Mmmmmmm...Pie!

[famvir]

My grandpa loved custard pie, and I made it for him all the time. Soggy crusts, though.... It may have been me/the oven, because my (current) pumpkin pies are not soggy bottomed.

I made pumpkin pie for Christmas one year w/o sugar! It made a bee-utiful pie! I said, "well, with plum pudding, the sweet is in the hard sauce, let me make a super sweet whipped cream." Yeah, didn't quite work.

And you'll may remember the apple pie I made w/o thickening (flour) with the sugar and apples in the filling. I knew we would have runny apple sauce filling w/o the flour so I took the hot pie out of the oven and tried to fix it. The results? You don't wanna know.

[Oxynia]

mmmm...custard!

Could you share your recipes? I'm a collector. And a devourer.

[azaleaqueen]

Oxynia, here's my mother's recipe for egg custard:

2/3 cup sugar
1 T cornstarch
3 T butter or oleo, melted
3 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together sugar, cornstarch, oleo and eggs, beating at high speed until thoroughly blended. Put on low speed, add milk and vanilla. Bake at 400 degrees until puffy and consistency of jello. Can be made in one dish, in individual cups or prebaked pie shell.

For anybody who's interested:

Raisin Pie

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 T butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups raisins
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 unbaked pie shell

Beat eggs, add sugar and beat well. Beat in butter. Add milk, raisins and nuts. Pour into pie shell and bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

[biondetta]

The recipe I use for lemon chess pie is 1.5 cups sugar (and a buttload of lemon juice/zest) and the chocolate chess pie is 1 cup of sugar (and bitter chocolate), so sweet, but not two cups of sugar. I also tend to have a light hand when it comes to measuring out sugar, as well.

I hate making pie crusts, so on the rare occasion I do now, I go for the easy version using oil instead of lard/butter. To be honest, I've enjoyed it more and found it flakier, but that could be due to my not so great skills making traditional crusts.

[smitten]

I have a lot to say on the pie subject, I make them from scratch too but my favorite is one I haven't tried on my own -- Key Lime. The tarter the better

If any greecies have a chance to do key lime from Shaws CrabHouse in Chicago, it's perfect. The first bite I took years ago I got tears in my eyes and the waitress thought something was seriously wrong. I said, "no, it's just so much like my mom's!" And this was before she died!!

[hamhock]

Shaw's CrabHouse Key Lime Pie Recipe

[chonies]

I made my first custard pie. I am kind of thumbs-down on nutmeg, so I just used vanilla bean paste. Also, due to ambiguous instructions, I may have underbaked it, but since I mixed scalding milk with the raw eggs, whisked them enthusiastically and then baked the mess for 30 minutes, I don't think anyone is going to die. We'll see.

[azaleaqueen]

They won't die. They may not want seconds but they won't die.

[chonies]

I ended up putting it back in the oven for 15 minutes. I'm normally custard-pie skeptical because they tend to be so rubbery, and this seemed nice and creamy but the bottom crust was very much underbaked. We'll see...

[Oxynia]

Thanks for the recipe, azaleaqueen! That sounds like a good custard recipe. So excited to try it!

Ditto hamhock, that sounds delicious...I may have to set aside a day next week for making pie.

chonies, did you pre-bake the bottom crust?