Thanksgiving that perfect holiday before Christmas. The weather is getting cooler, with snow and rain in many places. I love fall colors, leaves change into beautiful colors during this time. New England has the most lovely natural display of fall trees, with yellow, red colors.
Not only nature, but also everyone gets into the holidays and gifting mood :)) and that is always exciting. But let me pause and speak for all, when we enjoy these treats and feasts with our families, we should not forgot about those that need some support or donations to enjoy the Thanksgiving too.
So while we are thankful, we can express and share a little love to all.
The feast of thanksgiving can include some many different things, like pies , turkey, mashed potatoes, biscuits, corn and vegetable casseroles, with ham and bacon, and so much more that we can make and enjoy with our family and friends.
This is my share of recipes that I would be making as we like pies.
This year I decided to prepare apple., pumpkin and my favorite chocolate pie.
I like to use ready to bake pie crusts
Lets's start with apple pie, with easy to make step by step recipe.
Ingredients for Apple pie
8 apples, pealed and sliced. golden or granny apples your choice
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp sugar to sprinkle on top
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg powder
2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 tbsp of all purpose flour
2 tbsp butter
Pie crust 9 inch ready to bake available in stores
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| Apple pie |
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| Ingredients for Apple |
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| Pie crust |
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| Ready to bake |
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| in oven |
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| Apple pie with ice cream |
Method:
For pie crust you can buy ready to bake pie crust available easily in market.
I used the 9 inch pastry sheet.
First for the filling , in a medium bowl,add sugar and mix with dry ingredients, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, toss in apples, add lemon juice and mix gently and keep aside.
Next, line up a 9 inch bottom baking plate with ready to bake pie crust, trimming the edges and making a design to give it a border frill.
Add apples filling in the bowl,don't add any more liquid! top with butter. Roll out remaining pastry sheet to cover apples filling. Trim and seal edges, and make slits on top to allow steam to escape while baking.
Brush the top, with milk and sprinkle some sugar for that extra sheen. Cover with silver foil and bake at 375 degrees F, for 25 to 30 minutes, till crust is golden brown and apple filling is bubbly. Allow to stand, for about 20 minutes before slicing the pie. Goes well when served with cream or vanilla ice cream!
Chocolate Pie
Another of my favorite pie, is of course chocolate pie. I mean who can resist the combination of smooth chocolate, with heavy whipping cream , that is fluffed up! I saw this recipe on TV and the next thing was like, I am definitely going to make this :)) and since then it has become my favorite.
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| Chocolate pie |
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| Ingredients for chocolate pie |
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| Add coco powder to sugar |
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| Mix dry ingredients |
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| Prepare graham cracker base in pie dish |
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| Add fluffy whipped cream and sprinkle chocolate |
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| Chocolate pie |
Ingredients
For the crust
2 packs (approximately 14 graham crackers )
6 tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar ( or you can use just plain sugar too )
For chocolate pudding ingredients
2 eggs separate the yolk ( you can save the white, I made an egg white omelette for my lunch :) using the leftover egg whites.)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
3 tbsp of coco powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
milk 2 cups ( I prefer to use whole milk, or at least 2 % for this recipe)
For the pie crust, using a mixer, add graham crackers, grind to coarse powder, add melted butter. Cover the pie dish, with this mixture, and pack the edges too. Use a measuring cup to press the mixture down, it works well.
Next, for the filling, using a sauce pan. Heat milk. Add cornstarch and stir on low heat.
In another bowl, add sugar and coco powder, add eggs one at a time.Add salt, vanilla essence gently add this mixture with warm milk, continue to cook on low heat, making sure to stir it.don't over cook, stir gently for few minutes and close burner as pudding bubbles,
Pour this prepared coco pudding mixture evenly into the already prepared graham pie dish. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 to 4 hours.
For the topping you can whip up 1 cup whipping cream, with 1/4 cup sugar. Whisk to form peaks,and then garnish the cooled pie with soft peak and you can add strawberries or soft chocolate curls as garnish too, along with the whipped cream.
Some like to use coco powder, whereas others even like bitter sweet, or plain chocolate for preparing the pudding, choice is yours :))have fun preparing this simple yet scrumptiously delicious pies, please yourself, friends and family!!
