Pies for the New Year

My number one New Year's Resolution for 2017 is to do more writing. Of course, this includes sharing more blog posts, so this is my first of hopefully many more for the upcoming year. My first post involves more adventures in pie making. I made two new pies for the holidays and am anxious to talk about both!

The first was called Perfect Pumpkin Pie, and I found this one online. The ingredients are typical of most pumpkin pies: canned pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and nutmeg. But one ingredient that I had never personally used in a pumpkin pie was sweetened condensed milk. I made the butter pie crust recipe from Ashley English's book  A Year of Pies. The ingredients were whisked together until smooth, then poured into the chilled pie crust. I baked the pie for 15 minutes at 425 degrees, and then another 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

The result was a very creamy, delectable pumpkin pie with just the right balance of spices. With the typical Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, I often find the taste of nutmeg or cloves to be overwhelming. With this recipe, the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger were of equal proportions (1/2 teaspoon each), and cloves were omitted. I made this for friends, and they thought it was one of the better pumpkin pies they had eaten (so they said, anyway!). I will definitely make this one again, and would add that another plus to this pie was how easy it was to prepare!

The second new pie was from Ms. English's above mentioned book A Year of Pies. This pie was called "Lemon- Lime Chess Pie". This recipe includes eggs, sugar, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and cornmeal. Cornmeal is an unusual ingredient, but is used in chess pie recipes, which are often made in the southern US. I have made the traditional lemon chess, but had never seen one with lime included. So lime juice and lime juice were combined with the above ingredients. The crust was the butter crust recipe from the book. The ingredients were simply whisked together, and then poured into the chilled crust. I baked it for about 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees.

This pie had a nice combination of tartness and sweetness. I believe that the lime added a little more of a delicate flavor to the usual strong lemon taste. Also, this pie has a lightness about it which makes for the perfect dessert after any meal. Since I made this pie only  two days ago, and it is almost gone, I think that shows how much we have enjoyed it!

So, here are two new pies to enjoy in the future, but so many more are waiting to be made!  I will be describing more pies in the months to come, as friends who read my blog say that they love to read about the pies. But I will continue to write about travel, gardening, and oh yes, exercise! I hope to inspire all of us to keep our exercise resolutions so that we can eat as much pie as possible. Stay tuned!