January – Cream Pie, Banana or Coconut

Place of Origin: United States and Germany

Basic Ingredients: milk, cream, flour, sugar, eggs, bananas and vanilla wafer cookies or shredded coconut in a standard pie crust topped with whipped cream

I selected a cream pie for January because most fruits are not in season; however, bananas and coconuts are in season year round. Also the tropical flavors are just the thing to brighten a dreary winter day.

Next month is Cherry Pie Month. I will be featuring the pie of the month for all of 2020.

Send me your original recipe or your favorite recipe credited to the cookbook or website it was taken from. Original recipes will be printed. Borrowed recipes will be credited to the specific cookbook, chef or linked to the blog or website you got them from. If you made changes to the recipe, let us know what and why. No cheating! Claiming a recipe as your own is not fair to the person who created it. Also send us your original photos in JPEG form with your finished pie and feel free to snap a few work in progress photos.

If you have kids who enjoy baking include them.

Send your recipes and original photos to Fran at This Awful Awesome Life. My email is fran.thisawfulawesomelife@gmail.com. On the subject heading of your email, Please include your name and Pie of the month: ex. Pat Jones - April: French Silk Pie. You can send them a month before the feature month or during the month and I’ll feature them in the next month’s issue. The sooner the better. If you love to bake, you can contribute each month. In December, we will select one lucky baker who will receive a gift from Pampered Chef.

The 12 Months of Pie

January – Cream pie: Banana or Coconut

February – Cherry Pie

March – Lemon Meringue Pie

April – French Silk Pie

May – Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

June – Razzleberry Pie

July – Blueberry Pie

August - Peach

September – Key Lime Pie

October - Apple

November – Pumpkin Pie

December – Pecan Pie

SCRATCH PIE CRUST (Recipe Courtesy of Pampered Chef)

INGREDIENTS:

For single crust pie

½ cup (125 mL) butter (1 stick), cold

1¼ cup (300 mL) flour

1 tbsp (15 mL) sugar

½ tsp (2 mL) salt

2 tbsp (30 mL) ice water, or more if needed

For double crust pie

1 cup (250 mL) butter (2 sticks), cold

2½ cups (625 mL) flour

2 tbsp (30 mL) sugar

1 tsp (5 mL) salt

¼ cup (50 mL) ice water, or more if needed

DIRECTIONS:

1.    Cut the butter into small cubes.

2.    In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, and salt, and stir to combine.

3.    Add the cubed butter to the flour and toss to coat. Cut the butter into the flour with the Pastry Blender until the flour has turned a pale yellow and resembles a coarse crumble.

4.    Add the water and gently combine with the Mix ‘N Scraper®. The mixture should be just moist enough that it holds its shape when you squeeze it in your hand. Add more water, one tsp (5 mL) at a time, if needed.

5.    Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and gently form it into a mound. If you’re making a double crust, divide the mound in two and shape into to rectangular bricks if using Mini Pie Pan or round discs if using Deep Dish Pie Plate. Cover the dough tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or up to 2 days.

6.    Remove one crust from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to soften slightly. Roll out the dough with the Marble Rolling Pin to around ⅛” (4 mm) thickness.

7.    Carefully cut out discs for the Mini Pie Pan, or gently lay the dough out onto the Deep Dish Pie Pan.

8.    If you’re making a double crust, repeat steps 6–7.

Nutrients per serving: U.S. Nutrients per Serving: Calories 240, Total Fat 16 g, Saturated Fat 10 g, Cholesterol 40 mg, Sodium 200 mg, Carbohydrate 22 g, Fiber 1, Sugars 2 g, Protein 3 g

Cook's Tips:

Pie crust works best when everything is very cold. Don’t take your butter out of the refrigerator until right before you’re ready to make the recipe.

THE BEST BANANA CREAM PIE (Recipe courtesy of Pampered Chef)

INGREDIENTS:

Crust

Make crust recipe above or use 1/2 package (15 ounces) refrigerated pie crust (1 crust)

2 teaspoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Filling

2 large bananas

1 1/2 cups milk

1 package (3.4 ounces) banana cream or vanilla instant pudding and pie filling

1 container (12 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

DIRECTIONS:

1.    Preheat oven to 450°F. For crust, let stand in pouch at room temperature 15 minutes. Combine sugar and cinnamon in Flour/Sugar Shaker.

2.    Remove crust from pouch and unfold. Remove plastic sheets and press out folds. Lightly spray with water using Kitchen Spritzer. Sprinkle with sugar-cinnamon mixture.

3.    Place crust in (9-in) Pie Plate. Using your finger-tips, press the crust firmly against the bottom and side of the pie plate. (Be careful not to stretch the crust.) Fold the extra crust under to form a thick, flat edge even with the rim of the pie plate. Press around the edge with a fork. Prick the bottom and side of crust with fork about 20 times.

4.    Bake 9-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Using Oven Mitts, remove pie plate to Stackable Cooling Rack. Cool 30 minutes.

5.    For filling, peel bananas and cut into 2-inch pieces using My Safe Cutter. Slice bananas with Egg Slicer Plus® and arrange in bottom of pie crust.

6.    Pour milk into Classic Batter Bowl. Add pudding mix and beat with Stainless Whisk 2 minutes or until pudding begins to thicken. Gently mix in 1 cup of the whipped topping using Classic Scraper. Quickly spread pudding mixture over bananas. Refrigerate 1 hour.

7.    Attach Closed Star Tip to Easy Accent Decorator and fill tube with remaining whipped topping. Hold decorator straight up and down with tip about 1 inch above top of pie. Gently squeeze down trigger to form a star. Stop pressure and pull decorator up. Continue to make stars very close together until entire top of pie is covered with whipped topping. Refill decorator as needed.

8.     Cut into wedges and serve immediately or refrigerate.

Yield: 8 servings

I’ll be updating this article with baking photos and photos of the finished products.

Photos: 

Coconut Cream Pie - https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coconut_cream_pie.jpg.

Pie crust and Banana Cream Pie - courtesy of Pampered Chef

Cherry Pie: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cherry_pie_with_lattice,_February_2008.jpg

French Silk Pie Photo: https://images.app.goo.gl/e686QuiG7y1YYUbb9

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie: https://images.app.goo.gl/5wy6yv6XHFDbKRkr7

Razzleberry Pie Photo: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Razzleberry_pie_-_01.jpg

Blueberry Pie Photo: https://images.app.goo.gl/KGLj34aif5V9ifWYA

Peach Pie Photo: https://images.app.goo.gl/Qp7FiPbTVB2roD89A

Key Lime Pie Photo: taken from my personal photos – this pie was made by The Pie Place in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, https://thepieplace.net/

Pecan Pie Photo: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pecan_pie_slice_(cropped).jpg

*All Images for this article were obtained with no intent to commit copyright infringement.