Chocolate Tantric Pie

I recently made this pie for my friends at a birthday celebration. It's from the Esalen Cookbook. In many ways, I think it's a dream to go to the Esalen Institute in Big Sur and take cooking classes. But while I wait for that to happen, I might create my own mini Esalen sanctuary in my kitchen. The cookbook is beautiful with stories to accompany every recipe. Chocolate pies are usually too sweet or too dense for me, so I was excited to find this recipe incorporating two of my favorite ingredients: cayenne and ginger! The pie takes on a different taste where the sweet is complimented by the kick of cayenne and the tangy chewiness of ginger. This is also a step in the right direction of a healthy pie - I used a whole wheat crust from Rainbow Co-op and it tasted delicious! Enjoy my friends!...it tastes particularly good with ginger ice cream..mmmmmm

Chocolate Tantric Pie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chipped almonds

1 cup chopped candied ginger

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 whole wheat pie crust

Directions:

1. Over medium heat, bring the whipping cream to a simmer in a one quart saucepan. Stir continuously to prevent scorching on the bottom. 

2 Whisk as you slowly pour the chocolate chips into the cream and continue to stir until all the chocolate is melted. Stir in half the almonds and half the ginger. Stir in the cayenne pepper. 

3. Pour the chocolate tantric mixture into a pre-baked pie shell. 

4. Sprinkle the remaining almonds and ginger on top. Cool until firm. Slice and serve :)

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

We started getting Farm Fresh To You deliveries every other Tuesday and it has become the one of the highlights of the week. You never know what is going to arrive, all you know is that it will be seasonal and beautiful. Last week we received 3 stalks of rhubarb. I picked up some beautiful strawberries from the farmer's market and made this pie on a breezy Sunday evening. I realize that I have only ever eaten rhubarb in one form: pie form. When preparing rhubarb it has a very strong and pungent smell. I am not sure it would taste particularly pleasing without the sweetness of strawberries in the pie. I wonder if rhubarb can be made into a wine or perhaps a moonshine?  I would like to try rhubarb in forms other than pie, please share if you have any recommendations!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie


Ingredients:
2 cups chopped rhubarb
2 1/4 cups sliced strawberries
8/9 cup sugar
A little less than 1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Zest of half a lemon
1 whole wheat crust (I purchase these frozen from Rainbow Coop)

Crumble Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup (half stick) butter chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, zest and cinnamon.
3. Pour mixture into thawed pie crust.
4. In a bowl mix the flour, salt, walnuts, brown sugar and butter with your heads until small clumps form. Sprinkle topping evenly over pie filling.
5. Bake in the center of the oven for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove and let cool for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream :)

Brown Butter Raspberry Tart

As part of a birthday dinner for Andy I decided to make a raspberry tart for dessert. This is one of my favorite desserts to date. It's very delicious and I think I definitely ended up eating most of this extra large tart! I would love to make this again and use blackberries, blueberries or even sliced strawberries or cherries! I served this with vanilla frozen yogurt however I believe it would be quite delicious with whipped cream or French vanilla ice cream. Since butter is a key ingredient in this, it's important to use good butter. I used the Trader Joe's organic unsalted butter.

                             

Brown Butter Raspberry Tart

(Recipe adapted from epicurious.com)

Ingredients:

Crust:

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Pinch of salt

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsalted butter, diced

2 6-ounce containers fresh raspberries

Directions:

For crust:

1. To prepare the crust, position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 375 degrees. Using a rubber spatula mix the melted butter, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl. Add the flour and salt and stir until incorporated. You may need to use your hands to form it into a giant dough ball.

2. Transfer dough to a 9 inch diameter tart pan with a removable bottom. Use your finger tips to press the dough evenly onto the bottom and sides of the pan.

3. Bake the crust until it is golden, about18 minutes. The crust will puff a little bit while baking. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool. Maintain the oven on 375 degrees.

For filling:

4. In a medium bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs, and salt. Add the flour and vanilla and whisk until smooth. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, cook the butter until it is a deep nutty brown, do not burn. You will need to stir the butter often and it should take about 6-8 minutes. Immediately pour the butter into a glass measuring cup, gradually whisk the butter into the sugar and egg mixture, whisking until smooth.

5. Arrange the raspberries, pointed side up and close together in circles on the cooled crust.

6. Carefully pour the batter evenly over the raspberries. Place tart on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until filling is puffed and golden brown and a tester comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool tart on a rack, cut into wedges and enjoy!

Katie's Mom's Delicious Oatmeal Pie

After a delightful and comforting home cooked meal of a tomato braised lentil dish, our wonderful hostess Katie brought out the show stopper: a pie that takes the delicious oatmeal cookie to a whole new level. This divine pie is a recipe from Katie's Mom, Debbie. It was perfectly moist and gooey and absolutely delicious! This recipe is very easy too, so you can whip this show stopper up for pretty much any occassion. I can imagine that this same pie would taste great with a scoop of chai ice cream or perhaps some ginger or chocolate mixed throughout or even some apple chunks! My boyfriend, who rarely asks for his own dessert and usually just takes some of mine, against my will, even asked for his own slice of pie and exclaimed it was the best pie he's ever had! Thank you so much Debbie and Katie for sharing this delicious pie with us!

Katie's Mom's Delicious Oatmeal Pie
(Makes 1 whole pie)

Ingredients:
3 eggs

2/3 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2/3 cup quick cooking oats
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 unbaked pie shell

Directions:
1. Beat eggs well in bowl. Stir in sugars, oats, coconut, milk, butter and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees 30-35 minutes.

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche with a Brown Rice Crust

I came home from work and was really craving the good'ol comfort of the broccoli cheddar combination. I have some frozen pie shells so I was thinking I could easily whip together a quiche. Then I found this recipe on Closet Cooking and when I told my roommate, Celadon, about the brown rice idea she got so excited that I had to make it! While the effort involved at first seemed too much for a week night, it ended up being really easy. I changed the recipe to include more cheddar - yes, I was in that cheesey sort of mood. Also, I used the Trader Joe's brand Brown Rice Medley which is a lovely combination with black barley and daikon radish seeds. Surprisingly, this quiche is suppossedly one of the Taste Tester's favorites. Surprising for two reasons: 1. it is vegetarian and 2. it's not spicy, although he did dress the quiche with Sriracha accordingly. The brown rice crust makes this quiche loads more filling and healthy. I had some for lunch the following day and the Taste Tester polished it off for dinner the following night.

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche with Brown Rice Crust
Adapted from Closet Cooking

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked brown rice
1/4 cup chedder cheese, grated
1 egg, (I used fake eggs for all the eggs)
4 eggs
1 cup soy milk
2 cups broccoli, cut into bite size pieces and blanched
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, grated
1/4 cup chopped white onion
A pinch nutmeg

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Mix the rice, cheese and egg in a bowl. Press the mixture into a pie pan. Bake for 5 minutes.
2. Mix in the eggs, milk, broccoli, cheddar, onion, nutmeg in a bowl. Feel free to sprinkle with salt and pepper for taste. Pour this into the rice crust. Turn the oven down to 375 degrees and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until it is set in the center. Let it cool for a bit before you dive in - enjoy!

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

This recipe combines two pie favorites into one! Cooking genius Kevin of Closet Cooking devised this heavenly holiday dessert recipe. My first stumble upon his recipe made me want to lick the monitor so I had to make it! The only element I changed was that I used hazelnut liquor instead of bourbon. Also, I used store bought canned sweet potato puree rather making it from scratch. I found that this pie tasted even better the following day, after having been chilled in the refrigerator over night. I don't know about you, but I always preferred chilled pumpkin pie as opposed to room temperature. Also, it holds together much more nicely after having been chilled. The blog Salt to Taste is have a Tried and Tasted event that features the Closet Cooking blog for the month of December! Another great reason to make this pie :)

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

Adapted from Closet Cooking recipe

Ingredients:

1 pie crust

2 cups sweet potato puree

2 eggs (or fake eggs)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 tablespoons hazelnut liquor (optional)

1 1/2 cups pecan halves

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 eggs (or fake eggs)

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon hazelnut liquor (optional)

Directions:

1. Mix the sweet potatoes, eggs, sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and hazelnut liquor in a large bowl and pour it into the pie crust.
2. Place the pecans on top of the sweet potato filling.

3. Mix the sugar, maple syrup, eggs, butter, vanilla and hazelnut liquor and pour it on top of the pecans
4. Bake in a preheated 375F oven until the pastry is golden brown and the pecan layer is set, about 40-60 minutes.

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

Quiche is one of those universally enjoyed foods that tastes delicious for breakfast, lunch and dinner! And broccoli and cheddar are one of those match-made-in-heaven combinations that works for soups, casserols, quiche and probably a whole flurry of other items. This delicious deep dish quiche dissappeared rather quickly. This recipe is simple and easy and the only time requirement is baking and cooling. I really wish I had a slice of this right now. My quiche is adapted from this recipe in the last issue of Gourmet magazine.  With so many delicious kinds of quiche, I would love to have a "Unique Quiche" party where everyone brings a quiche and we listen to QUeen and talk about QUilting....okay, I am getting ahead of myself with the QU theme. I used a bag of frozen broccoli florets for this that I thawed out and heated in the microwave for a couple minutes.

Broccoli Cheddar Quiche

Ingredients:

1 deep dish pie shell

12 oz broccoli florets (1-2 inches of the stem attached)

4 large garlic cloves, minced

6 large eggs, 1 1/2 cups fake eggs are a perfect substitute!

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons chopped onion

2 cups grated cheddar

1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the rack on the middle level in the oven.

2. Whisk together the garlic, eggs, buttermilk, nutmeg, cayenne, onion, and cheddar in a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour the filling into the pie shell and sprinkle the parmesan on top.

3. Bake the quiche until it is just set and golden on top, about 45-55 minutes. Cool for at least 20 minutes.

Mini Apple Butter Pies

On a recent trip visiting my friend's family down south, we visited his grandparents, Libby and Robert, who make an award winning apple butter! Every fall, the local community gathers to make cases of this apple butter. For decades they have peeled, cut and churned the apple butter by hand. This is the first year that they have purchased a new electric mixer and there are some sore feelings about this as it is not producing the same great taste of past years. When we went to visit Libby and Robert, they were at the local volunteer fire station with the other elders of the community peeling apples. We got a little tour of the process and a handful of jars to bring back! Fortunatley, we were able to get some of the last jars from the 2008 batch which were made the old fashioned way.  Here is a picture of Libby and Robert peeling the apples.

I have never had apple butter before but when I tried it for the first time, on a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it was delicious. Ironically, apple butter doesn't actually have butter in it. In fact it is quite similar to apple sauce except that it is much more appely and with a lot more cinnamon and cloves. Apple butter tastes great over ice cream, spread on a bagel or a biscuit. I'm sure there are many other uses for apple butter and luckily I have a huge jar so I will get to experiment a lot. I had some left over pie dough and I remember as a child, using the scraps of  my mom's pie dough to make mini jam pies. I decided to make mini apple butter pies and add in some nuts for extra crunch. These were superb with vanilla ice cream!

Mini Apple Butter Pies

Ingredients:

1 store bought pie crust

Apple butter

Walnuts

A bit of egg whites

Cinammon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Roll the pie crust into a ball and roll it out on a floured surface until you have a nice thin sheet. Using a circular cookie cutter (I don't have one and used a chickpea can which worked just fine) cut out small rounds and place them on a baking sheet.  Gather the dough scraps and roll out and cut again until you have used all the dough.

3. Finely chop up the walnuts and mix them in a small bowl with a bit of apple butter.

4. Place very small dollops on the dough rounds and gently fold one edge of the rounds over the apple mixture and press down to seal close on the other side. You should have a nice half moon shape.

5. Brush a bit of egg white over the mini pies and sprinkle a dash of cinnamon on each one. Bake in the oven for about 7 minutes until it is slightly golden around the edges.

Celadon's Bacon and Gruyere Quiche with Spinach and Onion

"It must be the smell of bacon."  That's what my roommate, Celadon, said when I exclaimed how happy I suddenly felt after a kind of stressful day. Before even opening the door to our apartment, I could smell something wonderful. Celadon made a very scrumptious and very comforting quiche that quickly disappeared. Adapted from Emeril Lagasse's Quiche Lorraine, Celadon's quiche was wonderfully rich and filling and the perfect meal for...well...breakfast, lunch and dinner! And let's be honest, bacon makes us happy.

Celadon's Bacon and Gruyere Quiche with Spinach and Onion
(Makes one pie)

Ingredients:
1 pie crust
3 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 cup gruyere, grated
1/4 white onion, chopped into small pieces
6 strips of bacon
1/2 cup spinach
Salt, pepper and cayenne for taste

Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees and bake the pie crust for 8-10 min
2. Cook bacon all the way through until crispy.
3. Saute the onions and the spinach until the onions are translucent, about 3 minutes
4. Whisk the eggs and half and half together and add some salt, pepper and a pinch of cayenne. Add in the onions and spinach to the egg mixture.
5. Crumble the bacon at bottom of pie crust, pour the egg mixture on top. Cook the quiche for 30-35 minutes until it is set but still a little bubbly. Enjoy!!!

Tomato Pie

My good friend has been talking about his mother's tomato pie for ages. I finally got to try some of this deliciousness on a recent visit and it was indeed delicious! I got her original recipe and have wanted to make it. This was the last weekend of large, plump, luscious tomatoes at our local farmer's market so I seized the opportunity to make my own adapted version of this famed Southern dish. Tomato pie originated on the coast of South Carolina and everyone has their own version but the basic ingredients of pie crust, tomatoes and cheese have stayed constant. I would love to try this again and use sweet onions or green onions. It's perfect for brunch, lunch or dinner.

Tomato Pie

(Makes one 9 inch pie tin)

Ingredients:

2 pie crusts

4 large ripe tomatoes

1 cup grated mozzarella

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar

1 cup mayonnaise

1 1/2 cups chopped basil

1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Thaw the pie crusts and roll them together to form one large ball. Adding some flour, roll it out on a floured surface into one large sheet. Place over a deep dish 9 inch pie pan crimping the edges to make a nice pie crust. You will most likely not need all the pie dough. Heat the pie crust in the oven for about 7 minutes or just until the bottom starts to bubble.

3. Slice the tomatoes and place on a paper towel to let drain for 10 minutes.

4. Put 1/2 cup grated mozzarella on the bottom of the pie crust. Layer the tomato slices over lapping just until slightly below the top of the pie tin. Layer on the grated cheddar and the other 1/2 cup grated mozzarella.

5. In a bowl combine the mayonnaise, garlic, parmesan and basil. Layer this mixture on top of the cheese covering the entire pie top.

6. Bake in the over for about 35 minutes, just until the top is slightly golden and bubbly.

Veggie and Chicken Sausage Quiche with a Potato Crust

Wow. I have never made quiche before and quite frankly I didn't even like quiche until this weekend. Quiche is so versatile and there really is an endless amount of possible mix-ins. I can't wait to continue experimenting with quiche! I adapted this one from a recipe I found on For The Love of Cooking and I absolutely love the idea of a potato crust! Not only is it much more healthy than traditional quiche crusts, but it adds a whole new delicious flavor and texture! This is the perfect dish to make for brunch; it's filling, tasty and looks incredible! Quiche is usually high in cholesterol because of the eggs, cheese, and traditional crust, however this recipe is pretty much cholesterol free and very delicious! With a little bit of spicy hot sauce and ketchup, this is the perfect pick-me-up brunch meal!

Veggie and Chicken Sausage Quiche with a Potato Crust

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 large Yukon Gold potato sliced very thinly

Olive oil

1/2 yellow onion, chopped into small pieces

1 heaping cup of sliced mushrooms

1 large tomato diced

1 cup of frozen peas

1 heaping cup of fresh spinach diced

2 chicken sausage links, halved and cut into slices (I use Trader Joe's spinach, fontina and roasted garlic chicken sausages)

Heaping 1/4 cup feta cheese (I use Trader Joe's non-fat)

7 eggs (I use fake eggs, 1 3/4 cups fake eggs which equals 7 eggs)

1/4 milk

Dried chili flakes

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees and coat a pie dish with cooking spray and layer the thin slices of potato all over the bottom and edges of the pan. You will need to overlap the potato slices to make sure the pan is completely covered. Spray the potatoes with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place pan in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium high heat and saute the onions for a few minutes, and then add the mushrooms for a few minutes. Lastly, add the spinach, chicken sausage and peas for a couple minutes until all the flavors are combined evenly. Remove from heat

3. Put the tomatoes and half of the feta cheese on top of the potato crust, then add the veggie and chicken sausage mixture.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk and season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture on top of the veggies and sprinkle the left over feta cheese and dried chili flakes.

5. Place in the oven for 35-45 minutes until a tester comes out clean. After removing it from the oven let it cool for a few minutes; slice and enjoy!