Tag: dessert

Anya’s Posting Challenge — Again — And Pie

Anya said I have too much “computer stuff” on my website again — not enough kittens and pie and fun stuff. So I am not allowed to post anything about computers for ALL OF FEBRUARY! And, if I do post about it, I get March added on. And another month for the next infraction, and so on. So  … umm … pie!

Anya made a peach pie — I had extra pie crust dough from making a quiche a few nights ago, and we had frozen sliced peaches over the summer when we picked up a big pile of fresh peaches. I made a maple sugar crumble (maple sugar instead of brown sugar in a crumble recipe) for the topping. Anya used cookie cutters to decorate the pie with maple leaves and a snowflake. It was very tasty!

Recipe – Speculoos

  • 4 cups flour , sifted
  • 1½ cup brown brown sugar
  • 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
  • ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon ground anise
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Mix the flour and baking powder together.

Mix the butter with sugar, salt and spices. Add the eggs one by one and mix well.

Gradually add the flour mixture and stir.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C.

Cut the dough into 4 equal pieces.

Thoroughly dust the work surface with flour and the rolling pin. Roll the first piece dough to a thickness of ¼ inch

Cut the dough with a knife or a cookie cutter and use the wooden or silicone mold to make some prints on the speculoos.

Place the speculoos on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for about 10 minutes.

Allow to cool for a few minutes, then place on a cookie rack to cool.

Maple Pecan Pie Filling

  • 2 1/2 cups pecan halves
  • 5 Tbsp melted butter, cooled
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup maple syrup

This recipe requires the pie crust to be blind baked — do that first and allow the crust to cool! Preheat oven to 350F.

Lay the pecan halves over the bottom of the pie crust.

Whisk together the butter, brown sugar, flour, vanilla, salt, eggs, and maple syrup. Pour over the pecans.

Put a pie crust shield on to protect the edge of the pie from overcooking. Bake for 45 minutes until the top is browned slightly.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 large duck egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
  • 3/4 cup raisins

Mixed it all together and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool slightly (and firm up) before eating.

Maple Butterscotch

The maple butterscotch topping I made for Scott’s cake was quite simple — 2/3 cup of heavy whipping cream, 4 Tbsp butter, and 1 cup of maple syrup. Melt the butter in a pan, then mix in the whipping cream. Add maple and boil until it’s really bubbly — sauce will thicken on the back of a spoon when it cools.

Another Pumpkin Pie

We grew a lot of pumpkins this year, so I was able to use fresh, homegrown pumpkin for the pie!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups pumpkin puree (really, really smooth — blender it a lot, push it through a screen to pull out fibers. I also let it sit in the fridge for a few days and dumped off the water that separated out)
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup maple sugar
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2+ tsp ginger
  • 1/4+ tsp nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp cloves
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/4 cup almond milk

Stir all of the stuff together — it should form a smooth custard. Bake at 375F for about an hour. I used my walnut pie crust (but with almonds instead of walnuts), so I had the crust covered for the entire baking time.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

I didn’t use this recipe for Thanksgiving this year, but it’s another one I keep meaning to write down online so I’m not digging out an old e-mail to myself!

Ingredients:

  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter (room temp)
  • 1 c cream cheese (room temp)
  • 1/4 c maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp lemon juice

Using the stand mixer and whipping attachment — beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth and creamy.

Add in maple, vanilla, salt, and lemon. Beat for about 5 more minutes.

Walnut Cookie Crust

  • 1.5 cup pulverized walnut pieces (also works well with almonds)
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/4t sea salt
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 2T sugar
  • 2 egg whites (or one whole egg)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put walnuts into a food processor and pulverize – not just powdered, some 1/8″ pieces should remain.

Measure 1.5 cups of pulverized walnuts. Combine with flour, salt, and sugar.

Melt butter. Using a fork, cut the melted butter into the dry ingredients. Add egg whites and cut together until evenly moist.

Press dough to the bottom of a pie or tart plate (can be lined with parchment – makes removing the pie a LOT easier). Cook for 15 minutes. Crust should be crunchy and brown.

Maple Whipped Cream

I’m saving a few recipes we used this Thanksgiving

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 2 T maple syrup
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the whipping bowl into the freezer a few hours ahead of time so it’s really cold. When ready to whip, combine cream, maple, and vanilla. Whip — Anya likes to shake it in a jar or use the old-school hand-cranked spinny beater. I prefer a firm peak — when you see peaks and valleys formed as the beater moves through the cream & picking up the beaters leaves behind a little mountain of whipped cream.

Coconut Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

  • 1 15 oz can coconut milk plus enough water to make 3 cups
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 cup long-grained white rice
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup raisins

Method:

  1. Put coconut milk, water, maple syrup, rice, and salt into pressure cooker. Pressure cook on High for 3 minutes. Let set for 10 minutes (natural steam release).
  2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs. A teaspoon at a time, add hot liquid from pressure cooker into eggs to temper. Once hot enough, mix eggs into rice pudding. Heat for about three minutes — it will thicken up.
  3. Add vanilla and raisins. Stir to combine.