Tag: Pies

Pumpkin Dessert

This recipe comes from my friend Heidi Pitkin who doesn’t like pumpkin pie, but she loves to have this for Thanksgiving dessert. I LOVE the sweet topping with nuts, and it’s amazing when served warm.

I’ll always remember that Thanksgiving with her, when we were serving a mission in Vienna and trying to put together a traditional Thanksgiving for all the missionaries during our few hours off during the week. Haha, the funniest was special ordering a giant turkey that looked like the size of a toddler, wrapped in a big white bag, and seeing it carried through the busy Ubahn (subway).

I haven’t tried making this gluten free yet, but you’ll just want to use yellow cake mix. Hopefully it turns out better than when I tried to make a dump cake with gluten free cake mix–that was terrible.

Pumpkin Dessert

  • Servings: 12?
  • Difficulty: medium
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The perfect Thanksgiving dessert for people who don’t want pumpkin pie.

Ingredients

Filling

  • 1 large can Pumpkin
  • 1 c. Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Nutmeg
  • 1 ½ tsp. Cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. Ginger
  • ½ tsp. Ground Cloves
  • 1 can Evaporated Milk
  • 3 Eggs
  • ½ tsp. Salt

Topping

  • 1 Yellow Cake Mix (or gluten free cake mix)
  • 1 c. Walnuts, chopped
  • ¾ c. Butter, melted

Directions

Mix together all filling ingredients and pour into a greased oblong cake pan. Then sprinkle cake mix and nuts on top. Pour melted butter over all. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until set. *Most delicious when warm.


 

Lion House Pie Dough

The Lion House is a historic building in downtown Salt Lake City. It was originally a house belonging to Brigham Young, but now it’s a restaurant. My mom had a recipe book with several Lion House recipes, and we still use the pie dough recipe today.

If you’re making it gluten free, try a different recipe. I made this with gluten free flour, and taking it out of the oven was like taking out hot sand. Haha. Terrible. Maybe if I’d added more eggs or something. But I’d suggest just searching out a recipe formulated for gluten free.

Lion House Pie Dough

  • Servings: 2 crusts
  • Difficulty: medium
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Perfect for all your pies. Note that this uses dry milk.

Ingredients

  • ½ c. Butter (original recipe calls for 1/4 c. butter, 1/4 c. margarine)
  • 2/3 c. Shortening (original recipe calls for 1/3 c. shortening, 1/3 c. lard)
  • 1 Tbsp. Sugar
  • ½ tsp. Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 1 Tbsp. Nonfat Dry Milk
  • 3 c. Unsifted Flour
  • ½ c. Ice Water

Directions

Cream together butter and shortening. Add sugar, baking powder, salt, and milk. Add half the flour and mix well. Add water and remaining flour. On lightly floured surface, roll out dough and place in pie tin. For edges, cut off excess and pinch dough between fingers for peaks. If baking for cream pie, poke with fork several times before baking (at least 10 minutes at 400° or until golden).


Aunt Twila’s Pecan Pie

I’m not a snob when it comes to lots of foods. Give me almost any ice cream or milk chocolate, and I’ll probably love it. But after having eaten my great-great Aunt Twila’s pecan pie, almost all other pecan pies pale in comparison. They always seem to be mostly goo with a sparse sprinkling of chopped pecans on the top. Haha, I love me some sweet goo, but I want a nice rich filling with big pecan halves on top. And that’s what this pie is. I love this pie so much that I even made it for my birthday cake one year.

I will say the hardest part of this pie is getting the middle done enough without going overboard. It’s much easier to underbake it than overbake it, though. In all my years of making this pie, I’ve underbaked it a handful of times and only overbaked it once. Just make sure that when you shake the pie, that it only has a slight jiggle and that the filling on top is golden brown (if it’s just yellow, it’s probably not done). Most years it seems that I bake it around 1 hour, but sometimes even up to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

If you’re making this gluten free, all the ingredients for the filling are naturally gluten free. Just make sure to use a gluten free pie crust.

Aunt Twila's Pecan Pie

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: medium
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Very rich, amazing, and worthy of any Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. White Karo Syrup
  • ¾ c. Sugar
  • ½ c. melted Butter
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla
  • 1 ½ c. Pecan Halves
  • 1 unbaked deep dish 9″ pie crust (or gluten free pie crust)

Directions

Mix together syrup and sugar. Add melted butter, then mix in eggs and vanilla. Let stand 1 hour. Place ¾ c. pecan halves in bottom of unbaked pie shell. Pour in filling and cover with remaining pecan halves. Bake at 325° for at least 50 minutes or until set. (Generally around an hour.)


Banana Cream Pie

When the summer sun is blazing, a cool cream pie is calling your name. Of course you can use a box of vanilla pudding instead of making it from scratch. But if, like me, you wish you had one more pie for Thanksgiving and realize you’re very limited on ingredients, banana cream pie can shine through. If you have the bananas and either whipping cream or Cool Whip, you probably have the rest of the ingredients already.

I even just like to keep this recipe around if I want to make vanilla pudding or whipped cream and can’t remember the ingredients.

If you’re making this gluten free, all the ingredients for the filling are naturally gluten free. Just make sure to use a gluten free pie crust.

Banana Cream Pie

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: medium
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Simple, yet creamy and delicious.

Ingredients

Pie

  • Vanilla Pudding (homemade or from large box–preferably cook and serve)
  • 2-3 Bananas
  • Whipped Cream (Cool Whip or homemade)
  • 1 Baked Pie Shell (or gluten free pie crust)

Vanilla Pudding

  • ¾ c. Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. Cornstarch
  • ¼ tsp. Salt
  • 2 c. Milk
  • 2 slightly beaten Egg Yolks or 1 well-beaten Egg
  • 2 Tbsp. Butter
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla

Whipped Cream

  • 1 c. Whipping Cream
  • ½ c. Powdered Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Vanilla

Directions

For pie, prepare vanilla pudding (box or homemade) and chill with plastic wrap covering the surface. In baked pie shell, slice 2 bananas. Cover with pudding. Pipe on whipped cream (spreading with spoon pushes pudding over sides) and top with banana slices (optional).

For homemade vanilla pudding, blend sugar, cornstarch, and salt; add milk. Cook over medium heat till thick and bubbly. Cook/stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir a little hot mixture into yolks; return to hot mixture; cook/stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat; add butter and vanilla. Pour into glass bowl. Place Saran wrap on surface to prevent scum. Cool in fridge. (FYI: For chocolate pudding, increase sugar to 1 c. and add 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate squares with milk.)

For homemade whipped cream, beat all until cream forms soft peak when whisk is removed. (FYI, you can reduce the sugar if you prefer a little less sweet, but I always do the 1/2 c.)

 


 

Apple Crumb Pie

It isn’t Thanksgiving without apple pie. And for those of us who prefer their pie topped with sweet crumbles instead of dry pie crust, this is the winner. We make this every year the night before Thanksgiving, sometimes even making two pies. Just make sure to test your apples so they’re done to your level of preferred softness. This recipe is adapted from the famous Better Homes and Gardens red checked cookbook. That thing is full of lots of great recipes!

Also, of course apples vary in size. So I like to cut apples one at a time and place them in the pie crust before mixing with anything, just so I can make sure it’ll fit. It seems like a waste of apples if you cut them all only to find that they won’t all fit.

I haven’t made this one gluten free yet, but it should be easy enough to switch out gluten free flour (and make sure you use a gluten free pie crust). Or if you don’t want to bother with a gluten free pie crust, you can always opt to make gluten free apple crisp.

Apple Crumb Pie

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: medium
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Sweet and perfect for Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

  • 2/3 c. Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. Flour (or gluten free flour)
  • ¾ tsp. Cinnamon
  • 6 to 8 tart Apples, pared, cored, and sliced (6 cups)
  • 1 9-inch unbaked Pie Crust (or gluten free pie crust)
  • ½ c. Flour (or gluten free flour)
  • ¼ c. Sugar
  • ¼ c. Butter (usually use 6 Tbsp. butter for larger crumbles)

Directions

Combine first three ingredients; stir into apples. Then place in pie crust. Combine remaining flour and sugar; cut in butter till crumbly. Sprinkle the mixture over apples. Bake at 400° for 45-50 minutes or till done. If pie browns too quickly, cover edge with foil.