Pie For Baby

The sooner you develop your child's pie-baking skills, the sooner she will make pie for you! Stacy and Chris, who are about to have their own pie baby any day now, sent in this photo. Can't wait to meet the soon-to-be baker!

Shaker Lemon Pie by Mom and Dad

pie by my parents

My dad was so inspired by the Shaker lemon pie I made for Christmas dinner, that he bought a mandoline, so he that when he made his own, his lemon slices could be delicately thin. My parents sent along this photo of their first attempt with the mandoline and lemon pie. I wasn't there to enjoy it, but it sure looks delicious. My mom made the crust and my dad made the filling-- such parental teamwork! Good thing I called when they were assembling it-- they had almost forgotten to add the eggs...

Apple Persimmon Pie

Friends and I, huddled round pie. Photo by Stokes

Before I headed to the Midwest for the holidays, I had some friends over to my Chapel Hill apartment for a Wassail potluck. It was the first big gathering I'd had at my new place, and it was very nice to warm it up with dinner (including deviled eggs, polenta with porcini mushroom sauce, lentil stew, and spinach tart), drinks (oh the drinks: mulled wine, beer, wine, beer, wine...), and dessert (rum-soaked fruitcake, ginger cookies, and yep you know it, pie). There was also one (yes, just one) spot-on round of Mad-libs, lots of record playing, and some dice game, the name of which I can no longer recall.

I still had a plethora of Fuyu persimmons that I had collected from that aforementioned tree of undisclosed location, and from my friend Aaron, who had given me a whole bag-full when I ran into him a week or so before. I didn't have quite enough for a pie, though, so I combined it with just as many apples for an apple-persimmon pie. The recipe:

Apple-Persimmon Pie

Ingredients
Nothing-in-the-House Pie Crust
4-6 medium-sized baking apples (I used Granny Smith), cored and cut into bite-sized pieces
4-6 medium-sized ripe but still firm Fuyu persimmons, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger to taste
3 tablespoon corn starch
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Turbinado sugar, for dusting

Directions
1. Prepare the pie crust as per the directions. Roll out half of the pie crust into an 11-inch cirlce and fit into a greased and floured 9-inch pie pan.

2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine all of the filling ingredients and stir until well combined. Pour filling into the bottom crust.

3. Roll out the remaining crust into an 11-inch circle. Place over the filling and flute edges decoratively. Brush on an egg wash (the leftover half of a beaten egg from the crust) and sprinkle Turbinado sugar on top. Put the pie in the oven, 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 35 to 40 minutes longer. Filling will bubble and crust will be golden brown when finished.

  We enjoyed ours with maple whipped cream, which we took turns whipping with a hand-crank blender-- a fun party activity!