ANSWERS : Living

I'm a big fan of pie. Generally fruit pies are my favorite: I love fresh raspberry pie, and poached pear pie is downright classy.

Of course, a friend just brought chocolate pecan pie to dinner on Saturday, served warm with vanilla ice cream. Mmmm. I'm not sure there's such thing as a bad pie.

What's your favorite? And can I get the recipe? ;)

Comments

[manaila1]

I'll tell you, we make some fabulous pies from the berries in our field and the fruit trees in our back yard. What we make depends on what is in season that day, which varies widely from year to year. Cherry pie is best with four cups cherry (makes a big pie), one cup sugar (more or less depending on the tartness of your cherries, but tart cherries make better pies than sweet ones), four tablespoons of corn starch, a little bit of lemon juice, a little bit of almond extract and about an ounce of brandy or whatever other liquor you have on hand. If you plan on preparing and then freezing your pie filling, don't add the extract or liquor until you're ready to bake because it won't freeze and you'll have a huge mess when your bags start leaking. Mixed berry pie is also fabulous. I like it best when the blueberries, huckleberries, black raspberries and a handful of red raspberries are all ripe at the same time. Throw them together coated with sugar, a small amount of lemon juice and some tapioca, and they make a fabulous pie. One year I had winter pears, blueberries and elderberries ripe, so I cubed the pears and threw them in with the berries and prepared it like a basic berry pie. It was pretty darn good, I might say. I called it Blue-Elder-Pearry Pie.

[seabananers]

pie flavor

[NobodyInParticular]

A Southern pecan pie with a Graham cracker or otherwise sweet crust is the best. This Instructables writer seems to agree.

[SFHandyman]

I love pecan pie. Maybe because I grew up in the South. The recipe on the back of Caro Syrup is good. Just buy fresh pecans, and use good vanilla. I make my crust with butter flavor crisco. Keep it really cold, and be careful not to mix it completely into the flour. I put the crisco in the freezer the night before and then cut it into pea sized cubes. "Cut it" into your flour. Use two knives, or a pastry blender - the thing with 5 or 6 semicircular wires mounted on a handle. You want pea sized globs of fat all through your dough. If you mix your fat (butter, lard, or crisco) completely into flour, you get cardboard. Put the dough into the freezer after you cut the fat into it, and let it stay in there for an hour, or two, before you roll it out. Put your rolling pin in there too. If you mess with your dough too much while rolling it out, put it back into the freezer to cool down before you try to roll it out again. If you leave pea sized globs of fat all through it you get flaky goodness. Drop a scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream on a hot slice of pecan pie. Heaven. But don't weigh yourself the next morning. I always wondered how they got the pecans perfectly arranged on the top of the pie. I was pleased to find out you don't have to arrange them, you just mix them in with the filling and they rise to the top while baking.

[spdavies]

Thanks for all the tips and for being so specific in your explanations - I'm a "learning" cook and it's surprising how often recipes say things like "cut the shortening in" without really explaining what that means and why you do it. By the by, I too am a fan of Southern Pecan Pie and since I've left the South find that most pecan pies are what I would call "goopy sweet" and lack the smoothness and fullness of the pies I remember from back when. I don't know what the difference is but I'm going to try to find out how to make the old-fashioned kind.

[canida]

Pecan pies are good, but I was surprised how much a bit of chocolate perked up the old standard. And definitely good with vanilla ice cream!

[Tobita]

Salmon pie, you fill a pie crust with mashed potatoes, flaked salmon (baked before hand), onions, garlic, dried pepper flakes, and parsley, you mix all the ingredients then plop it in the crust and bake it in the oven until the crust i well done. :D

[ladycroft108]

 That sounds really good, I'll have to try sometime! Kinda like shepherd's pie with salmon. 

[Tobita]

Oh, also, tourtière, cubes of beef, chicken, pork, game, and potatoes, you garnish with salt and pepper and other stuff (not too familiar with this recipe, my grandmom makes it (my mom's version ain't so tasty =-/)) in a deep dish pie and cook in the oven until the filling is well done :D

[wakojako]

sheapheards pie encased in pastry with sliced sausage on top

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

cherry/apple +vanilla ice cream = YUM

[capt. caveman]

pumpkin cheesecake. yum!

[shesparticular]

I'd have to go with cherry, apple, or pecan - and when they're little they're even better!

[joeofloath]

I make a killer steak and ale pie. I put 4lb of steak in the last one I made.

[sharlston]

meat and potato is the best by a mile but plain quiche is nice too

[zascecs]

The best pie is pi, obviously; you can eat it forever since it's everlasting, and it is very good too.

[scoochmaroo]

Coconut cream pie! I love it even from greasy spoons and all night diners!

[mg0930mg]

yum...

[PKTraceur]

Quiche. Simply said. However, cherry pie, strawberry pie, chocolate pudding pie, oreo pie.... :0 YUM -PKT

[gmjhowe]

It has to be, Cheese and Potato Pie. NOM NOM NOM. (homemade of course)

[canida]

You weird Brits and your savory pies! Sure, they're good, but pies should be dessert. ;)

[Lftndbt]

Ah hem!! Deserts you say!! PppfftttT!! 1. Corn Beef pie 2. Steak 'n' kidney pie 3. Beef and potatoe pie All brilliant on a cold winters afternoon. Speaking of which, I must publish my "How to Eat a Beef Pie- Like an Australian" I'ble. A lesson that must be learnt for Down Under survival. It's all we eat. LoL

[gmjhowe]

I agree, desserts are better. But, really, you need to try one. Until you have, you can keep your 'racist' remarks to yourself! :P Plus, savoury pies, make a 3 course pie meal possible, three times the pie goodness. Even you crazy merry cans should see how good a thing that is.

[hawkfrost64]

3 course meal? maybe steak pie for dinner, peach for dessert, but 3 course? 

[scoochmaroo]

Three Course pie meal??? Tell me tell me! Could you stretch it to five? I bet you could!

[gmjhowe]

Well, with your pie pops to go with coffee, that would add an extra, perhaps an 'after eight' mint edition? and could one have a sort of fruit pie for a starter?

[scoochmaroo]

I love chocolate mint pie. Tiny ones would be great with coffee. Hm. I'm envisioning a pie feast now. What's a good salad pie? Fruit pie of course, Savory pie, Fish pie (gotta have a fish course) Cheese pie (gotta have a cheese course) Sweet pie for dessert After dinner mint pie pop/ pielette Quiche! Of course - that's a pie too! Cheesecake's a pie. . . Sherbet pie to clean the palette between courses. I'm liking the sound of this.

[hawkfrost64]

instead of pi day, why not pie day, or better yet pie week! 

[gmjhowe]

A recent favourite of mine is Butter Pie.

[scoochmaroo]

Love it already. Just made me think of Butter Chicken, which would also be good in a pie.

[gmjhowe]

Here is, another choice, Chicken and potato pie! With lashings of home made gravy.

[mg0930mg]

Basically a chicken pot pie, in the U.S., I'm guessing...

[Sandisk1duo]

Rhubarb pie!

[sweetpeapete]

Don't listen to critics. The only pie better than rhubarb is lemon merangue. Very very close, though. The key to any pie that is worth eating is the crust. The crust MUST be made from scratch. The shortening (or for a truly unreal crust, lard) must be cut in properly so that when the crust is rolled out the fat and the flour are layered. This gives you that flaky, rich, taste. Of course the filling must also be made with fresh, natural ingredients. Whole lemons, squeezed. Oh, yeah, although I am a big fan of whole wheat, for a pie crust use the best, most fresh, WHITE flour you can get. I'll send a recipe sure to please. Rhubarb? Fresh picked is best. Leave out the strawberries! MMMMMM! Pie.

[canida]

While I'm a huge fan of rhubarb, I think it does better in a crumble or cooked down as sauce rather than in a traditional two-crust pie. Something about the creamy texture you get from good rhubarb really needs a "mix in every bite" serving style.

[Tobita]

I prefer rhubarb raw with salt, best way to go in my opinion, it's like celery with a nice bite to it.

[Joe Martin]

I agree with you there, It should be a law that rhuburb should only be used in crumble's with custard. Oh and chuck some oats on with the crumble mixture, Oh excuse me I've GOT to go and make some now!

[sweetpeapete]

Joe and canida, you have obviously never had a properly made rhubarb pie. Sublime, delectable, heavenly. As I'm sure you know, commercial pies have a 90% or more chance of being sub-sub-standard. Even awful. A lemon merangue pie filling, for example, should be runny, not stiff. It MUST be made with fresh squeezed lemon juice. The merangue should be whipped egg whites. The egg yolks must go in the filling. A rhubarb pie must be made with a crust of cut in shortening (lard), not some mass produced goo. The rhubarb should be fresh picked and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces. CUT NO CORNERS to get the BEST pie! Oh, man. Pie. Oh, yes, if a pie needs ice cream, it ain't the BEST pie. The BEST pie stands alone. (No knocks on ice-cream, tho.)

[Joe Martin]

It's a preference, That's yours. I don't eat pies unless there home made but there's something about the wonderful stringy, sweet taste and texture of rhubarb which complements a crumble topping perfectly, And then a dollop of nice yellow custard makes it complete. I find the pastry of a pie is far to much for something like rhubarb and makes the dish very heavy, However apples and pastry are one of my favourites.

[sweetpeapete]

Of course you are 100% correct. It is all a matter of taste. I would say tho that your rhubarb crumble sounds terrific. If I had most of these delectables before me I'd want to eat 'em all! I'm not fussy. cc canida ;-)

[Sandisk1duo]

cooking is an art form...

and while painting, there is no proper way to paint, it's all about what you're in to^opinion!

[Wafflicious]

Only with strawberries too though

[Lego man]

French silk pie. Period. Best thing ever

[Wafflicious]

Prob key lime ( is that how you spell it?) if that counts!

[canida]

I love Key Lime pie! That's a good suggestion - makes me think of summer, so now might be a good time to make it. ;)

[Wafflicious]

Thanks! I'm sorry I didn't know the recipe, do you? That would be great!

[Kiteman]

Just about anything with shortcrust pastry! Blackcurrant, steak-and-ale, apple, meat-and-potato...

[canida]

Again, you Brits with your weird savory pies! Fruit, on the other hand - that's proper tasty pie. Any pie that's good served with ice cream will make me happy. ;)

[Kiteman]

What's weird about savoury pies?

They're a tradition older than America.

[Joe Martin]

Banoffee pie

• A crushed digestive biscuit base mixed with melted butter, this is pressed down into the bottom of a deep dish.
• Slice bananas to cover this base.
• Now we use something called "caramel" you can buy it ready made in tins or make your own by boiling tins of sweetened condensed milk, once cool spread this until the bananas are covered.
• Now cover the tip with whipped cream (NOT from a can :P) and grate chocolate on the top.
  

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

[canida]

Sounds good, but I suspect a layer of some sort of pudding between the caramel would really kick it up. And hm, now you've got me thinking of using a layer of cajeta over the bananas, adding a layer of Mexican-style cinnamon and hot pepper-spiced chocolate pudding, covering with whipped cream and more spices with the grated chocolate.

[Joe Martin]

I've seen some people use banana yoghurt for this, But personally it's sex on a plate with out the extras so god only knows what it would be like with them! I can see your going to have fun experimenting!!

[jessyratfink]

Two days ago I made a mango pie. I'd never heard of it. I used two mangos, one really ripe, and one not so much, about 1/2 cup of sugar and some whole wheat flour. Next time I think I might add a bit of cornstarch because it got a tad runny. It was delicious though! The first pie I've ever made myself!

[canida]

I usually find mangos tastier raw than cooked; they lose some of that acidic kick, and taste more like peaches. Your first pie, really? Make more! Pie is good.

[jessyratfink]

I have been making more! It's just so easy. Since then I've made apple, another mango, and a really delicious pear and cardamom one. :D

[Wafflicious]

that looks a bit chewy :0

[jessyratfink]

Hahaha, well, that's definitely not pie. Confusing. Disregard that. :P

[Joe Martin]

That looks like a lovely pie XD

[jessyratfink]

Oh yes, very colorful and orderly.

[Gjdj3]

Grasshopper Pie! I love the stuff. For pi day in math class my entire class is bringing in pie and grasshopper pie is what I'm bringing.

Here's a recipe.

[canida]

While I'm sure it's good, the combination of Marshmallow fluff with that much food coloring and extract leaves me a bit scared. ;)

[ChrysN]

Banana cream pie is my favorite, yum (sorry no recipe.) My mom always makes this strawberry pie that's great in the summer.

[canida]

That sounds good, especially in summer! I've had a similar version, but they just cut to the chase and used heavy cream instead of melting ice cream into the gelatin.

[zs]

I agree with banana creme pie or, peanut butter pie are the best