Christmas Pies Part 1

I’m really itching to get some recipe in here, what’s food blog without food? I’m a little short on recent pictures as I can’t figure out how to move pictures off my phone & onto the computer so for now I shall now amuse you with ideas for possible Christmas desserts. You may discover soon enough that I’m not a cake person but a pie person. (No offence cake people, I love cake people too!)

Now for your cooking pleasure I shall list some regular pies (well, regular at festive meals) in what I hope will be an enjoyable series of Christmas dinner recipes. These are in my “Al’s-cookbook-of-science” cookbook.

Fresh Pumpkin Pie:

I know My pic is not that great but believe me it was a great textured pumpkin, baked but not dense. Well besides my Pumpkin chiffon pie recipe which I consider the best pumpkin pie recipe, this is the 2nd best pumpkin pie. And definitely the best baked one. The honey gives it a great "shine", so it's a real pretty cake (unless you have a “hotspot” in your oven like I do, see the pic.) & VERY wonderfully fragrant & spice filled. Use a small kabocha or about 500ml of mashed kabocha.

INGREDIENTS
1 medium pumpkin (kabocha)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 premade 9 inch single crust pie
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup honey, warmed slightly
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS
Cut pumpkin in half, and remove seeds. Lightly oil the cut surface. Place cut side down on a jelly roll pan lined with foil and lightly oiled. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Either mash, or puree in small batches in a blender.
In large bowl, blend together 2 cups pumpkin puree, spices, and salt. Beat in eggs, honey, milk, and cream. Pour filling into pie shell.
Bake at 400 degrees F ( 205 degrees C) for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted 1 inch from edge of pie comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Honey Crunch Pecan Pie: (the title will take you to Allrecipes.com)



Yes, I know what you're thinking, does it involve a certain story regarding "eschewing the evil?" Thanks to Costco I have made this for a few C’mas dinners. Some N.American brethrens’ heads did indeed spin.

Note: I nix the white sugar & you can use mizuame for corn syrup. (does anyone remember the “golden syrup that we had a ton of way back? That stuff was awesome for this. And don’t forget to cover your crust or it will burn

Sweet Potato Casserole: (This fills a 9x13” casserole dish, for a good size group (16-)

8 med. Size sweet potatoes mashed
2/3 c butter
2/3 c milk
1 ½ c granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
4 eggs beaten
Mix till smooth & put into a greased casserole.

Topping:
1 ½ c brown sugar
1 c flour
2/3 c butter
1 ½ c pecans

Crumble butter into flour & sugar & mix in nuts. Sprinkle over potato mixture & bake for 25-30 min in 175c oven.

This is not exactly a pie but it very well should be classified as one. Very quality. Again calling for the elusive pecans (if you’re in Japan) but walnuts will do fine. Simple ingredients. And if you want to spice it up a bit more add some cinnamon & nutmeg. Serve it warm with ice-cream & whip cream & you have yourself a dessert if I do say so myself.

And there you go! That's all for now.