Tag Archives: pie

Honey Pecan Pie, with or without the crust…

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Pie crusts are tasty, but you don’t always have the time or inclination to make one. When that’s the case, just say no to the crust and skip to the good part!

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I made these two crust-less Honey Pecan pies recently and posted the photo on Instagram. At least one person asked for the recipe. Here you go:

Honey Pecan Pie, adapted from allrecipes.com and beefolks.com

  • 1 cup honey
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 3 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg
  • 1 recipe pastry for a 9” single pie crust (or not)

Directions:

  • Measure out the ingredients so that you can add them quickly.
  • Prepare the pie pans with either a crust or by spraying with non-stick oil.
  • Beat the eggs well with a fork, in a small bowl.
  • Bring the honey to a boil in a medium saucepan.
  • Quickly whisk in the eggs. Sometimes I leave the heat on low, sometimes I don’t. I’m not sure that that matters.
  • Add the butter, stir until melted.
  • Add the vanilla, nuts, and nutmeg. Blend and pour into pie plate.
  • Back at 325° F (165° C) for 25 minutes or until set.

Update: To keep the eggs from cooking up when they are added to the honey, bring the honey to a boil over medium-low heat and don’t bring it to a rolling boil. Be sure to really whisk the eggs both beforehand, in the bowl, and quickly, once they are in the honey.

Side note: When I make a crust-less fruit pie, I add crumbles on top made from flour, sugar, and butter and sometimes cinnamon. That adds a crust-like flavor without the bother of making a real crust.

National pi day!

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When did you last think of pi? Not this kind of pie…

Pies

Pi Day is coming on Saturday, March 14.It is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) every year, around the world. Who knew?

Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately 3.14159. (Remember pi-r-square?)

This year, Pi Day is an “Epic Pi Day”. On Saturday morning, 3.14.15 at 9:26:53 AM, the date/time corresponds to the first 10 digits of pi (π = 3.141592653). This happens only once per century – truly a “once-in-a-lifetime event” for most people. I’ve set my phone alarm so that I can see it happen.
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I am away from home, teaching at the Gulf States Quilting Association Seminar in Metairie, LA. Steve will be home with friends celebrating a Pi Day breakfast of pancakes and sausage (both round, in honor of pi), with eggs and champagne. I will think of them fondly when my alarm goes off in class :-).

My friend, Elizabeth, a fellow pi(e) enthusiast, has found a few fun pi facts that she said I could share with you:

  • A circular room in the Palais de la Découverte science museum in Paris is called the pi room. The room has 707 digits of pi inscribed on its wall (though there is an error beginning at the 528th digit, thanks to William Shanks’ erroneous calculations).
  • In an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, Spock commands an evil computer to compute pi to the last digit—which it cannot do, of course, because, as Spock explains, “the value of pi is a transcendental figure without resolution.” I remember this episode!
  • Givenchy’s PI cologne for men is advertised as a scent that “embodies the confidence of genius.”
  • Both MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology have cheers that include “3.14159.”

If I was going to be home, I’d make one of these. It’s probably good I’m not home.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

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Today is a time to consciously give thanks and I am thankful for many things:

  • I’m thankful for my family (who love me even when I am stressed and, therefore, cranky).
  • I am thankful for my friends. You know how there are people who have hundreds of good friends? I am not one of those people. I’d like to be, but it’s not my nature. I have a few good friends and I am so very lucky to have them in my life.
  • I am thankful that I am healthy. In fact, I recently found out that I don’t have osteoporosis—just garden-variety osteopenia along with just about every other post-menopausal woman I know. Yay! One less thing to worry about.
  • I am especially thankful that my family and friends are pretty healthy as well.
  • And I am thankful for pie…

Pies

I baked pumpkin, pecan, apple, and cranberry-apple pies yesterday. Steve rolled out the (gluten-free) crusts which was a big help.

I used a new apple pie recipe, sent to me by my mom’s friend, Coralee. It’s from allrecipes.com: Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie. It calls for a lattice-crust which is too hard to do with a GF crust so I used a cookie cutter to cut pieces instead:

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Watch the video and make notes because the recipe itself is not very complete. I realized after 2 false starts that the order in which to add things matters. You combine simmering melted butter with 3 TBS flour to make a paste (sort of like white glue, not a stiff paste). Stir in white sugar (while still simmering), then brown sugar, and then water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a bit… they say 5 minutes but I think that might be too long. The point, I think, is to make a toffee sauce.

I made the sauce and let it cool too long. I think it would work a lot better to have the pie ready to pour the sauce onto as soon as you are done simmering. It looks like it is going to be a very good pie!

Next year we will be in NYC with Jeff for Thanksgiving. He is, as I write, sitting in a restaurant watching the parade and having brunch which is a lot warmer than being on the street in the wind and snow.

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Even though I have never been much of a parade-watcher, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade really does look like fun. I’m looking forward already to 2015!

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I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving!