Home-garden Apple Pie Crumble with Oats and Chex

Yet another Apple Pie Crumble, with Oats and Cinnamon Chex™ for the crunchy topping. Standard single crust pie crust recipe that I always use for the home-made pies. Why Cinnamon Chex? The crunch from it is the latest family obsession for home-made crumbles.


The solitary capricious little apple tree managed to bear enough fruits for Codling moth and us.

Jars of apple sauce got made and canned. 

(Hard) Apple Cider came about thanks to the home-made wooden apple press.

Mini Caramel apples got made as well, when the older child felt like it. Which was pretty much every other day. As it is easy to make especially with ready-to-melt caramels chips and ready-made toffee crunch, it seemed all right to indulge.

Finally, our neighbors came and got some of the apples (with permission, of course) from our tree, what was left after the pests got some.

Quick Biscuit-style Muffin-like Chicken or Veggie Pot Pie

This is an easy weeknight meal if the filling is handy. Simply make the biscuit dough; roll out and cut circles that fit in the muffin pan, fill and bake for about 20 minutes.

Filling: Omit the chicken if preferred and load it with veggies - carrots, peas, potatoes, broccoli, mushroom, corn, kale. Cook the veggies in chicken stock and herbs. Stir in some heavy cream. This time the ground spices were - a hint of cinnamon, cumin, paprika, turmeric, cloves, nutmeg, black pepper.

Biscuit: Any standard biscuit recipe is fine. This time I used the Pancake/Waffle mix that was handy, added just enough water and vegetable shortening to make a flaky biscuit dough.

Bake: Grease the muffin tin and place the biscuit dough circles, add the filling, top with grated cheese, if preferred, and bake in a 350°F oven for about 15 minutes or so, till the crust is baked.

Boston Cream Pie

It seemed like a sweet idea to commemorate the day of my entry into this world... and I was hoping not to do the commemoration myself.

Thanks to Cook's Illustrated, Papa and daughter pooled their skills to create the Wicked Good Boston Cream Pie as a birthday surprise!

I am a big fan of America's Test Kitchen and it is no secret that their recipes inspire and educate me, as I've shared here before.

So, there you have it, not an original recipe, not a dessert that I baked, but a fantastic one nonetheless and easy to make from scratch thanks to Cook's Illustrated. And pretty decadent.

Marion berry + Black berry Pie

After freezing most of the berries we picked recently, there was just enough Marion berries and Black berries for a week-long celebration of fresh berry smoothies, short-breads and pies.

The pie crust is the standard Double-Crust Pie pastry I've used before. The filling is simple as well. It turned out pretty delicious, needless to say. It is hard to go wrong with fresh berry pies.

With a scoop of Double Vanilla Ice Cream, the fresh warm pie just felt like heaven.

Ingredients
Double-Crust Pie pastry
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup shortening/butter
6-7 Tbsp cold water

Filling:
1 cup sugar
½ all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 cups fresh Marion + Black berries

Preparation

1. Double-Crust Pie Pastry: Mix together flour and salt; cut in the shortening; sprinkle a Tbsp of water at a time, toss with fork, push aside and add another Tbsp and so on till all the flour is moistened; form the dough into 2 balls; roll one ball into a 12-inch flat circle; do not overwork the dough; save the other ball for the top crust
2. Place the rolled out pastry on a pie plate carefully, without stretching, allow to fall over the edge and trim around the edge
3. Filling: Combine the sugar, flour and salt; toss the fresh berries in. Pour the filling into the pastry-lined pie plate
4. Top Crust: Roll out the second ball of dough and drape it on as the top crust; brush top of pastry with some milk and sprinkle with sugar; flute the edges - i.e., pinch them into a zig-zag shape, or simply press down with tines of fork like for single-crust banana cream pie
5. Bake in 375°F oven for about 25 to 30 minutes till golden

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin and mildly sweet winter squashes are a few of my favorite winter vegetables - soups, poduthuvals, dals, risotto - I like to add them to dishes as often as I can. Pumpkin is a rich source of nutrients, high in fiber with an inherent mild sweet taste that goes well with most dishes, including sambar and pachadi - South Indian staples.

Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Moo-less Chocolate Pie, Banana Cream Pie (and any sortof smooth-textured pudding-like pie filling), Strawberry Pie Glace are some of the kids' favorites, Cherry Pie being the least favored one.

I don't make pies often. Typically, something about the Holiday Season, with shorter days and colder weather inspires me to bake cookies, breads, and pies more often.

We made a Pumpkin pie during the Thanksgiving holidays recently. The recipe is the classic one found on the label of Libby's Canned Pumpkin.

The only simple changes I make to this famous recipe (as I have a chronic inability to follow a recipe exactly) are:

1. substitute brown sugar instead of sugar
2. only ½ cup of brown sugar instead of ¾ cup
3. use ready-made Pumpkin Spice mix

If making pie shell from scratch, I follow the standard single-crust pie pastry recipe, cook it, cool it before filling it and baking the Pumpkin pie.

Strawberry Pie glacé

Just had to throw in the glacé as this turned out so smooth and shiny, thanks to the sugar.

This is a very rustic pie, nothing fancy about it. Single pie-crust, per usual recipe. Made a thickish sauce with some strawberries and sugar, and combined it with whole fresh strawberries we had picked. We had enough filling to make two pies out of this.

Ingredients
single-pie crust as in this recipe

for the glacé:
1 pint fresh whole strawberries, hulled, mashed
1½ cups sugar
2-3 Tablespoon cornstarch
½ - 2/3rd cup water

1 pint fresh whole strawberries
whipped cream (optional)
Preparation

1. Combine the glacé ingredients and bring to a boil, allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly till well-combined and thick
2. Allow to cool a bit, then pour some at the bottom of the pie crust, arrange some whole strawberries, and pour the rest of the glaze, chill in the fridge for about 4 hours
3. Serve with some whipped cream on top

Moo-less Dark Chocolate Pie

Now, technically, I'd like to call it Silken Soy Dark Chocolate with Agave Nectar and Splenda™ Filling on a Chocolate Wafer Crust. And that says it all, there is the recipe!

I've started loving silken soy tofu nowadays and find ways to use it more in my dishes. I used to buy it before, let it sit in the fridge for weeks, and dump it in the compost when it went past its prime, untasted, mostly for want of inspiration...

A web search will produce quite a good set of results for 'moo-less chocolate pie' and this recipe is an adaptation of one of the classic moo-less chocolate pie recipes I found (and didn't bookmark).

I am partial to dark chocolate. Milk chocolate is too sweet and cloying for my tastes. And D likes dark chocolate a lot too (72% or higher). So, this is a slight variation of the original moo-less chocolate pie recipe - a version I like to think is slightly "healthier" so I can eat that large slice without feeling terribly guilty :)

I went easy on the sugar and used dark unsweetened chocolate (bittersweet) along with some dark lightly sweetened chocolate (72%) for this recipe, some Splenda™ and some agave nectar.

Ingredients
1 block silken tofu
4 Tbsp Kahlúa or Toussaint or other coffee liquer (optional)
4 Tbsp Splenda™
4 Tbsp light brown sugar
6 Tbsp Agave nectar
1 cup bittersweet chocolate
1½ cups sweetened dark chocolate
1 prepared chocolate wafer crust (or Graham cracker crust if preferred)

Preparation

1. Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler - simply boil water in a large pot and put the chocolate in a smaller pot that fits inside this larger pot and stir till it melts, adding 1-2 Tbsp of water as needed, not too much though
2. Add the liqueur and the rest of the ingredients (not the crust) and blend/whip on medium speed till very smooth
3. Pour into the crust and refrigerate for about 4 hours till firm enough for your tastes; I leave it in the freezer for an hour before serving so it is easier to slice and serve

Simple Cherry Pie

Cherry Pie is D's favorite. When we first got married, we used to go to the farms and pick different varieties of cherries and then can the pie-cherries at home so we can make cherry pie any time. But, over the years, cherry crop has been iffy, and many farms don't offer U-pick for cherries anymore... so, we just end up picking berries every summer.

Anyway, I am not really a big pie fan, so I make pies about twice or thrice a year at the most. But, every once in a while I don't mind a slice of pie. And something wholesome and homemade like this cherry pie, with a small scoop of ice cream satisfies my sweet tooth for months at a stretch.

Ana does not like cherry pie. She likes the banana cream pie, she doesn't mind pumpkin pie, but, she finds the cherry pie a bit too tart to her liking, despite the bit of sugar added to compensate for the tartness.

Ingredients

Filling: 2 16-oz cans pitted tart red cherries (water-packed) 1½ cups sugar 1/3 cup cornstarch 1 Tbsp butter ½ tsp almond extract a few drops red food coloring (optional) some milk and extra sugar

Double-crust Pie Pastry: 2 cups all purpose flour 1 tsp salt 2/3 cup shortening 6-7 Tbsp cold water

Preparation:

1. Double-Crust Pie Pastry: Mix together flour and salt; cut in the shortening; sprinkle a Tbsp of water at a time, toss with fork, push aside and add another Tbsp and so on till all the flour is moistened; form the dough into 2 balls; roll one ball into a 12-inch flat circle; do not overwork the dough; save the other ball for the top crust
2. Cherry Filling: Drain cherries, reserve 1 cup of liquid; combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, and stir in the reserved cherry liquid; cook over medium heat till thick and bubbly; remove from heat, add the cherries, butter and almond extract, and food coloring, if using; allow to stand till it gels a bit
3. Place the rolled out pastry on a pie plate carefully, without stretching, allow to fall over the edge and trim around the edge; add the cooled cherry filling
4. Top Lattice Crust: Roll out the second ball of dough and cut into ½ inch strips; weave the strips along the top to make a lattice crust; brush top of pastry with some milk and sprinkle with sugar; flute the edges - i.e., pinch them into a zig-zag shape, or simply press down with tines of fork like for single-crust banana cream pie
5. Bake in a 375°F oven for 25 minutes or more till golden
6. Cool the pie on a rack before serving

Banana Cream Pie

This year, Thanksgiving was very low-key as we were not well, and D had a lot of work to catch up on. A simple chicken in cranberry sauce, some banana cream pie, some mashed potatoes, steamed corn and cornbread stuffing was the menu.

I must admit, D made all the sides - mashed potatoes, steamed corn and cornbread stuffing. Plus, he helped make the pie too! With fever hovering around 101.8°F and shivers and chills, I really had no motivation to get up from bed, except, it was the first time Ana realized it was a holiday - and her teacher had told her that she gets to spend Thanksgiving with her family and be thankful for a wonderful meal. So, we didn't want to disappoint her.

This pie recipe is fairly standard and easy to make, and can be made ahead of time. The filling is probably enough for making two pies. Either use the pie crust pastry recipe here, or it is fine to use pre-made pie-crust from the store and simply make the filling and bake in a 350°F oven for about 10-15 minutes, or as instructed on the package for the pre-made pie crust.

Single-Crust Pie Pastry (9-inch):
1¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening
3-4 Tbsp cold water

Filling:
3 cups whole milk
¼ cup corn starch
3 egg yolks
3 Tbsp butter
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 large banana, sliced

Preparation

1. Pie Crust:
   • Mix together flour and salt, cut in the shortening; gently add a Tbsp of cold water, toss with fork and push aside, and repeat till all the flour is just moistened;
   • form the dough into a ball; this pie pastry should not be over kneaded, so, on a lightly floured surface, flatten the dough with hands and roll it out gently using a rolling pin;
   • pick up the pastry carefully and place it in a pie plate without stretching it much;
   • trim pastry to edge of pie plate, prick bottom and sides with tines of fork;
   • decorate the edge with tines of fork if desired;
   • bake in a 450°F oven for about 5 minutes or till golden brown;
2. Filling: Mix the sugar, salt, corn starch in a sauce pan, and slowly stir in the milk and cook over medium heat till well-combined and bubbly; cook and stir 2 minutes more and remove from heat; slowly combine the egg yolks making sure it doesn't scramble, stir and cook over low heat to a gentle boil; stir in vanilla and butter
3. Assembly: Make a single layer of sliced bananas at the bottom of the crust, pour the filling into the pie crust, and bake 350°F oven for about 15 minutes, or till filling is set