Cream pies

[Dora]

I like pie. I make pie. I am ashamed to admit that I have never made any kind of cream pie. Something about them indimidates me.

I have a potluck to go to on Sunday and I want to take a pie. It's too hot to bake a fruit pie, so I think I'd like to dare a banana cream, coconut cream, maybe chocolate cream... I dunno.

Any tips or favorite recipes to share?

[Jessica]

1. I've made this Banana Cream Pie a few times.

Everyone always raves over it. I saw it on the Food Network - All American Festivals: Pretzel Festival. It has this amazing pretzel crust that doesn't crumble or fall apart at all. And the only part of the pie you bake is the crust ... so easy!

My suggestions are: Make sure you flour your rolling pin & counter space well when working with the dough, cause it can be sticky. After you roll the dough out & put it in the pan, if it's not big enough, it's really easy to press it out to the sides. You really can't mess it up.

Also, the last step is to add 3 cups of whipped topping on top -- and I've never used that much. I just eyeball it & then smooth out the top with my spatula. Then, I sprinkle some of the leftover crushed pretzels on top. Looks like it came from a bakery!

I hope you try it! :hi:

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup finely crushed pretzels, butter flavored pretzels suggested, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon salt
9 tablespoons butter or butter flavored shortening, room temperature
3 tablespoons ice cold water

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup whipped topping, plus 3 cups
4 large bananas, sliced
1 (3-ounce) package instant vanilla pudding
1 1/4 cups milk

Crust:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, pretzels, salt, and butter until texture is crumbly. Add water, and mix well. Roll with rolling pin until you have a nice thin even crust, large enough for a deep-dish pie plate. Place in pie plate (crust is very fragile and will fall apart but pinches back together nicely) flute edges, poke with fork and bake for 12 minutes. Cool completely.

Filling:
In medium mixing bowl, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 cup whipped topping. Spread cream cheese mixture on top of the cooled pretzel crust. Slice bananas on top of cheese mixture. Mix pudding and milk, pour immediately over bananas. Top with remaining 3 cups whipped topping. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving and garnish with crushed pretzels.

[Dora]

2. How decadent!

Thank you! :hi:

[politicat]

3. Sugar cream pies are relatively easy.

Not that cream pies are hard - the hardest part is blind baking the crust. Sugar Creams are an old, Amish and southern recipe (I've heard it claimed for both) and an Indiana specialty. (They taste a bit like a snickerdoodle pie.)

Sugar Cream Pie

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) lightly baked pie crust (recipe follows)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In medium saucepan, combine granulated sugar, salt and half-and-half. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, in another saucepan, combine brown sugar and cornstarch. Gradually whisk in half-and-half mixture. Add butter. Cook mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, for 5 minutes, or until boiling and thickened. Simmer 1 minute. Stir in vanilla extract.

Pour mixture into prepared pie crust; sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake 20 minutes or until top of pie is golden.

Place on wire rack. Pie filling will be very loose, but will thicken on cooling. Cool completely before slicing. Makes 10 servings.

[Dora]

4. Wow, what an interesting recipe!

Sugar pies are something I learned how to make from my mother (pie dough scraps, brown sugar, butter), but I've never heard of sugar cream pie. Many thanks for the recipe - I look forward to trying it!

[housewolf]

5. This sounds delicious...

All the things I love - half and half, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon.

wow

[yellowdawgdem]

6. that sounds delicious

I will have to try making that sometime. Do you have the recipe for the crust, or know of a good recipe for a regular roll out crust ?
This sounds similar to southern chess pie, which I like alot, too.

[Dora]

7. my family's no-fail crust recipe

I've had zero problems with crust since I began using this recipe.

IRENE'S NO FAIL PIE CRUST

Mix:
3 C flour
1 tsp salt

Cut in:
3/4 C butter
3/4 C shortening
I put the fat in the freezer an hour or two ahead, and I use a food processor to cut the fat into the flour, being careful not to process too long and melt the butter/shortening. I usually process until it looks like cornmeal with pea-sized bits. You should be able to see small bits o'butter. I have a mini-processor, and I do this in thirds: 1 C flour, 1 stick butter (cut into chunks first).

Mix/beat together:
1 egg (cold)
1 tsp vinegar
4-6 tbsp ice cold water

Add liquid to flour/fat mixture. Stir it up - I generally use an ice cube to "wash" my hands with, then I mix it with my hands.

Roll out on large and well-floured tea towel with well-floured rolling pin. (The tea towel prevents sticking and makes cleanup the easiest!)

Use immediately, or refrigerate well-wrapped and use within 24 hours. It will keep longer, but the dough will begin to turn a greyish color.

[yellowdawgdem]

8. thanks

for the crust recipe, I will certainly give that a try. It's interesting that you use half butter, and half shortening. And the tsp. vinegar is also something I haven't heard too much about. Anyway, thanks again.

[housewolf]

10. A little bit of food science re: the pie crust recipe

I don't know if you're interested in this kind of thing or not but since you expressed some interest the ingredients, I thought I'd add a little.

Butter gives a pie crust great flavor while shortening is a little easier to work with and shrinks less if blind-baked, so half butter/ half shortening gives you some of the good characterists of both. The vinegar helps prevent gluten from forming when you add the water to the other ingredients. Too much gluten formation makes a pie crust tough rather than flaky but the acid from the vinegar helps reduce the amount of gluten formation.

If you have a food processor, they work great for making pie crusts.

Keep everything really cold, chill the butter and shortening before cutting it into the flour. Use ice cold water. You can even chill the flour. It all helps keep the butter/shorenting from melting and contributes to a more flakey crust.

[yellowdawgdem]

11. wow that is too kewl

So the shortening keeps the crust from shrinking and balances the butter. And the vinegar actually makes it more tender. Didn't know that.

[Dora]

12. Ahhhhhhh... I was always curious about the vinegar.

and I even chill my food processor bowl and blade. :bounce:

Can you tell me - do you think I could leave out the egg and have the same result? I always assumed the egg was used simply as an additional binding agent, but have always wondered if it might toughen the crust.

[politicat]

9. Sorry this is late; I was not near a computer over the weekend.

(Can we say withdrawal together, class?)

I used to use my grandmother's recipe, but it was hit or miss. I started using Alton Brown's formula about 8 weeks ago, and have used it about 6 times to consistently positive results.

I took a Sugar cream to an executive council meeting a few weeks ago with this crust, and got excellent feedback.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_26272,00.html

Here's the recipe, for those who dislike link clicking.


3 ounces (6 tablespoons) butter, chilled
1 ounce (2 tablespoons) lard, chilled
6 ounces (approximately 1 cup) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/4 cup ice water, in spritz bottle
Approximately 32 ounces of dried beans, for blind baking
Place butter and lard in freezer for 15 minutes. When ready to use, remove and cut both into small pieces.
In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt by pulsing 3 to 4 times. Add butter and pulse 5 to 6 times until texture looks mealy. Add lard and pulse another 3 to 4 times. Remove lid of food processor and spritz surface of mixture thoroughly with water. Replace lid and pulse 5 times. Add more water and pulse again until mixture holds together when squeezed. Place mixture in large zip-top bag, squeeze together until it forms a ball, and then press into a rounded disk and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place 2 metal pie pans in the refrigerator to chill.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Cut along 2 sides of the plastic bag, open bag to expose dough, and sprinkle both sides with flour. Cover again with plastic and roll out with a rolling pin to a 10 to 11-inch circle. Open plastic again and sprinkle top of dough with flour. Remove pie pans from refrigerator and set first pan on top of dough. Turn everything upside down and peel plastic from bottom of dough. Place second pan upside down on top of dough and flip again. Remove first pan from atop dough. Trim edges if necessary, leaving an edge for meringue to adhere to. Poke holes in dough and place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Place a large piece of parchment paper on top of dough and fill with dry beans. Press beans into edges of dough and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove parchment and beans and continue baking until golden in color, approximately 10 to 15 minutes longer. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Let cool completely before filling.

[mandyky]

13. Check the sites for CoolWhip and Jello Pudding

I used to make cream pies that did not need any cooking. I got the premade graham craker crusts, instant Jello, and cool whip. You mix them on high speed, and they get an almost chiffon consistancy. I've tried vanilla, chocolate and banana creams that way.