Thursday, September 25, 2014

Raisin-Oatmeal Pie

My husband absolutely loves oatmeal raisin cookies.  So when I found this recipe in my new cookbook, The Blue Ribbon Baking from a Redneck Kitchen I knew I had to make him this pie!

The best thing about this recipe it is so easy to make!!  You can whip this up in a matter of minutes.  One of the interesting things (at least to me) was that you make the crust right in the pie pan - no mess or fuss - how cool is that!!

Raisin-Oatmeal Pie by Francine Bryson

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
2 T milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

Filling

3 large eggs
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 T unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (not instant)
1 T all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 325F
To make the crust, mix the flour and sugar in the pie pan.  Add the milk and oil.
Mix well with a fork.  Using your hands, press the dough out and up the sides of the pie pan.
To make the filling, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, sugar and butter - mix with a whisk.
Add the oats, cinnamon and raisins. 
Set the pie pan on a baking sheet and pour the filling into the pie crust.
The instructions say to bake for 45 to 50 minutes.  My pie wasn't completely done after 50 minutes, so I baked it an additional 10 minutes which seemed to work.
I wish you could smell how delicious my house smelled while this was baking - heavenly!!!

Verdict:

This sort of reminded me of a pecan pie - at least, the consistency did.  What did my oatmeal cookie loving husband think???  He LOVED it!!  We knocked this one out of the ball park!! Definitely a keeper recipe.  Yep, we are going to make this one again!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Green Tomato Pie

It is getting to be that time of year where our gardens are starting to wind down - the days are getting shorter and it is getting darker earlier and earlier.  BUT you still have some tomatoes on your plants - what is a person to do?  You make a pie!!  a green tomato pie!!  Now, at first glance, you would think that this recipe would be some kind of quiche or something similar - WRONG!!

I found this recipe in the book, First Prize Pies by Allison Kave. (Disclaimer - I do not know her nor am I getting paid to promote her book!).  She states that green tomatoes are very tart and can be used like apples in almost any recipe.  So in essence, this is sort of a "mock apple pie" recipe.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can whip this up in matter of minutes - so very easy to make.  The hardest part is slicing the tomatoes.

Green Tomato Pie
Ingredients

Use your favorite pie crust recipe for a double crust or a store-bought pie crust

Filling

1 c packed dark brown sugar (I didn't have the dark brown, so I used light brown sugar)
1/3 c cornstarch
1/2  t ground ginger
1/2  t ground cinnamon
2 lbs green tomatoes thinly sliced
milk for glaze

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425.
Roll out half of the dough and transfer to a 9 inch pie plate.  Trim any overhand and refrigerate the crust.


Filling:

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, ginger and cinnamon.

Add the slice tomatoes, toss to coat.  Sort of looks like apples, doesn't it!

Spoon the filling into the chilled pie crust.

Roll out the second half of the dough.  Lay it over the filled pie plate, press the edged down, trim any overhang and crimp the edge with whatever pattern you lie.  Brush with milk and I sprinkled sugar on top (I might try cinnamon sugar next time)

Put the pie onto a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, rotating it once halfway.
Lower the temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 30 to 40 minutes until the crust is a nice golden brown.
 Remove the pie to a rack to cool completely for at least 1 hour (if you can!).

Green Tomato Pie

Ingredients

Use your favorite pie crust recipe for a double crust or a store-bought pie crust

Filling

1 c packed dark brown sugar (I didn't have the dark brown, so I used light brown sugar)
1/3 c cornstarch
1/2  t ground ginger
1/2  t ground cinnamon
2 lbs green tomatoes thinly sliced
milk for glaze

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425.
Roll out half of the dough and transfer to a 9 inch pie plate.  Trim any overhand and refrigerate the crust.

Filling:

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, ginger and cinnamon.
Add the slice tomatoes, toss to coat.
Spoon the filling into the chilled pie crust.
Roll out the second half of the dough.  Lay it over the filled pie plate, press the edged down, trim any overhang and crimp the edge with whatever pattern you lie.  Brush the top of the pie with milk.  I sprinkle sugar over the top.  I think next time I might use cinnamon sugar as a sprinkle. 

Put the pie onto a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes, rotating it once halfway.
Lower the temperature to 350 and bake for an additional 30 to 40 minutes until the crust is a nice golden brown.
Remove the pie to a rack to cool completely for at least 1 hour (if you can!).

Verdict:

Oh yes, this was good!! (much to my surprise!)  My husband loved it!  Definitely a keeper recipe!  Make sure you use totally green tomatoes.  I had one tomato that was starting to turn red and it was a little soft.  The all green tomatoes were more solid.