Pies!

We had a neighborhood picnic this weekend, and I signed up to bring a pie for the Pie Contest. I didn't just want to make an apple pie, anyone can make an apple pie. I know anyone can because I can, in fact that is the only kind of pie I have ever made. I wanted to make something Fabulous, maybe something with a single crust. So I looked online for a while and found a few recipes I wanted to try. One was a Mock Pecan and the other was a Peanut Butter and Chocolate pie. I couldn't decide which one to make for the picnic, so I made both. Ken had Friday off of work this week, so that he could participate in Youth Conference/Day Camp for the Special Need Mutual, he was going to be home until around 10 AM and he agreed to watch the boys while I made pie crusts....well it turned out that he watched the boys while I made the whole pies. 

I love Pie Crust. LOVE IT!

Never having made a single crust pie before, I was a little uncertain about how to make the crust nice looking- you know, how to crimp the edges and stuff. The Peanut Butter pie needed a pre-baked crust. I made the crust, put it in the pan then cut and crimped the edges. I made 2 mistakes with this crust- first, I cut the crust so that the crimped edges were above the top of the pie dish, second, I didn't crimp very hard. I discovered after it was baked that the crimped edges had come apart and fallen over the side of the pie dish......oops. It wasn't the prettiest pie crust I had ever made, but it did taste good.

Next, I melted some chocolate and stirred in a couple tablespoons of heavy whipping cream, when it was all well combined I spread it into the pie crust and put it in the refrigerator to cool, it needed to be firm before I could pour the peanut butter layer on.

For the Peanut Butter layer, I mixed 1/2 cup peanut butter together with one 5 oz package of instant vanilla pudding powder. Once that was combined I turned on the heat and let it melt and then I mixed in some milk. This next part was the most annoying- I had to stir it constantly over LOW heat until it boiled. IT TOOK FOREVER! .

Then once it boiled I took it off the heat and let it cool for 15 minutes, then I poured it over the chocolate and put the pie back in the fridge to cool completely. This pie tasted good! It also held together really well. I saw one man take a slice, he was using a fork and the piece came out perfectly- then before he got it too his plate he dropped the piece of pie! He caught it with his hand, any other pie would have fallen apart or smashed...this one just kind of giggled and he put it onto his plate and walked away....very nice.

Having learned my lesson from the first pie crust I made two very necessary changes-  I trimmed the crust much shorter and I crimped the edges with much more force. I have decided that this crust is the prettiest pie crust I have ever made.

Now, this is a Mock Pecan pie. This is a pie perfect for those who enjoy the sweet goodness of pecan pie but who don't enjoy or can't eat pecans. I happen to be married to just such a person, and he was excited for the sweet sugary goodness of this pie! I must say it was pretty simple to make Eggs, Brown Sugar, White Sugar, Vanilla and melted butter all beaten together, then fold in some rolled oats and coconut, pour it into the the pie crust and bake it for 30 min. Edges covered, of course.

It was a very good looking pie, it had a crusty top and I had no idea what the inside was like.....it was at this point that I said to myself "What were you thinking?! You made two pies for a pie contest and you have no idea if they are even good!"

Well, they were good, and it turns out that there was no pie contest! The would be judges were also manning the 4 BBQ grills that were cooking the hamburgers and hot dogs for all the picnickers. They greatly underestimated the amount of people who were going to show up for the picnic and or how long it would take to cook all that meat and before they could judge the pies....the pies had pretty much all been eaten. Oh well, maybe next year. I do know this, I made two pretty yummy pies. I am definitely going to try the Mock Pecan again, it was a little runny, I want to figure out how to get it to set properly....because I too like that sugary filling.