Today's Cook the Book recipe, adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, is one that Melissa Murphy says is her favorite—Sour Cherry Pie with Pistachio Crumble. Developed by her friend and one-time pasty chef at Sweet Melissa Patisserie, it's also one of the most popular pies at the shop.
As is always the case with our Cook the Books, we're giving away a number of them. Enter to win here »
Perhaps you’re just a lukewarm fan of the Pats. You dig Plymouth Rock, the Boston Tea Party sounded like a hoot and Sam Adams is reliably drinkable. But you’re not a die-hard. Maybe you’re just rooting against the Giants. Rather than going for a big shebang recipe, embrace your inner fair-weathered fan. Play it cool with a microwavable Boston Cream Pie. Absolutely no ovens involved.
Cookbook Wiki, an open source cookbook that's not actually affiliated with the real Wikipedia one, has a recipe speaking to this. After experimenting with the oven-free concept the other night, some of us discovered that microwaved eggs can yield weirdness. Burping may ensue, but hopefully not salmonella poisoning.
The following recipe is from the January 23rd edition of our weekly recipe newsletter. To receive this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here!
In honor of January 23rd being National Pie Day, why not sit down to this savory and comforting millet pie with spinach and feta? Millet has often been dismissed, more or less because it absorbs water like no other and is often associated with being dry and tasteless. The trick is to keep it "hydrated," so to speak, which lets it acquire a softer, porridgy quality.
On Thursdays, Dorie Greenspan drops by with a delicious baking recipe for you to try. Preheat those ovens, people! —Ed.
As every baker knows, Thanksgiving is really about the pie. The turkeys may get the covers of the all the glossy mags, but it's the pie—specifically pumpkin pie—that counts. Skip it and no one will ever come to your home for Thanksgiving dinner ever again.
Here's the recipe for my favorite pie for the holiday. It's got a creamy pumpkin filling that's smoothed with sour cream, spiced like eggnog and spiked with dark rum. The filling can be used to make either a pie or a tart. I usually make a pie for Thanksgiving and a tart when I want something a little lighter and a little more elegant. (If you make this as a tart, you'll have filling left over, which you can use to make mini-tartlets; bake the minis at 400 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes.)
The filling is super-quick to make—it gets put together in a food processor—and, if you're looking to save time, you can make it the night before and keep it in a covered jar in the fridge. Just give it a little shake before you pour it into the crust. And you can get a jump on the crust—pre-bake it the night before and keep it at room temperature; it will hold without a problem overnight.
Wishing you and yours a delicious holiday!
When we talked to Cook's Illustrated publisher Chris Kimball about the November 2007 issue of the magazine, we asked what recipes really stood out in it this year. This pie crust is one of them, he said. "It's a brilliant recipe," Kimball said. "The secret ingredient in it? Vodka."
When it comes to looking good, 1980s supermodel Carol Alt probably has a genetic advantage on most of us, but she attributes her age-defying beauty to the raw-food diet she's been keeping for years.
Raw foodism is a diet based on food that is unprocessed and not cooked above a temperature of 116°F. Supporters of this diet say that this keeps food enzymes, which aid in the digestion and absorption of food, intact. Other benefits may include general detoxification, clearer skin, and more energy.
It can be a tough lifestyle to adhere to if eating delicious foods aside from salads is a priority, but there are a few cookbooks out there to help expand your raw-food horizons. Alt wrote The Raw 50 to answer the need for recipes that turn raw ingredients into real food. Having tried a few recipes for the novelty of it, I can attest that she crafts dishes that are full of flavor and have a variety of pleasing textures, from creamy to crunchy.
Alt's recipe for pecan pie results in a sweet treat that can serve as an introduction to the raw experience and as a healthy, guilt-free end to an otherwise gluttonous Thanksgiving dinner. I was surprised by how tasty, rich, and dense it actually was. Shock your in-laws or impress your vegan friends this Thanksgiving by bringing a raw dessert.
Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love is a love letter to the endless possibilities of hundreds of vegetables, both common and obscure. Being that it is about the sensual pleasures of vegetables rather than simple or ascetic vegetarian eating, I thought it would be fitting to try her recipe for a rich squash pudding that can be made into a classic holiday pie. And while I've happily eaten canned pumpkin pie my entire life, the complexity of flavors achieved by cooking pumpkin pudding from scratch far outweighs the simplicity of opening a can.
And so we've come to the final featured recipe from John T. Edge's Apple Pie: An American Story
In John T. Edge's Apple Pie: An American Story
Edge's version of the fried pie is made with Coca-Cola as the dough liquid—a variant he observed at several fried-pie stands during his research. Using Coke in cooking is common in the South, he says, and here it gives the dough just the "slightest bit of sweet."
In John T. Edge's Apple Pie: An American Story
Hypocrite Pie is so named because its creator, Beth Tartan, creates a false impression with the custard topping—it disguises a hefty layer of apples hiding beneath. Here, Edge substitutes buttermilk custard for Tartan's more traditional milk version.
In John T. Edge's Apple Pie: An American Story
In one of the book's chapters, Leung's pie represents for one man, Paul Myers, a sort of platonic ideal of apple pies. Edge deftly tells Myers and Leung's story while extracting a recipe that readers can test at home against their own ideal pie.
And our first recipe out of the gate this week is for Pecan Apple Rye Pie. You thought we were going to throw you a more classic version, eh? That'll make its appearance later this week. Edge says he adapted this pie from The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. Enjoy!
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