braided crust custard pie

Pi Day is coming up, so I thought I'd share the pie that I made for Pi Day last year! In case you don't know what Pi Day is, it's celebrated on March 14th around the world because Pi (the Greek letter “π”), which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, is approximately 3.14159. Thus 3/14!

Anyway, back to my pie! I was craving custard pie, which I remember my mom making a lot when I was a kid, but nowadays the only time I have custard pie is when we're visiting my husband's family in Hawaii. (Liliha Bakery and Kaneohe Bakery both make a delicious custard pie, by the way!) So I decided to make my own.

After checking out several recipes, I decided to go with this one, minus the nutmeg (because the custard pies that my mom used to make didn't have it, and either do the ones in Hawaii!)

For the crust, most custard pie recipes that I found suggested using the frozen store-bought kind, but I decided to go with my my favorite all-butter recipe instead (which you can find in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book!). Also, to make it pretty I braided a few strips pie crust and attached it to the rim of my pie using a bit of egg wash.

Then I poured in my filling (which tastes like melted ice cream, by the way). Mmmmm ...

And then I baked it at 400F until the crust was golden brown and the filling was just a bit jiggly.

Just so you know, if you make this pie, your entire house will smell like heaven.

Next time I'll be sure to take the time to skim off the extra bubbles in the filling before baking, just so the top has a smoother finish. But even despite the bubbles, this pie was delicious!

Happy Pi Day!

mini blueberry cheesecake tarts

I was so enamored with the little chocolate cookie crusts from my previous post, I made them again for my second day of Thanksgiving "Harvest Potluck" at my kids' school last year. (The first day was for my oldest son, the second day was for my daughter, as they have their potlucks on different days). This time, instead of using the cookie crusts for mini chocolate cream pies, I turned them into mini blueberry cheesecake tarts! 

You can check out my previous post on how I made the cookie crusts, but for this filling I made a no-bake cheesecake type of filling. I've made it before for large tarts (such as this flag tart and this father's day tart), and the filling worked just as well for mini tarts. (You can find the recipe at Martha Stewart's website.)

After using a disposable pastry bag to pipe the filling into each cookie crust, I topped them with fresh blueberries. So simple and easy!

The final step was a light dusting of powdered sugar.

This cookie crust and filling combo is so versatile, you could top them with any fresh fruit, or even a drizzle of salted caramel or chocolate ganache instead of fruit would be delicious!

These little tarts are the perfect portable dessert for potlucks or picnis, and elegant enough to serve at dinner parties as well! Enjoy!

mini chocolate cream tarts

Every year before Thanksgiving, my kids' school has a "Harvest Potluck" to celebrate, where parents sign up to bring food and desserts and have a nice luncheon with their kids. It's a really nice event and I love going every year! Last year, I signed up to make dessert, and decided that I wanted to make little mini chocolate cream tarts.

 

Upon searching for mini chocolate cream pie recipes, I ended up using this one at Flour Arrangements and thought they were so darn cute! I loved the scalloped shape of the mini pie crusts! They're made by rolling out what is essentially a chocolate sugar cookie dough, and then using a flower shaped cookie cutter to cut out the shapes, before fitting them into a cupcake tin to bake.

Two things that I learned while making these - a) the chocolate sugar cookie dough was much to wet for me to roll out, so I ended up adding more flour. But the end result was a not-so-tender crust, and lacked the chocolate flavor that I was craving, so next time I think I'll try using Thomas Keller's homemade oreo (TKO) cookie dough recipe. And, b) it's easiest to roll out the cookie dough while the dough is sandwiched between two sheets of parchment paper, otherwise you will need to add flour to the rolling pin and this will leave white splotches all over your beautiful dark brown cookie crusts!

After the cookie crusts were baked and cooled, I filled them with the chocolate cream (essentially a chocolate pudding). Again, I thought the chocolate cream lacked the chocolate "punch" that I was craving, so next time I'll go back to my dark chocolate pudding recipe instead.

After letting the chocolate pudding set in the fridge, I piped little dollops of freshly whipped cream on top, in a cute little pattern to resemble the inside of a flower.

And finally, I dusted each tart with a rich unsweetened cocoa powder.

I thought they turned out super cute!

Even though I thought these could have used a more chocolatey crust and filling, they were a hit at the potluck!

These little treats are perfect for any potluck, or even Thanksgiving dessert itself! Enjoy!

herringbone lattice apple pie

When I first saw this herringbone lattice pie on Hummingbird High's Instagram feed, I was smitten. It was SO BEAUTIFUL!!! And I wanted to make it! And after reading her blog post, I found the tutorial at Serious Eats. She even has a video that is super helpful in learning how to "weave" the herringbone design! 

For the pie crust, she used a pasta machine to get perfectly sized strips of pie crust dough, but I just rolled it out with a rolling pin until it was about 1/8 inch thick, and then used two chopsticks (that I taped together) as a guide for my pastry wheel to cut the strips. (You could also use a pizza cutter, or even a knife!).

Also, I used my favorite pie crust recipe (which you can find in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), but you could use her recipe as well, as it is pretty close to the recipe in the book anyway!

The first time that I attempted this, I found the first half of the "weaving" of the pie crust strips pretty easy, but then got super confused on the second half (it probably didn't help that I was drinking wine while making my pie!), but I thought it still turned out pretty cool anyway. :)

It also helps to chill the strips when they start to get soft, but we were having a BBQ and I was in a rush so I was being impatient and only chilled them before starting.

For the filling I also used my apple pie recipe from the book. Before baking, I brushed the top of the pie with egg wash and sprinkled on some sanding sugar.

(Just so you know, the whole house will smell delicious while this pie is baking in the oven.)

I attempted to make this pie again a few weeks later, and this time I was more diligent about chilling the strips when they started to become soft.

Again, the first half of the weaving went great! But I got confused again during the second half. (I need more practice!)

The chilling seemed to help a lot this time, as the finished lattice crust looked much more evenly woven. (And it even seemed puffier this time!)

I also made this pie a third time, but forgot to take pictures of it so I can't say if it came out better or not. But I will say that practicing helps, although I think I'll still need to make this a few more times before I feel like I can make it without the tutorial! :)

Happy Baking!

red white and blue star pie for july fourth

Last year for Fourth of July, my youngest son Micah made this adorable art project at preschool. It was so simple, just a white paper plate with blue and red stars pasted on it, but I just loved his arrangement of the stars and it inspired me to make a pie that looked just like it!

I started by making my all-butter pie crust (recipe in my book, The Hello Kitty Baking Book), which I divided in half, shaped into discs, wrapped in plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge. After about 30 minutes, I rolled out my first disk (to about 1/8 inch thick) and fitted it into my pie plate. Then I mixed my filling (frozen mixed berries, sugar, flour, and salt) and added it on top of the bottom crust.



With the second disk of pie dough, I also rolled it out to 1/8 inch thick, but this time used various sized star cookie cutters to cut out shapes, which I then arranged on the top of the pie (I actually tried to match Micah's placement of stars for this!)

Then I brushed it with egg wash, sprinkled on some sanding sugar, and baked it at 425F for 15 minutes, after which I turned it down to 350F and baked it for another 45-50 minutes.

I baked the pie in the afternoon before dinner, and by the time we were done with dinner the pie had cooled enough to be sliced. Even then the filling was a bit too loose, so next time I'd probably add a little more flour to the filling. (Although I can't remember how much flour I used, so next time I'll probably have to actually follow a recipe!)

Here are my three loves all decked out in their Fourth of July clothes (purchased by Grandma!)

And here they are with Grandma and Grandpa, who were visiting us all the way from Hawaii.

On a side note, we also had red white and blue toast for breakfast! Cream cheese toasts (I also tried using fresh ricotta, but we all preferred the cream cheese), decorated with raspberry jam, blueberries, and sliced bananas. Delicious!

Happy Fourth of July!