pumpkin cream cheese pie

I'm about one pumpkin away from exploding, and you wouldn't know it, as I've posted nothing with pumpkin in it. That doesn't mean that pounds of pumpkin haven't traipsed their way through my door.

I had to revisit my favorites, pumpkin bread with pecan streusel and pumpkin whoopie pies. Then I had to make way for pies. I tried the standard. I wanted more. This recipe, found on foodnetwork.com, caught my eye. With its inclusion of a block of cream cheese, it's not quite a cheesecake, nor is it quite a custard.

vanishing act + crack pie

In the blink of an eye, a whole month vanishes, and I wonder what happened to anything and everything. Did I bake? Did I cook? Did I blog? What DID I do?

You must forgive my unintentional hiatus from blogging. I had good reason.

This Little Guy/Nephew visited us for a month. We ran circles around the kitchen, ventured into NYC, read books, resisted naps, and snacked a whole lot. I made a bunch of old favorites for him: rich yellow cupcakes, cornflake crunch cookies, NY Times chocolate chip cookies...

 all very well received. He also relished his role of Cookie Dough Taster.

I managed to try one new recipe. If you can only bake one recipe this month, I'd highly recommend this one— Crack Pie. My Son, 11, perked up his ears. "Crack?!?"

I, thinking how the heck do you know what crack is, instead said, "Yes, Son, it is THAT addictive."

brown butter maple pecan pie {sms}

First of all, don't laugh at my miniscule slice of pie.  I had to steal the piece from the now-not-so-whole pie, which was part of a music meeting's refreshments.

I was excited to bake the pecan pie, though I was initially suspicious of Melissa Murphy's addition of maple and honey— why mess with something that is great?  The variation was subtle and not cloying, in fact, the filling was less sweet (a good thing) than what I am used to.  I love the idea of browning the butter, which adds a depth of flavor to the filling. (I learned that step from The Pastor's Wife two years ago.)  

You can find the recipe on Jennifer's blog, Oh, Sweet Day.  Thanks, Jennifer, for picking such a great recipe! (The original recipe calls for chocolate chips- I omitted the chocolate.)

banana cream pie- {bwd}

With most sweet foods falling in his "take it or leave it" category, The Husband has a short list of desserts that he actually looks forward to eating. Banana Cream Pie is one of them. So when my turn came around to choose the Baking with Dorie recipe, I knew exactly which one to pick.

As usual, the pie crust presented issues for me. That said, I liked the texture (more short than flaky, and it remained crispy after two days in the refrigerator) and will definitely use it again.

north fork peach raspberry pie {sms}

Welcome to Sweet Melissa Sundays' Baked Good of the Week— North Fork Peach Raspberry Pie. What better choice for a summery dessert on the Fourth of July?

Luscious fruits in season.

{sms} strawberry rhubarb cobbler pie

Well this is certainly a first, having a cobbler in a pie.  I'm such a stickler for semantics, so I'm thinking, "Doesn't a cobbler necessitate NO BOTTOM CRUST?"  Looking into the definition clarifies it a bit: "a deep-dish fruit pie with a rich biscuit crust, usually only on top" (Random House Dictionary); "a deep-dish fruit pie with a thick top crust" (American Heritage Dictionary); "A baked, deep-dish fruit dessert topped with a thick biscuit crust sprinkled with sugar" (The Food Lover's Companion)  The running themes are deep-dish and thick top.  I have to enlarge my personal vision of a cobbler and give it a bottom. I've also never baked with rhubarb before so I'm quite excited to see how it turns out.

I belatedly remembered that I don't have a 2-inch dough cutter (I made biscuits once, like maybe 15 years ago?  And probably used a makeshift upside down tumbler.)  I used a cookie cutter with pretty fluted edges, but which only allowed for a depth of 1/2-inch.  Oh well, no thick top.

The pie filling came together very easily, even more so with the help of a sous chef, aka The Daughter.  She cut the strawberries.

The Family was over (three brothers, SIL, and father) so I could get some honest feedback about the cobbler pie. Brother #3 managed, in-between bites, to mumble a few times, "This is REALLY good." Brother #1, having declared earlier in the day that he loved SR Pies, gave it two thumbs up.  The Husband decided this was on his shortlist of Top Dessert.

The SIL gave me constructive feedback.  The pie filling was a bit sweet (next time I'll cut out 1/4 cup sugar) and my biscuits were dry. The fact that they started on the dry side (did you see how crumbly my dough was??) and thinner (have you ever made a 1/2-inch biscuit?) was a handicap.

I also had serious issues with the filling bubbling over and in between the crust and the pie plate.  Anyone have a solution how to solve it so that the pie can be cut properly?  That was a definite mess.  Regardless, I need to get myself a proper dough cutter and learn to make proper biscuits now, because I will definitely be making this winner of a recipe again.

Many thanks to Tracey at tracey's culinary adventures for choosing this recipe, and check out the other Cobbler Makers at Sweet Melissa Sundays.