Thanksgiving means pie.  This apple pie fits right in with the required pumpkin and pecan pies.  Using brown sugar instead of white makes the filling rich, dark and caramely.

The recipe comes from a small cookbook my Aunt Gerry put together years ago.  I bet if she’d had computers and internet, she would have had a food blog!

• 1 cup brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
• 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 Tbs. flour
• 6 cups sliced, peeled apples (about 9 small apples)
• 1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
• 2 unbaked pie shells (recipe for homemade pie crust is here)

Stir the brown sugar, cinnamon and flour together in a bowl.  Sprinkle over the apples and stir to coat the well.

Place one crust in the bottom of the pie plate.  Pile the apples in the crust.  Slice the butter in thin pats and place on top of the apples.  Top with the second crust, crimping the edges to seal.

Bake at 425 degrees for 50-60 minutes.  I always place my fruit pies on a cookie sheet to bake.  They have a tendency to run over in the oven and the cookie sheet is much easier to clean than the bottom of the oven.

Last week my neighbor gave me some fresh blackberries.  There weren’t quite enough for a cobbler or pie, but I had a few peaches too.  I was not sure if this combination would taste good, so I asked for opinions on the Eat at Home Facebook page.  A few thought it was worth trying and a few people voted no on the idea.

Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to try it.  The verdict?  Yum!  You can’t go wrong with fresh summer fruit sweetened and baked into a pie.

• 2 pie crusts (recipe for homemade version)
• 6 peaches, peeled and sliced
• 1-1 1/2 cups blackberries
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup instant tapioca

Put the first pie crust in a pie plate.  Stir the peaches, blackberries, and sugar together in a bowl until the sugar dissolves.  Stir in the tapioca and let the fruit sit for about 15 minutes.

Pour the fruit into the pie crust.  Lay to top crust over the fruit.  Crimp the edges and cut slits in the top.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

I recommend putting a cookie sheet on the rack below the pie or directly under the pie plate.  Fruit pies are notorious for running over in the oven.

What is your favorite fruit pie?

I woke up one morning, and found myself inventing this pie in my mind.  Why I would wake up thinking of pie, is beyond me, but I’m glad I did.   The classic combination of graham cracker, chocolate and toasted marshmallows are fantastic in a pie.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• graham cracker crust – 1 used the larger size
• 2 boxes chocolate cook and serve pudding
• Nutella – about 1/4 cup
• marshmallow cream – about 1/2 cup
• mini marshmallows – about 3/4 cup

Cook the pudding according to the package directions.  While it cools, spread a layer of marshmallow cream in the bottom of the pie crust.  I had a little trouble with the marshmallow pulling up the crust in places.  Just be gentle and it’s okay if it’s not an even layer of marshmallow cream.  Spread the Nutella over the top of the marshmallow.

Pour the chocolate pudding into the pie crust.  Allow to cool about 10 minutes.  Sprinkle the mini marshmallows over the top, so all the pudding is covered.  Put the pie under the broiler just until the marshmallows toast.  Watch it close so you don’t burn them.  Cool the pie and then cover and refrigerate.

This pie is really easy to make and I think the toasted marshmallows make it a little different and special.

My mother-in-law makes the best strawberry pie (and peach using the same recipe).  The crust reminds me of sugar cookies and the glaze enhances the flavor of the strawberries and makes the pie look as good as it tastes. 

Here’s what you’ll need for the crust:

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 Tbs. milk

Mix the dry ingredients with a fork in a large bowl.  Add the wet ingredients and stir to mix.  Press into a pie plate.  It works better to use a pie plate that is on the small side.  The pan I used is pretty big and I had to press the pie crust out too thin.  That made getting a nice looking piece of pie out of the pan pretty difficult.

After patting out the crust, bake it at 400 degrees on the lower rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes until it’s slightly brown. 

Here’s what you’ll need for the filling:

1 cup sugar

2 Tbs. corn syrup

7 Tbs. cornstarch (or a bit more)

1 cup water

3 Tbs. strawberry jello (that’s about 1/2 a small box)

sliced strawberries

Cook the sugar, corn syrup, corn starch and water over medium heat, stirring constantly until it is thick and clear.  Remove from heat and add 3 Tbs. of jello.  Cool the filling and add the strawberries.  Pour it all into the cooled crust and refridgerate.

The pie is really good with whipped cream, but since food blogging can begin to go to a person’s hips, I decided to skip it this time around.

The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville.  Even if you’ve never watched a horse race before, the Derby is the perfect excuse to make this pie.  I made two of them over the weekend.  They didn’t last 24 hours.

I can’t officially call this Derby Pie, as it’s known locally, because that name has a copyright.  The original recipe is carefully guarded, but many versions exist.   The original calls for English walnuts and chocolate chips.

The recipe I’m sharing here was given to me by a friend.  I’ve never had the original Derby Pie, but I don’t see how it could taste any better than this version.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1/2 cup butter (the real deal), melted

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp. vanilla (or 3 Tbs. bourbon) – I used 1 Tbs. coffee liqueur in one of the pies

3/4 cup nuts (I used pecans, the original calls for English walnuts)

3/4 cup chocolate chips

pie shell, unbaked

Put the pie shell in a shallow pie plate.  In a large bowl, stir together the ingredients in the order given.  Pour into the pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

I made one pie with vanilla extract and one with coffee liqueur.  We all liked the pie with the liqueur better.  There was no taste of coffee, just a deeper flavor.  A bit more decadent.  How can that be a bad thing?

Make this pie this weekend.  Post time for the Derby is 6:24 pm.  Pull up a chair, grab a fork and a piece of Kentucky Chocolate Nut Pie and cheer for your favorite horse.  My money’s on Chocolate Candy.  With a name like that, how can he lose?

Making this crust is as easy as pie Sorry, I couldn’t resist that. I made two cherry pies on Thanksgiving Day to take to my in-laws the next day. They were very yummy!

Here’s what you’ll need for one crust:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup (less) solid crisco or butter
1 tsp. salt
2Tbs. + 1 tsp. water

I always use butter in my crusts and I soften it a bit. Notice that you’ll use a bit less than 1/2 cup. I use about 1 Tbs. less. If you’re making a two crust pie, don’t forget to double the recipe.

The basic directions are to cut the butter into the flour and salt. Add the water and stir with a fork until it forms a ball. Roll it out and put it in the pie pan.

Here are some pictures to go with the instructions.

Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour. The above picture looks like feta cheese crumbles to me, but it’s not.

It will form a ball like this after you add the water, just keep stirring with the fork.

Roll the crust out thin on a floured surface. I use the pie plate to measure if the crust is big enough, like this:

Like the pie plate? It’s Bybee Pottery. It’s available in several shops in Kentucky, but you can buy it here. The pie plates are wonderful, as are their other products. Okay, back to our crust.

As you can see, I didn’t get the crust in there straight and was a little short on one side. No problem. I pinched off an extra piece and patched it in. Just like working with play dough!

If you’re making a single crust pie, at this point you would pinch around the edges and finish it off. Since I was making a two crust pie, that step came after I added the filling and the top crust.

The cherries were a gift from a friend. She has some awesome cherry trees in her backyard.

The filling was really hot and was making the pie crust soft. I should have cooled the filling first.

There it is before I baked it. Here it is after.

And with the left over crust scraps you can make these yummy cinnamon snacks. Roll out the scraps, spread with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll, cut and bake.

My husband thinks these are the reason to make a pie in the first place.

I love pumpkin pie. I will eat many pieces of it, even having it for breakfast. Pumpkin is a vegetable, right? I do like my pie spicy though and this one takes care of that.

What you’ll need:

2 eggs
1 can pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
1 2/3 cup milk (or 12 oz can evaporated milk)
1 unbaked pie shell

Beat the eggs with a whisk. Add the sugar and then pumpkin, mixing well. Add the spices and mix until the spices are well distributed. Add the milk and mix. (I used 2/3 cup of half and half and 1 cup of milk) Pour the great smelling mixture into an unbaked pie shell. Sometime I’ll share how to make a very easy homemade crust, but I was too lazy for that this time so I used a Pillsbury refrigerated crust.

Bake the pie at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to 350 degrees and bake another 45-50 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Try not to eat it all yourself.