Pioneer Woman's Nantucket Cranberry Pie

I really liked the look of this cranberry pie because it was different than the usual pastry crust type. Mine didn't turn out quite like hers did, as my cranberries ended up in the batter rather than forming a fruit layer on the bottom, but we both still loved this pie.

Butter, for greasing pan
2 cups (heaping) cranberries 
3/4 cups pecans, chopped 
2/3 cups sugar 
1 cup flour 
1 cup sugar 
1 stick unsalted butter, melted 
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract 
1/4 tsp salt 
1 tbsp sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter a cake pan.  Add the cranberries and chopped pecans to the pan, top with 2/3 cup sugar.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, melted butter, beaten eggs, almond extract and salt.  Pour the batter over the cranberries.  Bake for 40 minutes, top with the tablespoon of sugar and continue baking for an additional 5 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie

I am so far behind on blog posts, but my computer crashed a few weeks ago and it looked like I might have been without a computer for a while, but my mum very generously bought me a new one for Christmas.

Anyway, this is a Paula Deen recipe and I made this pie for Thanksgiving, it was different from the usual pumpkin pie we like because of the cream cheese, and while it was really good I still think we both preferred our usual custard pumpkin pie.

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, slightly beaten
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 piece pre-made pie dough

Preheat the oven to 350.

Place 1 piece of pre-made pie dough down into a (9-inch) pie pan and press down along the bottom and all sides. Put the pie shell into the freezer for 1 hour to firm up. Fit a piece of tin foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes or until the crust is dried out and beginning to color.
For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger and beat until incorporated.
Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set.

Lemon Chess Pie

Randal has been asking me to make a buttermilk chess pie for a long time, but I've never tried one and to be honest from what I've seen they don't really appeal to me much, so when I saw this recipe for a lemon version over at Ezra Pound Cake, I thought this would be a good way to try a chess pie as I usually love everythng lemon. This is actually a nice lemon pie, and maybe someday soon I'll make the plain buttermilk version that Randal really wants!

1 frozen pie crust, defrosted
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tbsp cornmeal
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350.

Whisk eggs in a medium bowl and whick in the sugar, cornmeal, flour, salt, melted butter, buttermilk, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla.

Unroll the defrosted pie crust and lay it in a 9 inch pie plate. Pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust, and bake in the middle of the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the pie is golden brown on top and almost set.

Cranberry Bakewell Tart

I love bakewells, and the minute I saw this recipe for Nigella's cranberry bakewell, I knew it had to be our christmas dessert this year.



For the pastry
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup confectioners sugar
1 stick plus 1 tbsp cold butter
1 egg, beaten
1-3 tbsp iced water
pinch salt

Put the flour, almonds and confectioners sugar into a food processor and pulse together. Add the diced butter and process again until the mixture looks like oatmeal.

Beat together the egg, salt and ice water and tip down the funnel of the food processor as it is running, to bind the pastry. Form the pastry into a flat disc, wrap in plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge.

For the filling
1 stick plus 1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
3 eggs
zest and juice of 1 clementine
1 1/4 cups ground almonds
1 cup cranberry jam
8 oz royal icing
almonds
Preheat the oven to 400
Melt the butter and leave it to cool slightly. Beat together the sugar, eggs and zest, then add in the melted butter, stir in the ground almonds.
Roll out the disc of pastry to fit in a 10 inch deep fluted tart pan with a removable base, and prick the base with a fork. Spread the jam onto the pastry and pour over the almond mixture.
Bake for 45 minutes, leave to cool completely on a wire rack. once cooled make the royal icing using the juice from the clementine, work over the top of the tart and decorate with sliced almonds.