banana cream pie

This one would be great with a graham cracker crust too.

Banana Cream Pie

Betty Crocker

Pastry for one crust pie

4 large egg yolks

2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp. salt

3 cups milk

2 Tbsp. butter or stick margarine, softened

4 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sweetened whipped cream

1. Bake pastry for one crust pie.

2. Beat egg yolks with fork in medium bowl; set aside. Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 2 quart saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute.

3. Immediately stir at least half of the hot mixture gradually into egg yolks, then stir back into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Cool filling slightly. Slice 2 large bananas into pie crust; pour warm filling over bananas. Press plastic wrap on filling to prevent a tough layer from forming on top. Refrigerate at least 2 hours until set.

4. Remove plastic wrap. Top pie with whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate cooled pie until serving. Store covered in refrigerator.

French Silk Pie

Sorry for the break, but we were out of town for a few weeks. Back to pie-making! Yesterday I made my favorite pie so far. When I was little we lived outside Kansas City, Kansas and I remember my parents going on dates to eat at KC Masterpiece and picking up pies from Tippins. The one kind of pie I remember them bringing home was a french silk pie. I found a recipe for that and tried it last night. It was really, really good and pretty easy. I think I'll make it one of my traditional pies this time of year.

French Silk Pie

Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book

1 baked pastry shell

1 cup whipping cream

1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces (6 ounces)

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 beaten egg yolks

3 tablespoons creme de cacao or whipping cream

1 cup whipped cream

chocolate curls, optional

1. In a medium heavy saucepan combine 1 cup whipping cream, chocolate pieces, butter and sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat. Gradually stir half of chocolate mixture into beaten egg yolks. Return egg mixture to chocolate mixture in saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is slightly thickened and begins to bubble (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat. (Mixture may appear to separate.) Stir in creme de cacao. Place the saucepan in a bowl of ice water, stirring occasionally, until the mixture stiffens and becomes hard to stir (about 20 minutes). Transfer to medium mixing bowl.

2. Beat cooled chocolate mixture with electric mixer on medium to high speed for 2-3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Spread filling into baked (and cooled) pastry shell. Cover and refrigerate pie for 5-24 hours. To serve, top with whipped cream and garnish with chocolate curls.

tradition!

I just started a new one. I decided to make apple pie on Sunday and then, on a whim, announced that I will be making a pie every Sunday until the end of the year. So, I went through all of my cookbooks and picked the five pie recipes I want to try and I put them on the calendar. No turning back now. I think I may even try a new crust recipe every time. I wasn't a huge fan of the one I did on Sunday, but how can you go wrong with sweet and cinnamony apple filling? It was still tasty. So... I'll post my recipes, and my favorite crust recipe once the Sundays are all spent. Happy baking!

Apple Pie

from Betty Crocker

Pastry for 2-crust pie

1/3-2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

dash of salt

8 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples (8 medium)

2 Tbsp. butter or stick margarine, if desired

1. Heat oven to 425 and make pastry.

2. Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in large bowl. Stir in apples. Turn into pastry-lined pie plate. Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over apples. Cover with top pastry that has slits cut in it; seal and flute. Cover edge with 2-to-3 inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil during last 15 minutes of baking.

3. Bake 40-50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust. Cool on wire rack at least 2 hours. Refrigerate after 24 hours.

I used my frozen apples from our berry order, so that made it so much more pleasant to make an apple pie. Eight apples is a lot to skin and thinly sliced. I am not quite patient enough for that. So, thank goodness for the fruit order!