It's Pie-day Pie-day

Well hello there!

Ever since Rebecca Black released that [ingenious].. song, every Friday I think of Pie (Pie-day Pie-day Gotta get down on Pie-day).. clever, eh?

Anyway, so I wanted to post about my love affair with baking these beautiful creations.

Now, let me express to you, that I have no idea what I am doing. I have no experience or teaching except the experience I personally gain from teaching myself.  I'm one of those bakers/cooks that follows the... idea of a recipe but runs on a slightly off course direction.  I have to make it my own after all.. right?

The biggest thing I would like to imprint on any of you fresh bakers out there, is CORNSTARCH.  If you are making a fruit pie, you simply can't do without it.  And if a recipe calls for tapioca beads, IGNORE that and go for cornstarch.

You see.. I tried the Tapioca beads before, and they make your filling kind of ugly.. like there's itty bits of Styrofoam floating about.  Perhaps I did it wrong, but it didn't attain the effect I wanted anyway, but behold, the beauty and wonder of a few tablespoons of Cornstarch.  There is nothing worse than a runny fruit pie.. It's embarrassing.

Anyway, here are some of my creations :


Toasted Coconut Cream Pie

I'm not usually a Coconut fan (love the flavor, not the texture), but toasting the coconut changes everything!!However, my crust is looking pretty weak ;)

Peanut Butter Lover

Peanut Butter pie seems to be a crowd pleaser! And though I am not the biggest fan, I can't help but to have a slice myself.  I like to melt down Nutella, and line the graham cracker crust with it before putting in my mixture.  

Delicious!

Berry Blend Bonanza

... That's not the actual name of it.. I just thought it sounded nice ;)

This is especially one of those pies you want to mix cornstarch in to.  I made this one with the Tapioca beads and it was so runny. It smelt and tasted amazing, but  it was definitely embarrassing that all the filling poured out as soon as you removed a slice!

 Deep Dish Caramel Apple
       (with a Cinnamon Toasted Crust)


There is nothing like a hot and fresh apple pie. Especially when you throw in actual caramel soft chews!

So the typical things that ruin apple pie is if the apples aren't cooked through, and if it's too runny.  You already know how to fix the runny issue, but I like to simmer my cut apples on the stove for a bit first to soften them up.  You just throw them in a deep pan with some brown sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch, for maybe 8 minutes or so, and that will give them a good start. 

 Sweet-N-Salty Strawberry Perfection

So, I definitely made that name up.. as I don't remember what this is called.  It was a special request and I had to google the recipe.  But would you believe it, the crust is made of crushed pretzel sticks.  Don't grimace, it was delicious.  It's followed up with a strawberry infused cool whip mixture, then topped with real strawberries mixed into strawberry Jello. It's surprisingly refreshing!

Blueberry Cobbler

So, anything Blueberry is pretty much amazing.  But I wanted to share this picture because it's a perfect example of what I mean by runny pie.

I didn't follow a recipe here, just kind of went for it, and did not use any thickening ingredient.  You can see the blueberry juice in the spoon!

This still tasted heavenly, but Cornstarch would have made a huge difference in the appearance!

RAINBOW CHEESECAKE!!!

This was really fun to make.  It's my same old Cheesecake recipe, which was given to me from a co-worker years ago, who found it LONG ago out of a magazine!

 It uses FIVE packages of cream cheese!!! 

Anyway, after mixing the batter like usual, I divided the batter into four different bowls, and used a [generous] amound of food coloring.  

You could use much less and get a more pastel tint which would probably be great for 

Easter, or maybe just doing Green for St. Patrick's, fun fun!

Anyway, after mixing the food coloring in, you just pour in the colors one at a time. You could toothpick in some spirals if you'd like, but this was my first time, didn't want to get too crazy.

Doesn't it remind you of the food fight seen in the movie Hook? hahaha

Anyway, Enjoy PIEDAY!!!!! and Have a great weekend ;)