A Tasty Surprise: Maple Orange Walnut Pie

Making different and unique pies is one of my favorite activities. Recently, my sister was visiting me, and was flipping through one of my pie recipe books, precisely A Year of Pies, by local author Ashley English. I have prepared several pies from this book, and my taste buds have been very pleased! The pie that caught her attention was "Maple Orange Walnut Pie". She thought the combination of orange, maple syrup, and walnuts sounded intriguing. I will admit that this was not a pie that I had marked as "need to try", but since my sister is an excellent cook, I thought I would trust her instincts.

The pie crust was the first step of the pie, and needs to be made ahead of time and then chilled. This is a typical butter crust. The ingredients for the filling were simple: eggs, maple syrup, flour, butter, salt, orange zest, orange extract, and chopped walnuts. All of these except the nuts are simply beaten together ( I used a an electric mixer) until well blended. The walnuts are stirred in and then the mixture is poured into the chilled pie crust.

This was all so easy! Then I ran into a problem: The mixture was supposed to bake at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes. Unfortunately, mine took close to an hour! The problem, however, was not with the recipe but with my oven! I feared that the pie would be ruined because of this.

The good news is that this pie still tasted delicious! It is apparently forgiving if cooking conditions aren't perfect. The flavor of the orange, maple and walnuts was yummy and different. The texture was very similar to a pecan pie, but the orange and maple provided a sweet, tangy flavor. I made this pie for my sister, whom we were visiting, although I sneaked a small slice before bringing it to her to make sure that it was okay! We all enjoyed more pie, and my sister didn't object when I left the rest for her and her husband. I would definitely make the "Maple Orange Walnut Pie" again. In the meantime, I need to look for a new stove to ensure my continued success with pie making!