The best kind of pie is one that I'm eating.
There are two kinds of people in the world: pie people and cake people. I am one of the latter. Josh is one of the former. They do say that opposites attract. Anyway, I have not done much pie-making in my life (though I occasionally make things for pi). I chalk this up to two things: one, my status as a “cake person,” and two, the cancellation of ABC’s “Pushing Daisies,” which deprived me of my inspiration to produce top-quality pies (if you watched the show, you’d understand).
However, when Jen Haines of A2EatWrite fame—and a fellow member of the illustrious Michigan Lady Food Bloggers Group–sent out a message about needing pie donations for a pie-sale fundraiser for Ann Arbor’s Community High, I figured…this is a good excuse to try out some pie recipes. I sifted through my giant Evernote recipe file (701 recipes now) and my Stumble Upon favorites for a couple suitable recipes. I ended up decided on a chocolate chip cookie pie from Bakerella and–at Josh’s request–a variation of a pumpkin pie with streusel topping, recipe below. As I am not a fan of what I consider to essentially be a “squash pie,” I had to rely on the kindness opinions of strangers people I’ve known for years. They said, “Om nom nom…yummy.” That’s a paraphrase. There were actually five more noms than that.
In the interest of full disclosure, I thought I would use this opportunity to begin learning how to make pie crust. Like from scratch, not from the Pillsbury box. That didn’t happen though. Between work, lack of sleep, 3 pies to make and a feast to prepare for the next day, I ran out of time and energy. Oh, oh…and the fact that since we moved, I have not been able to find my measuring spoons, rolling pin or various other baking necessities. So…yes. I cheated on the crust. But I made up for it with this witty blog post…right?
Pumpkin Streusel Pie
from MyRecipes.com
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
- 1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
- 2 large eggs, beaten to blend
- 10-inch pie pastry for a single-crust pie
- Walnut streusel (recipe below)
2. Pour mixture into unbaked 10-inch pie pastry in pan. Sprinkle walnut streusel evenly over filling.
3. Bake on the bottom rack until a knife inserted in center comes out clean, 60 to 65 minutes.
4. Set on a rack until cool to touch, about 2 hours. Cut into wedges.
For streusel:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1/8 lb.) butter
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
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I made a chocolate chip pie for that event, too! And I didn’t make the connection that the the Jen I was delivering it to was a2eatwrite. She showed me all the pies that had arrived before mine, and yours look yummy indeed. I’m not a big fan of pumpkin pie, but two people brought sweet potato pies to our Pi Day party and they weren’t bad, so maybe now I’ll have to try pumpkin pie again.
By the way, I recently posted the pie crust recipe I use. It’s not really all that hard, although one of the keys is keeping the ingredients cold. Supposedly another is not handling the dough too much, although I’ve never seen an explanation of what is “too much.” http://jonskifarms.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/pie-day-year-2/