Raspberry-Rhubarb Pie

When you only have one photo, you go with it.

Since winning a first place ribbon at the 2016 Iowa State Fair with this raspberry-rhubarb pie, I have had several requests to make it. I made three more just last week. Yet, I have had no opportunities to take any decent photos because I have not been able to cut into a single one I made. This is the only photo I have. Not the greatest photo, but the ribbon makes up for that.

You might be wondering, why raspberry rhubarb?

A few years ago I spent a morning enjoying pie and coffee with a few of my cousins at the Coffee Cup Cafe in Sully, Iowa. They are well-known for their homemade pies, having received numerous accolades including USA Today's Top 10 Places in the U.S. for Pie, as well as being featured in Jane and Michael Stern's "Road Food" and "500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late", among others. Even Lance Armstrong stopped there for a slice of coconut cream pie during RAGBRAI in 2006.

I'm always hesitant to order restaurant pie, even at small-town cafes where the pie should be homemade, even if they are known for it, because I have been disappointed on more than one occasion. Not even a hint of disappointment was to be found at the Coffee Cup. The pie there was spot-on, homemade delicious. My cousins and I each ordered two slices so we could taste-test several varieties. I can't even remember what my other slice was, because I was absolutely smitten with the raspberry-rhubarb. So smitten I went home to try to recreate it myself.

My first attempt was in the ballpark. I decided I didn't get it sweet enough and would add more sugar on the next attempt. Except that second attempt didn't come until this year's state fair.

For the two-crust fruit class, a class in which I had yet to take first place, I wanted a fruit combination that might catch the judge's attention -- and I remembered the raspberry-rhubarb I had made only once. So I bumped up the sugar to 1 1/2 cups and reached heavenly perfection. This pie is so yummy, and if you have the best homegrown rhubarb, it melts in your mouth.

Now most people serve pie with ice cream. At my house, most people have to request ice cream if they want it with their pie because I do not. So if you are an a la mode kind of girl or guy, be my guest. But this version of a rhubarb pie, with a sidekick of raspberry, doesn't need it (in my opinion). If it does, you could always bump up the sugar a bit more. Either way, I think you will enjoy this pie as much as anyone. But if you're going to write a blog post about it, take a picture before it's all gone.

Yours in pie,

Mindy


Raspberry-Rhubarb Pie

Pastry for double-crust 9-inch pie

2 c. frozen red raspberries, partially thawed

2 c. frozen rhubarb cut into ½-inch pieces, thawed

1 ½ c. sugar

1 T. cornstarch

2 T. tapioca

Dash of salt

2 T. butter

Milk

Sparkling sugar

Line the pie plate with the bottom crust.  In a bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch, tapioca, and salt. Pour over raspberries and rhubarb and combine gently. Let stand 15 minutes. Transfer to crust. Dot the top of filling with butter. Adjust top crust and crimp edges; apply decorative crust pieces if desired. Brush crust with milk; sprinkle with sparkling sugar. Cover edges with foil to prevent over-browning. Bake on middle rack at 400° for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350° and bake another 45-50 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and filling is bubbly in center. Cool on wire rack.

I shared this recipe on Full-Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage.

A Black Raspberry Pie Story

Wow.

It's been a while. Like, more than two-and-a-half-years-a-while. So long, I can't even remember how to use Blogger.

What would have me coming back to write a pie blog after all this time? Why, the greatest of state fairs, the Iowa State Fair! (Really, it is. I have a t-shirt that says so.)

Today was the last day of the 2016 state fair, and I'm feeling a little sad, as I always do once the fair is over for the year. To cheer myself up, I turned to pie. Because pie fixes everything. (Really, it does. I have another t-shirt that says so.)

The pie I turned to was black raspberry, the one I entered in the fair yesterday. It won 3rd place in the division "A Pie Story", sponsored and judged by Kate Lebo, author of Pie School and A Commonplace Book of Pie. For the contest, entrants were required to bake a pie and write a story (fiction or nonfiction) somehow related to the pie. My third place finish garnered a personally autographed copy of Pie School, as well as an Oxo pie plate and Le Creuset pie bird, both compliments of Kitchen Collage in Des Moines.

It has been three years since I entered pies in the state fair, but doing so has me excited at the prospect (keyword) of continuing to write Pie on Sunday. So to celebrate this grand "re-opening", I am sharing with you the recipe and the story that landed another ribbon at the fair.

This is a true story…

Black raspberry. The pie I was called to. You know, the one that whispers ever so gently, “YOU, _(insert name)_, will be a pie maker after all!”

My confirmation call came eleven years ago in a not-so-gentle shout. It was a hot, steamy July morning – it’s always those hot summer days, isn’t it? Just a few years prior, I had discovered a large patch of wild black raspberries along the trail in the woods near my house, where my yellow lab and I took our daily morning walk. Thinking I had found a special treasure, each morning I would carefully collect a small container of berries and freeze them until I had enough for a pie. But on this day, there was one slight difference…

I was hot, and pregnant, and did I mention hot? Rather than dress in long pants and long sleeves to protect myself from the berry brambles and potential poison ivy as I otherwise did, I instead braved the elements in shorts and a t-shirt. When I came out of the berry patch, I was quite pleased with myself, for I had a substantial gathering of delicious, stain-your-fingers-purple black raspberries. The next morning, however, I realized I had something else: Itching. Lots of it. All over the lower half of my legs.

I soon recalled that I had gone into those berry brambles unprotected. I was certain I must have come into contact with poison ivy, so after a quick internet search on what to do, I ran to the drug store and bought out their supply of calamine lotion and Zanifel, that abrasive wash that is supposed to scrub out the oil the poison ivy leaves behind. Wow, was that painful! Especially after it didn’t work.

The next day I presented my legs to my doctor, who announced, “My dear, that is not from poison ivy. Those are chigger bites – and the worst case I have ever seen.” Those nasty little mites were making railroad tracks all over the lower half of my legs at this point – not to mention causing the most intense itching and torture I had ever experienced – so my doctor prescribed an insecticidal cream to take care of them. But that didn’t work either! As the railroad tracks began climbing farther and farther up my legs, I wondered what other parts of my body were in danger. So once again I pleaded with my doctor to make it stop, and he prescribed a steroid pack, which finally did the trick. Chiggers be gone!

I have never had another experience quite like that one, the summer the chiggers turned my legs into a roadmap. Mostly because I made sure of it, by never picking black raspberries (or anything else, for that matter) in the wild again. In fact, my husband, having just suffered his own miserable experience with a hot and tortured pregnant woman, planted a black raspberry patch in our backyard immediately the next year.

And that, my friends, is how I was called, for better or worse, to black raspberry.

Yours in pie,

Mindy 

Black Raspberry Pie

Crust:

3 c. all-purpose unbleached flour

1 tsp. salt

1 c. lard

6 to 7 T. ice water

In mixing bowl, stir together flour and salt. Using pastry blender, cut lard into flour mixture until pieces are size of small peas. Sprinkle 1 T. of ice water at a time over part of flour mixture and stir gently with a fork. Push moistened dough to side of bowl; repeat until all the dough is moistened. Divide dough in half. Form each half into a ball. Roll out and ease 1 crust into pie pan. Roll out second half for top crust.

Filling:

4 c. frozen black raspberries, partially thawed

1 c. sugar

1 T. cornstarch

1 T. tapioca

Dash of salt

1 T. butter

Milk

Sparkling sugar

Combine sugar, cornstarch, tapioca, and salt; pour over berries and combine gently. Let stand 15 minutes. Transfer to 9-inch crust. Dot the top of filling with butter. Lay on top crust, seal edges, and apply decorative pieces. Brush crust with milk; sprinkle with sparkling sugar. Cover edges with foil to prevent over-browning. Bake on middle rack at 400° for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350° and bake another 45-50 minutes or until crust is lightly browned and filling is bubbly in center. Cool on wire rack.

I shared this recipe on Full-Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage.

Cranberry-Raspberry Pie and a New Year

Happy 2014!

New year, new pie post.

(Hopefully I won’t be saying “Happy 2015” before I write again.)

We had several Christmas gatherings in the past week, and of course I made a few pies. We hosted my side of the family in our home, and I made a chocolate chip pecan pie, which I have already shared. For gathering with my husband’s side of the family in Minnesota, I brought a cranberry-raspberry pie.

I saw this pie being prepared on the winter holiday edition of Iowa Ingredient. (You can watch the segment here.) The recipe was shared by sisters Amy Barton and Elaine Keuning, who own and operate All About Pies, in Monroe, Iowa. I think it’s hard to find a good pie away from home, so I’m always interested in finding places to try good, homemade pie. I’m planning a day very soon to take my kids snowshoeing out on the prairie, and since Monroe is just down the road from the refuge, we may have to make a little detour and pick up a pie to take home.

I’m always looking for new ideas for using cranberries, especially in pies, and Christmas seemed like the perfect time to try this combination. I loved the tart bitterness of the cranberries paired with the flavor of the raspberries, and the almond flavoring hinted just a bit at cherry. If you plan to serve this pie minus the ice cream (the only way to eat pie, in my humble opinion), you may want to bump up the sugar just a bit, depending on your sweet tooth.

This is a pie worth eating again and again, so stock up on the cranberries in your freezer and you can make it whenever you want.

Yours in pie,

Mindy

Cranberry-Raspberry Pie

adapted from recipe by Amy and Elaine of All About Pies, Monroe, IA

Pastry for double-crust 9-inch pie

1 ½ c. coarsely chopped fresh cranberries

3 c. partially-thawed, frozen red raspberries

½ tsp. almond extract

¼ c. flour

1 ¼ to 1 1/3 c. sugar (to suit taste)

1 T. butter

Milk

Sparkling sugar

Line the pie plate with the bottom crust.  In a bowl, combine cranberries, raspberries, almond extract, flour, and sugar. Spoon filling into pie plate; dot filling with small pieces of the butter. Apply and adjust the top crust; trim, seal, and flute edges; cut slits to vent steam. Brush top crust lightly with milk and sprinkle on sparkling sugar. Cover edges of crust loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°. Remove foil; bake about 35-45 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.

I shared this recipe on Full-Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage.

Traditions

Cranberry Pear Pie

Specken dicken.

Ever heard of it?

Most likely, you have not. In all my life, I’ve only met one person outside my little hometown who ever has heard of it, and that’s all he could say about it. He had heard of it.

If you’re wondering, specken dicken is a pancake with meat in it. It was derived in Germany, where my family’s ancestry begins, and it was traditionally eaten on New Year’s Day for good luck. I thought I read once that long ago it was believed that if one could afford to put meat in the pancake, then they were set financially for the year to come. But I can’t find that reference in my quick online research, so I’m not positive that’s completely accurate.

Also in my quick online research, specken dicken is the only spelling I came across. But having come from the small Iowa town of Wellsburg with strong German roots, I checked through several hometown cookbooks, as well as my grandma’s recipe, and came across a few more spellings: speck and dicken, speck-n-dicken, spec an dicken. And just as many recipes for it.

Last weekend, we celebrated Christmas with my family at my sister’s house. Since it was only a few days until New Year’s Day, my sister whipped up a batch of specken dicken so we could celebrate the start of the new year with an old family tradition. This is one we grew up with every New Year’s Day at my grandparents’ house, with my grandma and aunt spending most of the afternoon into early evening preparing these pancakes over hot griddles. That’s actually what I meant when I said my sister whipped these up, and we both understood why Grandma seemed so worn out when the dinner was over!

In our family, we eat specken dicken with the meat cooked right into the pancake. We use cooked bacon pieces and cooked pieces of metwurst, then pour the pancake batter over the top of the meat on the griddle. Metwurst, pronounced “metvuss” where I grew up, is a strongly-flavored German sausage, and chances are pretty good that if you’ve never heard of specken dicken, you’ve probably never heard of this sausage either. Traditionally, we serve the pancakes with butter and dark Karo syrup, though most people prefer regular pancake syrup.

(If you want the recipe, you can get it by clicking here.)

Another tradition that has developed over the past several months in my home is pie on most Sundays. And in case you were wondering, we did have pie last Sunday, once we let our stomachs rest a little after filling them with specken dicken. I made the pie and brought it along to my sister’s house. I found this recipe for Cranberry Pear Pie at Taste of Home.

The recipe comes from Helen Toulantis of Wantagh, New York, and it was originally published in the November/December 2005 issue of Country Woman Magazine. I loved the fresh flavor of the pears, and the cranberries added just a little zip and gave the pie some festive splashes of color. And I don’t think you can ever go wrong with a crumb topping.

Well, I have another Sunday evening tradition to tend to. Tonight is the premiere of the third season of Downton Abbey on PBS. I’ve been watching since the first season, and I can hardly wait to see what Maggie Smith’s character, Violet Crawley (the Dowager Countess of Grantham), will do to clash with Shirley MacLaine’s new character, the American, Martha Levinson, as the mother of Cora (the Countess of Grantham). I also cannot wait to find out what is going to happen to John Bates, the former valet convicted of murder, and his devoted wife, Anna, the head housemaid. Will she be able to save him? And of course, there’s the wedding of Lady Mary Crawley to Matthew Crawley. (I think you’d better watch if you have questions about that.)

TTFN. I’m off to enjoy a cup of tea while devouring Downton Abbey. Now, if I only had a piece of pie…

Yours in pie,

Mindy

Cranberry Pear Pie

from Taste of Home

Pastry for single-crust 9-inch pie

2 T. all-purpose flour

½ c. maple syrup

2 T. butter, melted

5 c. sliced, peeled fresh pears

1 c. fresh or frozen cranberries

 

Topping:

½ c. all-purpose flour

¼ c. packed brown sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/3 c. cold butter, cubed

½ c. chopped walnuts

 

Line a 9-in. pie plate with pastry; trim and flute edges. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, syrup and butter until smooth. Add pears and cranberries; toss to coat. Spoon into crust.

 

For topping, combine the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in walnuts. Sprinkle over filling.

 

Cover edges of crust loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°. Remove foil; bake about 45 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack.

I shared this recipe on:

Church Supper at Everyday Mom's Meals
Full-Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage

Check out all the great recipes at these Linky Parties!

Pink Ribbon Pie

Breast cancer reaches so many lives. Estimates show that by the end of 2012 in the U.S. alone, close to a quarter of a million new cases of invasive breast cancer (there are other types) in women will have been diagnosed.

 

That number means almost nothing, until it reaches you or someone you know.

 

I know too many women who have received the diagnosis – a fellow teacher, a neighbor, a friend, an aunt, my husband’s grandmother, my mother-in-law. And my mom. She’s a fourteen-year (this month), two-time breast cancer survivor.

I’ll never forget the day my mom first told my sister and me that her mammogram indicated a lump and doctors confirmed it was breast cancer. It felt like the world came to a screeching halt when those two words slipped off my mom’s tongue and into the air. My sister and I were so afraid of the possible outcome. I can only imagine how scared my mom must have been. And then she had to experience it all over again last year, when she heard the diagnosis for a second time.

Fortunately, my mom regularly had routine mammograms performed, so doctors found the lumps early on both occasions. Because of that, my mom underwent lumpectomies and radiation treatment and was able to avoid chemotherapy.

Thirteen years ago, my mom, my sister, and I walked in our first Race for the Cure, to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. We know, first hand, the importance of early detection. Without mammograms, my mom might not be here today.

 

 

Aside from a few years with conflicting schedules, we’ve walked in the race each year since 1999. This year’s Des Moines, Iowa, Race for the Cure took place yesterday. My sister couldn’t join us, but this year my children did for the first time. They walked with my mom and me on the one-mile loop. Along the way they were entertained by a very talented corps of drummers. They also took part in the kids' fun run. But the highlight of their first Race for the Cure was having their photo taken with a Star Wars Stormtrooper.

I know my young children don’t understand the real reason we walked in the race. To them it was an experience in walking too closely to a bunch of jubilously crazy people dressed in pink boas and pink wigs, down the center of a crowded city street they don’t otherwise get to walk down, in the cold autumn air. Oh, and to meet a character from one of their favorite movies, who they might possibly deem a hero simply because he’s in one of their favorite movies.

As some of the “bad guys”, Stormtroopers aren’t exactly my idea of heroes. But if they could forever wipe out an enemy like breast cancer from the face of Planet Earth, they just might be.

Someday, my kids will understand why we race. I only hope they don’t have to understand it first-hand.

After all, isn’t that really why we race?

 

Yours in pie (and in the race),

Mindy

 

Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the pink ribbon is the international symbol, I wanted to incorporate a pink ribbon into my pie-baking this week. I decided on Rhubarb Cream Pie from Two Chicks from the Sticks: Back Home Baking since the rhubarb would show up pink. When I rolled out the top crust, I used a knife to carefully carve out a ribbon shape and then carefully adjusted the top crust onto the filling. I’m not very artsy, but I think it turned out looking like a pink ribbon, and the pie tasted great!

Rhubarb Cream Pie

Pastry dough for a two-crust 9-inch pie

1 ¾ c. sugar

3 eggs, slightly beaten

¼ c. all-purpose flour

¾ tsp. ground nutmeg

4 c. rhubarb, diced (if using frozen, defrost and lightly drain off excess liquid)

1 T. butter

Line pie plate with bottom crust.

To prepare filling, combine sugar, eggs, flour, nutmeg, and rhubarb in a bowl. Pour mixture into prepared pie plate. Dot filling with small pieces of the butter.

Adjust top crust, seal and crimp edges. Cut slits to allow steam to escape. Cover edges with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake pie at 400° for 15 minutes, then lower oven temp. to 350° and bake for another 45 to 55 minutes or until filling is bubbly in center. Cool completely on wire rack before slicing.

Grandmas, Horses, and Apple Pie

As American as mom, baseball, and apple pie.

I started thinking about that while making this apple pie -- except I was thinking about grandmas instead of moms, and horses instead of baseball.

While my husband was busy completing some projects in the warm autumn air, the kids and I spent Sunday visiting my grandma (the one on whose farm I rode horses as a kid). She will be 89 years young in a few weeks and now resides in an assisted living apartment. Though she still cooks for herself, I prepared a meal to take along, and of course, it being Sunday and all, an apple pie.

As a kid, I enjoyed running around on my grandparents’ farm. I remember the sweet smell of hay as I explored the barn, and the freedom I felt as I roamed the property. The farm is where I had my first driving lessons, imagining my own roads and stop signs (and trying not to crash into any buildings). When we weren’t begging to drive the pickup, my cousins, my sister, and I would race the three-wheeler across the length of the farm, from the highway, past the house, and all the way down to the crick.

(Yes, people. I said it. Crick. Also known as creek, for those of you who might be English majors, or unlike me, grew up somewhere north of the 43^rd parallel. South of there, sometimes we get lazy and just call it a crick.

Oh, and a pickup? That’s a truck, in case you were wondering.)

At the top of my list of things to do on the farm was riding horses. I didn’t get to ride very often, so it was always special when I did, and to me, horses have always been such special animals. One particular horse with a most calm disposition was Raebo.

My grandma and I talked about Raebo during our visit. A registered quarter horse, my grandma said Raebo lived to be 32 years old. I remember her being a kind and gentle mare, with the patience needed to handle young riders like my cousins and me, especially since I hardly knew what I was doing.

While being impatient ourselves and not wanting to take no for an answer (quite possibly a family trait), I remember a time when my cousin and I decided that we would ride anyway. We needed help with the saddle, and since no one would help us, Neil and I figured we could just ride bareback. We had done it before, but this time we would do it without assistance…and without reins.

Knowing how much the horses loved the apples from the Wealthy tree that stretched across the fence into the pasture, Neil and I lured Raebo to the fence with the apples. Standing on the fence post to give us some height, we carefully mounted Raebo once she was close enough to reach. I rode behind Neil, hanging onto him to stay atop the horse, and he held onto Raebo’s mane.

For a short while, we were quite proud of ourselves, mounting a horse without any adult assistance, riding bareback without a saddle, and without reins, we soon realized we had little control. Raebo was her usual kind spirit and moved slowly, though we had hoped for something closer to a gallop even for a few moments. But even patient horses have their limits, and we soon realized Raebo had reached hers. We did quickly enjoy those few moments of a gallop, and then suddenly, but ever so gently, Raebo put on the brakes, lowered her head and neck, and gave Neil and me our first trip down a horse slide. One right after the other, we slid off the front end of Raebo and landed softly in the pasture. I guess it was Raebo’s way of telling us to get a saddle, or get off.

While I enjoyed riding horses, I also enjoyed eating apple pie. My other grandma (the one who taught me about rendering lard and making pie crust), would take my sister and me to visit our great-grandma on occasion. I remember the pink walls in her bathroom, her cats who liked to bite, and her incredible apple pie. I was very young at the time, but I can still taste the apple pie she would serve us. It was very fresh-tasting, not overdone with lots of spices, just a small amount of cinnamon, perhaps even a dash of nutmeg. I have not tasted any apple pie like it since then, and though I try, I certainly have not been able to re-create it.

The apple pie I made for Sunday is as close as I’ve come to my great-grandma’s apple pie. It has a nice fresh apple flavor, and it reminds me of her. So if you make an apple pie, think of your grandmas, or your mom, and horses, or baseball…..or whatever it is that makes you feel American!

Yours in pie,

Mindy

 

Classic Fresh Apple Pie

My favorite apple for pie is the Jonathan. (It’s also my favorite name for a husband.) They are firm apples that hold their shape during the long baking required for pie, and I especially like their tart flavor, which allows you to add the amount of sugar needed to give the pie as much or as little sweetness as you like. If you use another apple (and the possibilities are endless), you may need to adjust the amount of sugar, and possibly the amount of thickener (flour in this case), to achieve the results you desire.

Pastry for double-crust 9” pie

6 to 7 cups peeled and sliced apples (I used 6 ½ c. for this pie)

2/3 c. sugar

2 T. all-purpose flour

½ tsp. cinnamon

Dash of salt

2 T. butter

Milk

Sparkling sugar

 

Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt; add to apples in a large bowl and mix well. Transfer filling to pastry-lined pie plate. Dot filling with butter. Adjust top crust, flute edges, and cut slits to allow steam to escape. Brush crust with milk; sprinkle with sparkling sugar. Cover edges with foil. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes, lower heat to 350° and continue baking for another 45-60 minutes or until filling is bubbly in center, removing foil the last 15 minutes of baking. Cool completely on a wire rack.

 

A Trip to the Orchard, and Caramel Apple-Pecan Pie

Apples.

 

 

Caramel and pecans.

Need I say more?

I’m going to anyway. It’s what I do.

Three quintessential flavors of Fall. Combined in a pie, they become decadent. This pie is so deeply rich and sweet; you’ll still taste it 364 days from now. And on the 365th day, you’ll make it again, just as I did on Sunday. (It may have been only 362 days since I made it last, but who’s counting…)

I love apple season. With the late Spring frost after the apple trees began blooming, I was rather concerned that there wouldn’t be any apples at the local orchards this year. While we haven’t been able to pick the apples ourselves, our favorite orchard does have their apples available in their store. So last week when my son had the day off from school, we headed to Center Grove Orchard near Cambridge, Iowa.

My kids love apples, too, but the draw for them at this orchard is not so much the apples. It’s The Farmyard. With a list of activities and “venues” much too extensive to mention, The Farmyard provides hours of fun and entertainment for kids big and small. A petting zoo, pedal carts, jumping pillow, and giant slide are just a few, and my kids’ personal favorite: the corn pool.

 

If it weren’t for the fact that millions or billions, quite possibly even trillions, of corn kernels had been dumped into a small arena and surrounded by straw bales, my kids would literally have ears coming out of their ears. (Get it? Ears. Of corn.)  While I didn’t find any corn in their ears, my daughter did deposit a kernel in the toilet as she undressed for the bathtub. She had corn absolutely everywhere. In places I didn’t know corn could reach.

 

Corny jokes aside (get it? corn-y), my favorite part of Center Grove Orchard, when not picking their apples myself, is the store. This is where I get my pre-picked apples, cider, and cider donuts, among other treats. On this trip I came home with a half-peck of Empires (we love these for eating as well as for making applesauce) and a peck of Jonathans (my favorite for pie).

There are so many versions of apple pie, I could probably make an apple pie every week and still not exhaust all the options. In the next few weeks I’ll be making my favorite classic apple pie, but for now I wanted a change of pace, something a little more indulgent.

Teresa over at My Homemade Iowa Life had requested a caramel apple pie recipe, and the recipe I had in mind certainly fit the bill for indulgence. This pie really is one that I make just once a year, and it comes from the book Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie, by Ken Haedrich (2004). If you’re looking for a helpful companion on all things pie, complete with detailed step-by-step directions, tips for success with each recipe, as well as anecdotes, side-notes, and background on the recipes, this book is so worth the money for its 639 pages. And like the title says, you get over 300 recipes, for every kind of pie you can imagine, and then some.

I’ll admit that I haven’t yet made very many recipes from this book. Yet. That’s one reason I started writing this blog. So in the weeks to come, you’ll likely be seeing several pies from the pages of Pie.

This week, it was the Caramel Apple-Pecan Pie (pages 229-231). Be forewarned, this pie takes a little time. It’s not difficult, but it’s not a pie that you can throw in the oven and walk away from for an hour. It will keep you in the kitchen for a while. (Any pie recipe that covers three pages is going to take some effort, but any pie recipe that covers three pages might be worth it. And this one is!) The caramel makes it indulgent, but the crunchy pecans (incorporated three times) knock this pie out of the park. Even my four-year-old daughter, who doesn’t like pecans, loved this pie. Her comment: “Mommy, I really like the croutons you put on the top. They’re so crunchy!”

What???!

Is it a crime not to tell her?

Ken Haedrich calls for using Golden Delicious apples, which I have used for this pie in the past. This time I switched it up a little in an attempt to lessen some of the sweetness, using half Golden Delicious and half Jonathan. The reliable Jonathans did not disappoint, nor did they overpower with tartness, and still allowed for a decadent pie. So if you’re in the mood for some rich Fall flavor, spend a little time in the kitchen, after a trip to the orchard, and indulge in this Caramel Apple-Pecan Pie.

Yours in pie,

Mindy

 

 

Caramel Apple-Pecan Pie

Pastry for a one-crust 9” pie (deep dish will work fine, too)

10 caramels, each cut into 4 pieces

 

For the filling:

7 c. peeled, cored, and sliced apples (I used half Golden Delicious, half Jonathan)

½ c. packed light brown sugar

1 T. fresh lemon juice

2 T. sugar

1 T. cornstarch

½ tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

For the pecan crumb topping:

¾ c. all-purpose flour

¾ c. pecan halves

½ c. sugar

¼ tsp. salt

6 T. butter, cut into small pieces

 

For the caramel and garnish:

3 T. butter, cut into pieces

1 T. water

30 caramels

Large handful of pecan halves

½ c. chopped pecans

 

Line pie plate with pastry and crimp the edges. Scatter caramel pieces in the pie shell and place in the freezer while preparing the filling. Preheat oven to 400°F.

 

Combine apples, brown sugar, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Mix well and set aside. Mix sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon together in small bowl. Stir this into the apple mixture along with the vanilla. Scrape the filling into the chilled pie shell, smoothing the fruit with your hands. Cover edges loosely with foil or a pie crust guard. Put pie on center rack in oven and bake for 30 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, make the crumb topping. Combine flour, pecan halves, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse several times, chopping the nuts coarsely. Scatter the butter over the dry mixture and pulse again until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Transfer to a bowl and finish combining with your hands to make damp, gravelly crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use. (If you do not have a food processor, you can use a pastry blender for making the crumb topping. Very finely chop the pecans first.)

 

Remove pie from oven and reduce oven temperature to 375°F. Carefully dump crumbs in center of pie, spreading them evenly over the surface with your hands. Tamp them down lightly. Return pie to oven and bake until juices bubble thickly around the edge, 30 to 40 minutes, or longer.

 

Transfer pie to wire rack to cool for about 1 hour.

 

While the pie is still warm – approaching the 1-hour mark – prepare the caramel. Combine butter, water, and caramels in the top of a double boiler. Melt caramels over (not in) barely simmering water. When melted, whisk mixture until smooth, and then drizzle caramel over entire surface of the pie. Immediately press pecan halves into caramel, then sprinkle chopped pecans over the top. Let cool several hours before serving.