Thanksgiving Pies!

This year for Thanksgiving, my mom put me in charge of making the pies. We originally were going to have as many as 26 people, but ended up with half that... but I still wanted to make all of the pies! It's a good thing I did because we all ate pie for breakfast each morning.


I asked my mom to warm my 2 apple pies in the oven before dessert, but the oven was at 400 and they burned... so sad. But, the sugars really caramelized and were crispy and really good! I think they looked worse than they tasted!


I decided to keep them traditional, but add a few twists, so I made:
Double Crusted Apple Pie
Crumble Crusted Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Twofer Thanksgiving Pie
Coconut Creme Pie


My dad requested the coconut creme, which isn't exactly traditional, but turned out to be a hit! Everyone loved it. For the apple pies, I combined Fuji and Honeycrisp. The crumble pie went fast - adding the cranberries and pecans really made it unique and delicious.
I was a little disappointed by the Twofer, I was hoping it would be 2 distinct layers of pumpkin and pecan pie, but it was just pumpkin pie with pecans on top, really. I think if i baked off the pumpkin layer, then added the pecan layer I'd get the results I wanted... maybe next year!

Crumble Crusted Apple Pie

Crust (halved):

3 c. flour

1/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

2 sticks frozen butter, grated on a cheese grater

1/4 c. shortening

a little less than 2/3 c. ice water

Filling:

10 apples, peeled and sliced

1/2 c. brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 c. flour

1 c. dried cranberries

Topping:

1 stick of butter, grated

1 c. quick cooking oats

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 c. crushed pecans

Roll our crust, place in pie plate. Fill with apple mixture, top with topping. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until golden on top.

Twofer Pie, from Dorie Greenspan

FOR A 9" SINGLE CRUST:

1 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp. sugar

3⁄4 tsp. salt

1 1⁄4 sticks (10 tbsp.) very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted butter, cut into tbsp.-size pieces

2 1⁄2 tbsp. very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces

1/4 c. ice water

Pumpkin filling:
1 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
⅔ cup heavy cream
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsp. dark rum
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. salt

Pecan filling:
½ cup light or dark corn syrup
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 ½ cups pecan halves or pieces

1. For the crust: Put flour, sugar, and salt into a food processor; pulse to combine. Drop in butter and shortening; pulse to cut into flour. What you're aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing, gradually add about 3 tbsp. ice water—add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again; keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get water into flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn't look evenly moistened, pulse in up to 1 tbsp. more ice water, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Shape dough into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 1 hour.
2. For the pumpkin filling: Pulse all ingredients together in a food processor. Leave filling in bowl.
3. For the pecan filling: In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients except pecans until smooth.
4. Preheat oven to 450°. Roll dough out to a 12" circle on a floured counter, turning dough over frequently; keep counter floured. Slide dough into the fridge for about 20 minutes to rest and firm up. Fit dough into a buttered 9" pie plate; cut excess dough to a 1⁄4"–1⁄2" overhang. Fold dough under itself, so that it hangs over the edge just a tad, and flute or pinch the crust to make a decorative edge.
5. To assemble: Give the pumpkin filling one last quick pulse, then remove bowl, rap it on counter to debubble batter, and pour filling into crust. Top pumpkin filling evenly with pecans, then pour over pecan filling. Poke down any pecans that float to the top and aren't covered with filling. Bake pie for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300° and bake for another 35–40 minutes, or until it is evenly puffed and a slender knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer pie to a cooling rack and let it stand until it is just warm or until it reaches room temperature.