7-Minute Chocolate Cherry Brownie Puddin' Pie

Word.
I made THAT pie in 7 minutes!
Well, "made" is maybe not the most accurate term- assembled is more like it- but with my 7 month old crawling- standing up on EVERYTHING and focused on only wanting the dogs toys for teething- I will do what I gotta to save time, and still have something for my hubby on his birthday that I know he'll LOVE!

Feel free to note you can absolutely un-short-cut any part of this and make a beautiful from-scratch dessert with chocolate mousse and tart cherries, go for it!!... I would if I had more than 7 minutes!

1 store-bought graham cracker pie crust
1 package chocolate pudding (and milk needed to make the "pie filling" recipe on the box- 2 1/2 cups in my case- and it was his birthday, so I went whole milk party time)
1 container of store-made "brownie bites"
1 can cherry pie filling
whip cream (which I totally forgot about after dinner so no photo of it here- that's what happens when mommy goes out for the first time in ages and has a few adult beverages!)

Chop or crumble the brownie bites.
Spread a layer of brownie bite chunks over the bottom of the pie crust, you'll use 1/2 to 2/3 of em here- the rest on top.
Make pudding pie filling.
Pour pudding over brownie bites.
Add cherries one by one to the top in any way you'd like- this is the most time consuming part, but it would be a hot mess if you just poured the filling over the top. So at least get the cherries out of most of the "other part of the cherry pie filling" before adding to the top of the pudding.
Add remaining brownie bite chunks.
Garnish with whip cream!

Fourth of July Pie

I initially made this pie with blueberries and cranberries here , but I am posting an alternative recipe to make it with raspberries instead. Both blueberries and raspberries are very much in season and delicious at the moment, or if you prefer, another way I've made this is in pot-pie tins with blueberries and black cherries HERE.So if you are having a get together this weekend for the 4th, this pie with some vanilla bean ice cream would make a great addition, and in it's own way reps the Red, White & BLUE~ HAPPY 4th of JULY!!

I pretty much use Dorie Greenspan's Good for Almost Anything Pie Crust recipe~ you can find it as posted by Dorie HERE
Blueberry Raspberry Pie
3 cups blueberries (if fresh rinsed & pat dry, or frozen- I used frozen)
2 cups raspberries(I used fresh, rinsed & patted dry)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 T plus 1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
a wee pinch nutmeg
1 T butter (cut into small cubes)
Top and bottom pie crust for a 9" pie

Preheat oven to 375 & grease a pie tin (or glass in my case)line with bottom pie crust. In a large bowl mix berries, sugars, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg until berries are coated. Pour berries into bottom crust and sprinkle butter cubes evenly over the top. For the top pie crust, it's your choice- I did mine lattice.
After the top crust is on securely, cover the edges of the pie crust with foil to prevent burning (I totally forgot that step & burned the crap out of mine). Place on a foil covered baking sheet & bake for 45-50 minutes or until pie crust is golden brown.
Then turn off the oven and let pie set in oven for 15 minutes. Then let pie cool on the counter for at least one our before slicing.

Tuesdays with Dorie~ Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Nate was excited about this pie all week. Who wouldn't be? I mean it's such a great idea, and sounded so delicious!! Pecan AND pumpkin pie all in one crust is what this weeksTUESDAYS WITH DORIE is all about. The selection for the Thanksgiving Holiday edition of TWD was chosen by Vibi of LA CASSEROLE CARREE. Click over to h blog to see the full recipe~ and be sure to visit the TWD Blogroll for tons of stunning, creative, delicious versions on this pie!
I found that I agree with Dorie's hubby on this one and liked it much better the second day after it'd been in the fridge.



The next time I make this yummy holiday pie, I think I'll use my own pumpkin pie recipe for the bottom. I thought I was going to love the rum in the mix, but thought it was a little overpowering and wanted it to be more traditional pumpkin-pie-y.

I'd had this recipe marked since the day I bought this book and had a great time making it.

Tuesdays With Dorie~ Double Crusted Bluberry (Bluecherry) Pie (s)..

It will still be Tuesday for about an hour here in LA, so I made it! YAY!!
I couldn't resist this weeks TUESDAYS WITH DORIE pick, brought to all of us by Amy of SOUTH IN YOUR MOUTH! Amy chose Dorie's Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie, from "Baking; From My Home to Yours" By: Dorie Greenspan, a fabulous baking group that is baking and eating our way through this SENSATIONAL book. My copy is now pretty evenly coated in a very thin layer of sugar, flour and a few vanilla extract stains here and there. Hop on over to Amy's blog if you are still waiting for your book to be delivered or if you're at work and need the ingredients for your grocery list before heading home. She has the whole breakdown, a beautiful pie and a great story!



Back to the pie....or in this case pieS. I decided to make mini-pies instead of one whole pie. This makes it a little easier for Nate and I to stay on our health kick and share the pie love with our co-workers. While we were grocery shopping this past weekend I came across disposable "pot-pie" pie tins and figured that would be perfecto!

I picked up a whole mess of fresh, giant blueberries, and got to pie makin'!
First I made the double crust (a double batch of Dorie's go-to pie crust that is the BIZOMB.) The only change I made is using the plastic "dough" blade on the food processor....



While the dough was chillin I cleaned up my flour mess and gathered up the filling ingredients. I could find one of the containers of blueberries, but where the heck was the second container?? I tore the fridge apart, checked my grocery receipt (rang up for TWO containers of blueberries) and had no luck turning them up. I was not giving up on the pie making (and was not going back to the store) so took some filling liberty on this recipe.
I used 1 pt of fresh, delicious blueberries and about 1 to 1 1/2 cups fresh cherries, pitted (we drove to Tahoe last weekend and scooped the cherries up on our long Sunday drive home through the farm lands of Cali).
I kept everything else about Dorie's filling recipe the same (and crossed my fingers!)



I rolled out the first disc of dough and it made enough crusts to fill 5 of the lil pot-pie tins (which I buttered BIG TIME!).
Then I tried to be as even as possible with the filling.
I rolled out the second disc, used one of the un-used pot-pie tins as a stencil and cut out my top layer of crust, sealing each little pie up~




I baked the 5 pies 25 minutes before lowering the oven temp a bit, but then for about 35 minutes- so in the end the same cooking time.



These were a HUGE hit!! The flavor combination was absolutely beautiful, and the pies were adorable! Nate and I cut one in half and shared it (perfect amount of decadence)then he had a little more...




These were fun to just dig into with a fork like we did at work today! I loved it as Blucherry Pie, but think it would be brilliant with just the blueberries~

This recipe was DELICIOUS and a most definite keeper!

PS the other container of Blueberries was in my freakin trunk! (I'll check there SOONER next time!)...

I Dared to try Lemon Meringue Pie

Ok, so this is one of those "all-time-favorite" deserts that my husband loves, and so do my co-workers, but it's not for me. I don't know what my deal is, but lemon deserts of any sort are not up my alley for some reason. That's not to say I didn't have a blast making this pie AND I would definitely make it again!! I want to shout-out a big THANK YOU to JEN at The Canadian Baker for choosing the Lemon Meringue Pie for the January Daring Bakers Challenge, because I did have fun making it and Nate had a blast eating it!! Check out all the BEAUTIFUL pies by visiting the DARING BAKERS BLOGROLL HERE






I started out with the crust, of course, and this was a different recipe from my "usual" for pie crust, and I really liked it. This is a sweet, flaky, delicious crust recipe that I will definitely use again. It was not too difficult to make and I was very happy with how it turned out...This was the first time I used beans in a pie crust to weight it down, and I am not sure if they are supposed to "burrow" a bit, but it didn't affect the taste, and didn't boar any holes through the crust, so I'm not complaining.





Nate came into the kitchen to help out with the filling. I had to explain that he did not get to "add more zest, ADD MORE ZEST!!", he kept wanting to put his spin on the filling, but I told him we can make another pie for improvising and twists soon! We followed the recipe exactly and filled up the crust with the delicious-looking lemon filling, Nate said it tasted fabulous.



Next came the meringue, which I was so excited to make, because I was not afraid of it, having made that part of this recipe before and knowing it was going to be GOOD! I did, however, as usual, jump the gun a little bit and my meringue was ready to rock when I realized the pie was still a teeny bit warm, not quite all the way cooled. So my meringue sat for a little bit and then I spooned it onto the pie- I think next time I'll get a little fancier with the meringue, but at this point Nate was very anxious to eat some pie so I just spooned it on and baked it.



Nate said the pie was totally delicious, I cut a slice for him before I let it fully "set" and it was super mushy, but the we refrigerated it for a bit and it "gel"'d nicely and I didn't run into the wateriness that others did (for the most part).



Visit The Canadian Baker for the full recipe & enjoy!!
Nate said he will be making this again~

Ham & Turkey Pot Pie

I got this recipe from Nate's mom and it was really good!! The only major downside of this great dinner with leftovers was that after surviving the making tons of food over a long 5-day weekend, it was taking this pot pie out of the oven that I burned the crap out of my hand. Right after removing my oven mitt I moved my hand and accidentally whacked the pie dish and cookie sheet that were about a million degrees. I'll spare you the nausea of showing you the damage- but I have a gnarly burned line on the outside of my wrist and a good size ding taken out of my pinkie finger too...I keep using the A & D Ointment and used it right away, so I know it could be worse.

Ok, now onto the pot pie......

Source: Nate's Mom
Serves: 6-8


2 9" prepared pie crusts (thaw if frozen)
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of Kosher salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 can (14 oz) chicken broth
1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey ( I used leftover thanksgiving turkey and ham)
1 1/2 cup frozen hash browns
1 cup frozen mixed veggies (I used broccoli and carrots, because Nate hates peas)


Pre heat oven to 425°F.
In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well combined. Gradually stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring constantly until bubbly and thickened.
Stir in meat, hash browns and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spray pie plate with non-stick spray and line with bottom pie crust- bake for about 7-10 minutes then fill with mixture and top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Let stand 7 minutes before serving and try not to burn yourself!!

Sweet Dessert, Pear-Apple Pie

I was glad I made this on Wednesday night, I did oversleep a touch this Thanksgiving and it would have been one crazy hustle trying to squeeze pie-making in there!

We'll be having pumpkin pie or pumpkin cheesecake on Saturday and a cranberry cake on Sunday, so I thought I'd go with a fruit pie and I love baking with both pears and apples in the fall~

Pear Apple Pie
Source: Me
Serves 6

9' top & bottom pie crust (make your own or go with the frozen, thawed)
4 Apples (2 golden delicious, 2 Fuji- peeled, cored and chopped
3 D'anjou pears - peeled cored & chopped
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 T flour
1 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 T butter cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375. Grease pie dish and lay bottom crust in it. In a small bowl combine sugars, flour, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In a large bowl combine apples, pears and dry ingredients, stir until well mixed.
Add fruit filling to pie dish, sprinkle butter over the top & cover with top crust. (for golden top crust brush with 1 beaten egg mixed with 1 Tbsp of milk)