Caramel Apple Pie

I have a great update to your classic apple pie recipe. This recipe has two wonderful crusts on the top & bottom & is dotted with delicious toffee pieces that add the perfect flavor when slightly melted. I made this pie in a hurry (sorry, no photos of the process), but I didn't think it was too difficult at all! The most annoying part is chilling your ingredients before you start, but it helps the crust come together. It was SO delicious with some light caramel swirl ice cream!

I think I'm going to make it again this weekend for a BBQ, and it would be the perfect addition at a Thanksgiving table! I really hope you give it a shot soon. I have to say, I normally make my mother's classic pie crust, but I went ahead and gave this crust a shot since it went along with the recipe. I can't complain - pretty tasty!

Banana Cream Pie - Fail?

I mentioned a little while ago that I drove back to NOLA at the end of August to surprise my dad for his birthday. That was a success. :) What was not so much a success were my banana pie-making skills. Banana Cream Pie is one of my dad's favorites, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I wanted a recipe completely from scratch. I should have tried one with a pudding mix first though! The reason this was a fail was because my custard did not ever completely set up, even though I followed the directions to a T, except for maybe not chilling the entire pie the whole recommend time (due to the demands of starving people). If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know!

The reason this recipe stuck out to me was because the banana cream pie from Emeril's restaurant in NOLA is one of our FAVORITES. It's so delicious that my mom has tried to pick up a whole pie to-go, but they actually don't "do to-go orders" there! Can you believe that? They said if she came to the bar and had a drink then asked for a pie to go, that they could probably make it work though. I think we went with one from Camellia Grill at the time instead. Those are pretty tasty too. I will share the recipe with you because this pie was still delicious, but it just wasn't so beautiful for me.

You can find Emeril's recipe here, because I'm feeling too lazy to type all that up over here. Note that we used a homemade flaky pie crust instead.

Now here's a few photos of the process:

Vanilla Bean

My mom showing me how to make her delicious pie crust

Don't forget to strain the custard

Making caramel sauce

Small boo-boos are OK!

Making chocolate sauce

It looks pretty- right? The slices were so sloppy, I couldn't take any photos!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Brown Sugar Crack Pie

 The original name of this recipe is "Crack Pie." It is very intriguing. It MUST be good if that's what its called, but I had to Google it 10 times before I could figure out what kind of pie it was. I think this name fits it better and tells you what's in it. Yummy goodness, that's what. Its almost too hard to describe. Brown sugary. Caramely. Salty. Sweet. Gooey. Custardy. Almost like a pecan pie without the pecans and with an oatmeal cookie crust. Its perfect after a long day. Who am I kidding? Its perfect after a short day too.  I forgot what blog I originally saw this featured on, but the recipe is from Epicurious. Apparently its crafted after a famous pie at Milk Bar in NYC? Never been, but I don't think I need to now!

Note, this includes a lot of chilling time. Don't skimp on that or it won't set up properly! I made mine the night before and it was perfect.