Category Archives: sweet pies

Apple butter pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving edition

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So the apple butter pumpkin pie was a big hit—love the flavor from the apple butter, and using the heavy whipping cream instead of evaporated milk gave it a fluffiness I never got from the traditional Libby’s recipe.

Decided to ditch the walnut streusel topping (I really am allergic to nuts, had it confirmed by the allergist) in favor of an improvised sunburst pattern of strips of pastry. Thought it turned out very well, though were I to do this again I would leave the extra perimeter of the bottom crust hanging over the edge while doing the strips of dough, then fold it over the edges and crimp to make a cleaner finish on the outside.

I think this is our new official family pumpkin pie recipe, however!

Apple butter pumpkin pie, test run

I wanted to try something different for the holiday pumpkin pies this year, beyond the tried and true Libby’s recipe. Found this one that uses apple butter, which sounded pretty brilliant. I love apple butter.

The original recipe called for a nut crust (which I skipped, opting for Purdy’s basic flaky pastry instead) and a walnut streusel topping (which I kept—that’s called compromising with one’s food allergies.)

Baked the pies 2/3 of the way, then took out of the oven to add a walnut streusel topping

Baked the pies 2/3 of the way, then took out of the oven to add a walnut streusel topping

After another bit of baking, the final product

After another bit of baking, the final product

Peach, crème fraîche, & honey pie

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So this is basically a mashup of my end-of-season peach pie with the apricot & crème fraîche tart. It was a lovely lovely thing except that the peaches weren’t as ripe as I would’ve liked.

I had fun with the angled lattice variation (instead of perpendicular) and the scalloped crimping of the crust.

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Sometimes, it’s just a 4-pie day