Tag Archives: pies

Desserts and Sweets

Banana or Coconut Cream Pie

Easy-to-make banana and/or coconut cream pie in an unbaked Graham cracker crust.

Cream pie filling

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 3 cups milk
  • 3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
  • 2 T butter
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut and/or 1 or more sliced bananas

In double boiler top, mix sugar, flour and salt. Stir in milk and cook 15 minutes over hot water until thickened. Add egg yolks. Cook 3 minutes. Add butter. Cool. Add vanilla and 1/2 cup coconut for coconut cream pie, or line pie plate with sliced bananas before pouring in filling for banana cream pie. Fill graham wafer pie crust.

Can make a meringue by beating the 3 egg whites stiff with about 6 T of sugar and a pinch of salt. Mound on top and place until broiler for a few minutes until the peaks begin to turn golden.

Graham wafer pie crust

  • 1 cup graham wafer crumbs
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 2 tbsp sugar (optional)

Combine all ingredients and press into a pie plate. Chill 5 minutes before filling.

Desserts and Sweets

Apple Pie

A surplus of fall apples would sometimes inspire Mom to pull out her pastry skills and make a few cinnamon-laden apple pies, topped with either a full or a lattice-work crust.

Ingredients for Apple Pie

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 T flour
  • 1/2 t cinnamon
  • 1/4 t nutmeg
  • 1/8 t salt
  • 1 T grated lemon rind
  • 5 cups sliced, tart apples
  • 1 T lemon juice
  • 2 T butter

Preheat oven to 425º F.

Line a 9″ pie plate with pastry. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt ,and lemon rind. Add apples and toss to coat. Arrange in plate. Sprinkle with lemon juice and dot with butter. Top with pastry, pricking top with fork in several places, or form into a lattice-work pattern. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until browned.

Apple pie

Desserts and Sweets

Meatless Mincemeat

Although true mincemeat, as the name suggests, usually contains chopped beef, beef suet (fat), and at times, venison, here is a tasty meatless version that’s great as a pie filling. Red wine can be substituted for the rum, if desired, but the favor will change accordingly.

Pyes of Mutton or biefe, must be fine minced and seasoned with Pepper and salte, and a lyttle Saffron to colour it, suet or marrow a good quantytye a
lyttle vyneger, prunes, great raisings, and dates, take the fatteste of the broth of poudred biefe, and if you will have paste royall, take butter and yolkes of egges, & so temper the flower to make the Paste.

From "A Proper New Booke of Cookery," transcription of the edition in the British Library, published in 1575 by William How. Medievalcookery.com

Dried fruit and nuts

Meatless Mincement Ingredients:

  • 1 large firm, tart apple, finely chopped
  • 3/4 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
  • 1/2 cup fruit peel, chopped
  • 1/2 cup sugar, golden, packed
  • 1/4 cup butter, unsalted
  • 1/4 cup rum, dark
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon, ground
  • 3/4 t allspice, ground
  • 1/2 t nutmeg
  • 1/4 t ginger

Mix all ingredients together. Cover with a plate and let stand at room temperature up to 6 hours to meld flavors before using. Servings: Filling for 1 pie.

Vegan tweak:

Substitute coconut oil for the butter and orange juice or kombucha tea for the rum.


Desserts and Sweets

Raisin Pie

Mom used to make this recipe as small raisin tarts rather than a full pie. It brings back memories of a warm kitchen during a cold winter.
raisins for raisin pie

Ingredients for Raisin Pie or Tarts

  • 3/4 cups raisins
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 egg
  • 3 T lemon juice
  • 3 T grated lemon rind
  • 1/8 t salt
  • 1 pie shell, unbaked

Let raisins stand in water for 2 hours. Mix sugar, flour, egg, lemon juice and rind, and salt. Add raisins with their soaking water. Simmer until thickened (about 15 minutes), stirring constantly to avoid sticking and burning. Cool.

Fill the pastry shell with the cooled raisin mixture and top with pastry lattice if desired.

Bake at 425 F for 45 minutes.


Desserts and Sweets

Lemon Meringue Pie

  • 4 T cornstarch
  • 4 T flour
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups boiling water
  • 1 T butter
  • few gratings lemon rind
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 1 9″ baked pie crust
  • 4 egg whites
  • 8 T sugar
  • 1/4 t vanilla
  • pinch salt

In double boiler, mix cornstarch, flour, salt and sugar. Add boiling water. Cook and stir over direct heat until mixture boils. Set over hot water, cover, and cook 20 minutes. Add butter, lemon rind, lemon juice, and yolks. Cook and stir until thick. Cool.

Prepare merengue with egg whites beaten stiff with 8 T sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add 2 T of merengue to filling and fill pie shell. Spoon rest of merengue on top of pie.

Bake at 425 F about 5 minutes or until brown.

Desserts and Sweets

Pumpkin Pie

A straightforward, standard pumpkin pie recipe with absolutely no frills. Simple goodness and a treat we always looked forward to at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Pumpkin for pumpkin pie

  • 1-1/2 cups cooked or canned pumpkin
  • 2/3 cups brown sugar
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 1/2 t ginger
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1-1/2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup cream or evaporated milk
  • 1 unbaked pie crust

Mix together all ingredients.

Pour into pie shell and bake 10 minutes at 450F. Lower heat to 300F and bake for another 45 minutes.

Top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired.