pie

Winter Pear Streusel Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

December 20, 2017 by Elizabeth Leave a Comment

I am about to reveal something that I rarely talk about. I am not a dessert person. I know, I know. When I tell people, they act like I’m crazy… I didn’t grow up eating many sweets and pretty much cut them out entirely as an adult. I could live without cake. Ice cream? Meh. Cookies, okay, sometimes I like cookies. But PIE? I ALWAYS love pie. I feel like it’s fruit so it’s healthy, right? I think it’s because fruit pies are subtly sweet, which is definitely my thing. And when you add a salted caramel drizzle to my pie, I’m yours. Salty and sweet.

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Five Ingredient Key Lime Pie

March 29, 2017 by Elizabeth Leave a Comment

Let’s fast forward to summer. There’s something so smooth and delicious about Key Lime Pie. It’s tart and sweet, and who knew it only has a short list of ingredients? I will not judge you if you use regular limes either. Also because it took me a million years to juice a whole bag of key limes. But that little extra flavor is worth it. I will consider it my workout for the day.

My friend Allison told me that she used Biscoff cookies for her pie crust once, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I had to try it! Buh-bye lame graham cracker crust!

The secret ingredient to everything is cinnamon. That’s why these cookies are so incredible. They’re sort of like a combination of a ginger snap and a graham cracker. They also make it in cookie butter form… So beware. I had a short obsession with this stuff.

FIVE INGREDIENT KEY LIME PIE RECIPE

Ingredients:

1 package of Biscoff cookies

5 tbsp butter, melted

1 lb of key limes

3 egg yolks

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Zest the key limes until you have 1 tbsp zest. Then juice the key limes. This should yield 1/2 cup lime juice. In a mixing bowl, mix together the juice, zest and egg yolks with an electric mixer. Add the sweetened condensed milk and mix until totally combined.

In a food processor, add 3/4 package of Biscoff cookies. Pulse until you have just crumbs. Pour out the crumbs into a bowl and add the melted butter. Mix with a fork. Press the mixture into a pie pan using a fork. Then press firmly with your hands. You can halve the remaining cookies and press into the edges of the crust for decoration if you like.

Bake the pie crust for 5 minutes. Remove from oven to cool. Cool completely. Add the pie filling to the crust and bake for 15 minutes until the pie is set. It will be a bit wiggly. Cool completely. Place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. Serve cold.

Betty’s Chess Pie

February 21, 2017 by Elizabeth 5 Comments

One of my favorite things about cooking is the nostalgia of it. To this day, when I smell chicken soup I think of my grandmother’s house, which always smelled like bay leaves. Or when I am slicing an apple, I think of my other Grandmother, who used to have me over after school for an “apple party,” AKA, a sliced apple while we sit on the couch and talk. Aren’t grandmothers the best?!

My friend Allison shared this recipe for Chess Pie that her Granny, Betty Coles, used to make, and I love the simplicity of it. There are no frills, just lots of sugar and butter, the key ingredients to make literally anything good. Allison lives at Granny’s old house, now that Granny’s gone, and it’s full of the most beautiful dishes and little figurines, vining plants, and a garden full of daffodils. Her uncle says he likes to water the plants because it helps him to remember Betty.

Betty was a home economics teacher with a bossy personality. She shared her home with everyone, teaching her grandchildren how to cook and treating them like her own children. Betty, the beautiful soul that she is, shared her home every Valentines Day for a dinner party, inviting all her friends. This is a lady who knew how to entertain!

So of course this recipe was perfect. I was so worried it wouldn’t set, but Betty knows best. This is the easiest pie you’ll ever make. And if you let it cool before slicing, you’ll look like a star at your next dinner party. Fun fact, the recipe was also published in Western Kentucky University’s (my alma mater) Home Ec cookbook.

Just look at all her beautiful things! The woman had some serious taste!

We spent an afternoon looking through all her handwritten recipe cards and photos of Granny. We drank tea out of the most gorgeous vintage collectible teacups.

The photo below is Granny holding a whisk and scolding her husband Jim. I love it!!!

We took a selfie, and then we found the picture below which taken in the very same mirror! I had to post it.

After we were done we miiiight have had a tea party. I didn’t want all the fresh cut daffodils to go to waste. Isn’t that cup the sweetest? I need a whole collection of those! Also note the tiny swan figurines.

BETTY’S CHESS PIE RECIPE

makes 1 pie

Ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter melted

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 Tbsp corn meal

1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs

1 store bought pie crust

Directions:

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Let the melted butter cool slightly after melting(so you don’t cook the eggs). Once cool whisk the butter, sugar, corn meal, vinegar, vanilla into the eggs. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake at 350 for about 30-35 minutes or until set a little bit. It will still be jiggly from all the melted butter. Let cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!

What are some of your favorite, or not so favorite, recipes that your grandmother used to make? My grandmother makes a green jello salad that we call “The green salad of life.” It’s… different… My aunts are going to kill me for writing that 😉

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