divian l conner: pie

Super Easy Peach & Apple Butter Hand Pies

9:51 AM

I always tell myself I should do more baking. When I was growing up, my mom baked a cake or something each week. Seriously, my mom is my inspiration. You know how they always tell you that you come to appreciate things from your youth once you get older...it is true. As a mama myself now I realize just how important those little things were that my mom did for us...like her baking us something every single week.

My kids love peaches. While I don't usually cook with canned or frozen goods these days, we keep non-perishables in our pantry in case of emergencies or for those lazy days when I do not feel like doing much. We have a ton of canned peaches and I was a bit tired of making only peach cobbler so I thought it would be awesome to find another pie idea for my bajillion cans.

And thus peach and apple butter handpies were born. Dude. These are so easy. You only need three things: pie dough/pastry dough, apple butter and peaches. You do not need sugar, vanilla or anything extra. The apple butter adds in the perfect touch of cinnamon and the peaches combined brings about the perfect sweetness. And you don't have to do any cooking of the fruit before hand either! Perfection, yes!

You will need:
Roll out pie dough or pastry dough
Kyvan Apple Butter
Canned Peaches in heavy syrup

Drain syrup from the peaches, cut into smaller cubes and pour peaches into a bowl. Mix in 4 tablespoons of apple butter and mix.

Roll out dough and cut out 4 inch circles. Scoop 1-1 1/2 spoonfuls of peach and apple butter mix into middle of dough circles. Fold over one side of the circle and use a fork to crimp the edges. Use a knife and cut small vent lines in the top of the handpie.

Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with ice cream, a dollop of whipped cream or with a simple powdered sugar icing drizzle.

blackberry

Blackberry Pie

8:11 PM

I remember growing up, and picking wild blackberries in the woods surrounding our house. We would venture off into the woods and battle the many thorns to come home with bowls of berries. Back then, we were fans of anything salty or sour so we would sprinkle our berries with salt. Oh the good ole days.

Blackberry cobbler/pie is one of my all time favorite desserts. I love these berries. I love the gooey filling in the cobbler and the pies. I love it. I am not a fan of cooked or baked fruit but when it comes to blackberry, oh my, everything goes out the window

Filling

2-3 cups blackberries, cleaned
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Juice of half a lemon
1½ cup water

In a pot, bring the ingredients to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Reduce heat to low and stir. Cook for 5 more minutes and remove from heat. The mixture should be thick when cooled.

Pie Crust via Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water

Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.

Coat your pie pan with the pie crust, trim edges. Fill with your filling and use remaining pie dough to cover or decorate your pie as you wish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes until top is golden brown. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, or ice cream and fresh blackberries.

christmas

Chocolate Pecan Pie

4:14 PM

Here in the South during the holidays there are certain desserts that you just know will be at almost every family dinner. One of them is the must have, pecan pie.

Pecan trees are a'plenty here and while some make their way through heavily leaved yards and gather them, most of us resort to the grocery store for a bag or two of super expensive pecans already de-shelled.

buttermilk

Southern Buttermilk Pie

9:16 PM

Growing up, my mom baked a lot. We were your typical Southern family, eating traditional Southern meals and desserts reflected our roots. My mom did what you would find at nearly every family reunion or potluck here in Mississippi: red velvet cake, pineapple upside down cake, brownies, sweet potato pie and pecan pies. My mom made it all....one thing she never did make was the one pie I absolutely loved: Buttermilk. The name can be different depending on who you ask, Chess Pie, Egg Pie, Custard or Buttermilk Pie. I think of Chess Pie as having coconut, so Buttermilk is what I call it. And boy oh boy is it good. Golden custardy, buttery, sugary goodness. Seriously, the best. pie. ever.

Now that I am older, I am wanting to try more traditional recipes....things that I just thought would be so complicated and guess what? They really aint that hard. Why did I not try this sooner!? For Father's Day and to celebrate my sister's birthday, I finally made a Buttermilk Pie. I had settled on making a Red Velvet cake when I started thinking....summer makes me think of pies. And why not make something I have not ever tried to make and had not had in FOREVER.

I found a super easy and simple recipe over at Add A Pinch. Seriously? Could it be any easier? It was a hit! I left out the lemon juice and zest because the Buttermilk pies I always had did not have a lemon taste to them and I wanted something that reminded me of my childhood and the only pie I would eat.

I started with the crust. I have not tackled homemade pie dough yet and since I was in a time crunch, today was just not the day to start. I used store bought refrigerated dough.

I added a braid to the edge of one of the pies. You do this by cutting the dough into strips and then braiding. Just like you do hair.

Coat your pie edge with an egg wash (one egg white and 3 tbsp of water mixed) and then add your braids.

Press where the braids meet and coat with egg wash.

I love this technique. Using a spoon upside down, press the top of the spoon to make a decorative pattern around the edges of your pie crust.

Add all of your ingredients to a mixing bowl and mix well. Make sure you melt your butter (which I did not do on the first pie) because if not, the pie filling looks like this....still bakes perfectly fine, but um, yeah, not too cute unbaked.

Melt your butter!

Ahhhhhh. There we go. Much better.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees F for 40-50 minutes until top is brown. When you remove it, the pie will be jiggly like jello, don't worry, it will settle as it cools. Allow to completely cool before slicing and then enjoy the deliciousness that is Buttermilk pie. Oh yeah!

beef

Shepherd's Pie

10:47 PM

I remember when I was in school, there were two days kids went absolutely crazy for during lunch....chicken nugget day and shepherd pie day. Although the latter did not have the same you-are-getting-detention-and-demerits-for-acting-a-plum-fool, shepherd's pie day was one day that we knew we would get some goodness. No microwaved cardboard tasting pizza. No sir.

Growing up in the south, shepherd's pie is one of those dishes you know you love and as easy as it is, not that many people make it. It is one of those enigmas like devilled eggs....people can make them, but they only do on special occasions. I have no idea why. I think it is a great meal when paired with a nice salad. YUM!

You will need:

12 potatoes (skinned and cut into quarters)

2 Maggi or chicken bouillon cubes

1 can of Peas

1 can of Corn

1 can of Carrots

Brown Gravy (recipe follows)

5 lbs of ground beef

Shredded cheese

In a skillet brown your ground beef with a little salt and pepper.

Drain the grease/fat and add your corn, peas and carrots.

Mix well.

For gravy ( from cooks.com)

2 tbsp. butter

1 c. canned beef bouillon

2 tbsp. flour

Dash salt and pepper

In small saucepan melt butter and stir in flour. Keep stirring until blended well. Add bouillon and stir until gravy reaches boiling point. Continue to stir until smooth and it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over meat or potatoes. Makes 1 cup.

Mix gravy into ground beef mixture. Set aside

(I add gravy because it adds a bit of moisture to a dish that can easily dry out when in the oven.)

For potatoes:

Peel and cut potatoes into small pieces. While cutting, place cut potatoes into a bowl of cold water. This will help keep them from turning brown. Rinse the water off of the potatoes several times to make sure they are clean.

Place into large pot of water, add maggi or chicken bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Boil for about 20 minutes and reduce heat. Cook for about 30 more minutes. Drain half of the broth and reserve the other half.