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Spice Pie - Sweet Potato Pie - Pumpkin Pie - Apple Pie - Wine Choice 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts 4 eggs, beaten 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled 1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 9 inch unbaked pie crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, butter, vinegar, walnuts and vanilla extract. Stir wet ingredients into the dry mixture. Pour entire mixture into the pie shell. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 50 minutes or until firm. Cool on a rack. Makes 8 servings 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes 1/4 pound butter, softened 2 eggs, separated 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 cup evaporated milk 1/4 cup white sugar 1 9 inch unbaked pie crust
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the sweet potatoes, butter, egg yolks, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and evaporated milk. Mix together well. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; add sugar and fold into sweet potato mixture. Pour into pie shell and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until firm.
Makes 8 servings 1 9 inch unbaked pie crust 1/2 cup chopped pecans 3 2/3 cups pumpkin puree 1 egg 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1/4 cup butter 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Blend the egg, pumpkin and condensed milk. Pour mixture into the unbaked pie shell. Combine the brown sugar, flour, chopped pecans, butter and cinnamon with a fork until crumbly. Sprinkle this mixture on top of pumpkin mixture. Bake at 375 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes or until a knife inserted in near the center comes out clean. Let pie cool before serving. 3/4 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest 7 cups thinly sliced apples, preferably Granny Smith 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 tablespoon butter 1 9 inch double crust pie 4 tablespoons milk (optional)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and lemon peel. Line one crust in a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan. Layer 1/3 of apples into pie crust. Sprinkle with sugar mixture and repeat until done. Sprinkle with lemon juice and dot with butter. Place second pie crust on top of filling and flute the edges. Cut vents in top of crust with a knife or fork and brush with milk for a glazed appearance, if desired.
Bake at 425 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.
Holiday time! Karen comes from an Italian-American family; I come from an Irish-American one. At the end of the big meal, the table can groan under the desserts the family members bring.
After a big meal, Karen's family always had coffee (usually Italian or demitasse) with liquors optional. My family would have coffee or tea, sometimes with a few more beers as we hurried over to catch the end of a football game.
Karen won't make all the pies above this Thanksgiving, but she will make one or two. Her sister will make something else along with her mother, and there will be chocolates and other sweets on the table along with roasted chestnuts. A riot of flavors, too much to match to any one wine or liquour. So there would usually be a selection brought out to the table and the guests would select what they liked, whether in their coffee or in a small cordial glass.
That's what I have decided to do with Karen's family this year. There will be a family tradition, an Italian liquour called Millifiore that features a small tree branch imbedded in crystals of rock sugar at the bottom of the bottle. We'll need a brandy for those who want it in their coffee, and anisette or sambucca. A few might want wine, and while some might opt for what they had with the meal, I decided I would have a dessert wine for those who preferred it. After all, this is what the vintner made them for!
Dessert wines we have in abundance. Many small wineries produce them, we visit quite a few tasting rooms in the course of a year, and somehow the dessert wines you have at the end of a tasting seem uppermost in your mind when it comes time to buy. If you aren't careful, you'll end up with too many; the occasions for drinking them never seem to come often enough to consume what we buy.
We have a long-time favorite: Baldwin Vineyards Strawberry Wine. I note that Baldwin took yet another Gold medal with this at the New York Wine and Food Classic in August. We've served this to a succession of people through the years who surprised themselves by liking it. Nowhere near as sweet as you would think, either. If not that, we have a Spice Wine from Lambert's Vintage Wines that might have found its time.
But you might not live within an hour's drive of Baldwin in New York as we do, and you might not have happened to stop by Lambert's in West Virginia. If so, you might think of fruit wines that you have picked up in your travels: an Apple wine might go very nicely with apple pie.
Sherries might have their place here, or that port-style wine you've been saving for just the right moment. Think of rich tastes and relaxed pleasures around the table. Enjoy! Spice Pie - Sweet Potato Pie - Pumpkin Pie - Apple Pie - Wine Choice |
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Last modified: August 07, 2007 |
