blog Party Co-Hosts: Jan of The Tip Garden and Nicole of Tales of a Kansas Farm Mom to bring this link up to all of you today.  Feel free to link-up any and all of your pie recipes - sweet to savory, traditional to unique.  We want to see them all!

What's your favorite kind of pie?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thanksgiving Week & 4 Weeks Before Christmas - Pecan Pie & Holiday Check List

It's Thanksgiving Week!  Turkey, green bean casserole, pecan pie, family, Black Friday, shopping.  Those would all be words I'd use to describe this week.  It's a busy week, but a fun one too!  Each Monday during the 2015 Holiday Season I'm sharing a holiday recipe and my weekly check list.

I thought this week it'd be appropriate for me to share my family's  Pecan Pie recipe.  How much more Thanksgiving can you get than Pecan Pie?  Well, maybe turkey, but Pecan Pie is definitely the top dessert.  In fact, I took an unscientific poll on my Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids Facebook Page and my readers agreed.  Thanksgiving is the universal excuse to indulge in this rich, calorie-filled pie.  Now I've both made and tried different variation of the Pecan Pie - chocolate, whiskey, etc., but nothing beats the original with a lard crust!

Pecan Pie

9" Crust:

1/3 cup Lard

1 cup Flour

1/4 tsp Salt

2-3 T Cold Water

Filling: 

1 cup Corn Syrup

3 Eggs

1 cup Sugar

2 Tbsp Butter, melted

1 tsp Vanilla

1/8 tsp Salt

1 cup Pecans, chopped

Start by making your crust.  Cut the lard with the flour and salt until you get pea-sized dough.  Add 1 Tbsp of cold water at a time until the dough sticks together and you can form a ball with it.  Put the ball of pie dough in plastic wrap and flatten it.  Let it cool down in the refrigerator.

After it has cooled, roll the dough out large enough to fit your pie plate.  I love using my Tupperware Pie Mat to roll my dough on because it gives me an outline of a 9" pie crust on it.  Be sure to sprinkle both the mat and your rolling pin with flour, as well as the top of the dough to prevent sticking.  If your crust is too dry, keep a cup of cold water next to you as your roll out the dough so you can sprinkle water in trouble spots that are starting to crack.

Some of my staple pie making supplies
Pie Ring Shields, Lard, Wooden Rolling Pin, Tupperware Pie Mat

After you get the crust rolled out and laid into your pie plate, make a simple edge design with the top of your crust.  Usually I do the "dent" method using my thumb and bent index finger of my left hand, and dent the dough between the bent index finger of my right hand.  But you can also use a cute little cookie cutter like I did in the above picture to decorate the top of the crust.  I used a little leaf cutter; I thought it was a festive touch!

Next it is time to make the filling.  Mix all the ingredients together besides the pecans.  Once it is all incorporated, stir in the pecans and pour into your unbaked pie crust.

Bake your pie at 400 degrees Farenheit for 15 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 degrees for an additional 30-35 minutes.  Use a pie ring shield on top of your pie so the top of your crust doesn't burn, or put aluminum foil around the edge of the pie.  The pie is done when the filling looks solid.  Give your pie a little shake in the oven and if the center of the filling moves around a lot in needs some more time.

I hope you enjoy my Pecan Pie recipe as much as my family does!  Now this week isn't all about pie, but really, would that be that bad.  Besides making and prepping food for Thanksgiving this week, I'm also needing to finish making my shopping list for Black Friday and finalize our Christmas travel plans.  Be sure too see my complete check list for Thanksgiving Week and 4 Weeks Before Christmas.

And if you missed last week's Check List and Horchata Pumpkin Waffles Recipe, you better catch up on those items too.

What is your favorite dessert for Thanksgiving?  Are you a pecan pie fan too?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Easy as Pie

When the idea came about to have a "pie making day" to support the North Iowa Bloggers and friends cope with the loss of our friend and fellow blogger Amy, it was easy as pie to simply say "When".  I not only wanted to be there for my friends, but I feel that being in the kitchen, and baking in particular, is very therapeutic.  So last week myself and four other friends packed up our pie supplies and headed two hours south to Cristen Clark of Food and Swine's home for a day of laughter, fellowship and pie therapy.

Cristen with her award winning recipes

One of the best parts of our "Pie Day" was all the stories and laughter shared.  Cristen started things off by welcoming us to our home and breaking out her award winning secrets on good ol' notebook pages.  I love how real Cristen is and that she felt like she could just be herself around us.  One of Cristen's best quotes from the day was "At this point in my life, butter is where it's at."  I couldn't agree more!  Who doesn't love butter!

Jeni from Jeni Eats, Jessica from Belong Create,
Cristen from Food and Swine, Mary from A Natural Plus and
Shannon from The Field Position and Enchanted Acres preparing pie crusts

I loved the fellowship we shared around Cristen's kitchen island.  It was fun to exchange our own pie tips and baking stories with each other.  One of the best tips I learned from Cristen was to "perfume" your sugar with lemon zest for fruit pies.  We used the zest from half of a lemon and rubbed it with our sugar for our fillings.  The aroma and taste was amazing.  It gave the pies that added something!  It was also a lot of fun to be apart of both Jessica and Mary's first pie baking experience!

I'm an official Blue Ribbon Baker now!

And at the end of the day the sweet reward was being able to divulge in a little pie therapy.  I chose to make Cristen's two crust pear pie with a lattice top!  When initially talking to Cristen about our "Pie Day" she recommended that everyone choose to make either a berry or a pear pie.  I had never made a pear pie before and was very intrigued!  It is similar to an apple pie but has a slightly different texture and flavor.  Cristen actually may have made me a covert - I think I actually might prefer pear pie over apple!  But now only if I had a pear tree that produced like my apple...

Our finished pies!
Me, Shannon, Mary (with JP), Jeni and Jessica

Our "Pie Day" was a success and was exactly what we all needed.  Now I think we need to head down to Cristen's again for a bread class.  (She says that's what she loves to make the most.)  Do you have any pie tips?  What's your favorite flavor of pie?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Wordless Wednesday - Everything is Better Ala Mode

Everything is Better Ala Mode

Service with a smile from our church youth group at our
church's annual Ice Cream Social this past Sunday

This past Sunday was our church's annual Ice Cream Social.  This event is definitely a community effort!  Members of the church make homemade pie for the dinner, if you don't make pie then you bring browned hamburger for the beef burgers, a select group of ladies make the potato salad with the official church recipe and the youth group makes the ice cream.  So many people work together to make this event happen and I'm so proud to be apart of it.  I made an apple pie and a pecan pie for the social.  Overall, the best part of the Ice Cream Social, hands down, is picking out your slice of pie and getting homemade ice cream put on top of it - because everything is better ala mode!

My Favorite - Homemade Pecan Pie and Homemade Ice Cream

What is your favorite flavor of pie?  Be sure to comment here or join the discussion on my blog's Facebook page.  Mine is pecan, but I do have to say hearing other's favorites on Facebook such as apple, banana cream, peach and cherry, has made me decide all pie is delicious and that I just love pie!

Wordless Wednesday & Apple Pie Recipe

Sweet as Apple Pie

Mom's Pie Crust (Bev Krumm)

For 9" pie crust (double for apple pie)

1/3 cup Lard

1 cup Flour

1/3 tsp. Salt

2-3 Tbsp.  Cold Water

Cut lard with flour and salt into pea-sized dough, add 1 Tbsp. water at a time till form ball.  Flatten and roll on floured surface.

Mother's Old-Fashioned Apple Pie (Ideals Farmhouse Cookbook by Clarice L Moon, Copyright 1978)

4 to 5 cups Peeled and Sliced Tart Apples

1 1/2 cups Sugar

1/3 cup Flour

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 cup Water

1 Tbsp Butter

Prepare pie crust.  Roll out half and line pan.  Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon in a bowl; stir in water.  Add apples, mixing to coat thoroughly.  Pour into unbaked pie crust and dot with butter.  Roll out top crust; cut a design in the center to allow steam to escape.  Place top crust on pie, pressing around the edge to seal.  Brush pie crust with milk and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake in a 350 degree oven 45 to 60 minutes or until apples are tender and crust is browned.