Pie Day Friday

Blond Bottom Coconut Cream Pie

March 13, 2015 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

Get ready to pull out all of your best emojis, peeps, because it’s the return of Pie Day Friday!!!!

Except it’s actually PI DAY Friday (in anticipation of tomorrow, March 14th), which is a similar concept, but also pretty different. More numbers. Infinity of them, to be exact. But also more pie!

Which, I think we can all agree, is a good, good thing.

The first time I can remember eating coconut cream pie was in Charleston, South Carolina which, if you’re in the business of eating coconut cream pie, it turns out is a good place to be. It was summertime, a year or so after college and mom, dad, Casey and I (where was middle sis Emily?? Did she opt out or did we forget her? It’s really hard to say) piled into a booth at Jim ‘N Nick’s. Before we paid the check but after we stuffed our faces with thick slices of barbecued brisket (and weren’t really sure we could handle any more), dessert arrived. A single slice of coconut cream pie, billowing with fluffy mounds of custard and cream, as cool and smooth as a southern summer’s day is hot and sticky…

We dug into it and just looked at each other, eyes wide, mouths working. Because THAT was some pie.

This one’s got the same sweet, toasted coconut flavor, the same piles of cooling custard and cream, plus an extra, blond layer of salty caramel, just to sweeten the deal. It’s still a balanced slice, though, because instead of using sweetened coconut, we call for unsweet. (What goes around comes around, as Justin Timberlake said that one time).

If ever a day called for pie, it’s tomorrow. Make this one! 3.14159265359 times. (Give or take a few).

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Lemon Meringue Tart

December 25, 2014 by mollygilbert520 2 Comments

It’s Post-Christmas Pie Day Friday! A.k.a Boxing Day, a.k.a let’s just go with the pie because what even is “Boxing Day?” Someone in Britain made it up I think? I just know it has literally nothing to do with boxing. So.

Lemon Meringue Tart! This feels right for today.

(FYI, in the realm of Pie Day Friday, tarts are fair game. Thank goodness).

This lemon number is extra tart and creamy, with a sweet cap of smooth, torched meringue. (It’s the torched meringue that gets people ooh-ing and ahh-ing, yknow?)

OOOOOH.

AHHHHHHHH.

There are three main components/steps to get this thing up and running (into my/your mouth): crust, curd, and the aforementioned meringue. Crust is easy (and, if you want to, you can use store-bought — I won’t tell). Lemon curd is simply a matter of gentle heat, steady stirring, and then straining through a fine sieve. And meringue? A hearty whip whip whip and we’re pretty much there!

Can’t you see this beauty going down smooth with a little bubbly, and wow-ing everyone on New Year’s Eve? I can see it. The end of 2014 is going to be tart and sweet and great. Cheers to 2015!

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Apple Crumb Pie

December 12, 2014 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

It’s Pie Day Friday again! Thank goodness.

This week in Seattle has been pretty dark and rainy and a little bit tired, too, so a fat slice of Apple Crumb Pie seems like the right thing to do today.

I brought this pie to a big family dinner last weekend. All of the cousins can’t be together on Christmas, so we celebrated a few weeks early with big plates of homemade macaroni and cheese, fake Santa beards/reindeer antlers, and plenty of pie to go around. Plus ice cream, because warm pie duh and also because Christmas.

I love the warmth and comfort of homemade apple pie. On a chilly, windswept and drizzly day, is there anything better? Flaky, all-butter crust meets spiced and yielding apples meets crisp and oat-y crumbles. Say it with me: YES PLEASE.

And I love how easily this pie turns from dessert into breakfast, without even batting an eyelash. It just makes sense and feels right so let’s just hold hands and eat some pie, okay?

Ice cream optional (but not really).

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Pie Day Friday!

December 5, 2014 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

Happy Pie Day Friday, everyone!

Today, I’m bringing back this creamy, dreamy gem. Peanut Butter Pie!

Peanut buttah. Pie.

This is one of those entirely rich, entirely indulgent recipes, perfectly built for the holiday season. Cookie crumbs. Cream cheese. Peanut butter. Sweetened condensed milk AND heavy cream!

This is a party. Inside of a pie.

Here’s the recipe. Enjoy!!

Salty Chocolate Cream Pie (+ Giveaway!)

November 28, 2014 by mollygilbert520 10 Comments

It’s a special edition of #PieDayFriday! Today I’m bringing this salty chocolate cream pie to a Friendsgiving Potluck hosted by Renee at Will Frolic For Food, and featuring J. Q. Dickinson Salt Works!

You know, just in case you didn’t get your fill yesterday (#thanksgiving).

…What? More pie is always a good move.

This was actually my first-ever attempt at a chocolate cream pie, and I’m prettyyyyyy pleased with how it turned out. There are three different components at work here, all of which are surprisingly easy to pull off. One: dark chocolate cookie crust. Crush and mix. Easy. Two: creamy chocolate pudding. The most involved step of all (melt, whisk, boil, strain), but still, easy. And three: fresh whipped cream. Whip whip whip. Eaaaasy street dot com! Plus extra salt for flavor and a small avalanche of chocolate shavings because we’re not savages, jeez.

As I mentioned above, this virtual Friendsgiving celebration is sponsored by J.Q. Dickinson Salt Works, a rad company out of West Virginia that harvests super fresh, clean-tasting sea salt (from an ocean source that flows underneath the WV Appalachians, OBVI), and they were kind enough to provide me with an extra jar of their delicious sea salt to give away!

So if you’re interested in a nice lil jar of hand-harvested sea salt amazingness, simply leave a comment below telling me about your favorite Thanksgiving dish, or tradition, or whatever, and I’ll choose a winner on Monday evening (December 1st)!

Contest is over! Thanks friends!

Happy #PieDayFriday, all!…

Torched Marshmallow & Sweet Potato Pie

November 21, 2014 by mollygilbert520 4 Comments

This. This! THIS is what #PieDayFriday is all about. Custardy and sweetly-spiced sweet potato pie, tucked into a buttery gingersnap crust and topped with too much torched marshmallow meringue.

…Yep. Marshmallow meringue.

Y’KNOW?!?

I’ve always been a straight pumpkin pie kind of girl (side of whip), but I figure I’m 30 now, and it’s high time to give the sweet potato a chance. Turns out it’s a seamless transition.

Subbing sweet potato for pumpkin in pie isn’t an earth-shaking departure, flavor-wise (our familiar pumpkin pie spices are ever present), but I know some people have strong opinions about the merits and downfalls of each. Personally, I am not one of those people.

I’ve actually heard that the best method for this kind of pie is to use butternut squash. Maybe next time I’ll try to distinguish this pie as SWEET POTATO by subbing out some of the traditional pumpkin pie spices, or adding a drop of molasses, or using heavy cream instead of evaporated milk?

Or maybe I’ll just keep it exactly as it is. Extra marshmallow, always.

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Pie Day Friday!

November 14, 2014 by mollygilbert520 Leave a Comment

WELCOME TO PIE-DAY-FRIDAY, FRIENDS! I’m so so excited to present this new little series to the blog, from now through the holidays! To answer some questions you may have:

WHO: Us!

WHAT: Pies!

WHERE: Here.

WHEN: Fridays, from now to New Years!

WHY: Because we all could use a little help with our pie game, amiright? (Except for my Aunt Maggie who is baller at pies. But still).

I’m starting out with my FAVORITE pie, an oldie but a goodie, an all-around classic and integral player in the holiday season lineup… PECAN PIE! (Are there a lot of caps in this post or IS IT JUST ME?).

Last year, I wrote about this pie: “You will want to make it. You will be proud to partake of it, even. It’s rich and toasty, sweetly mapled, faintly caramel-ish – it is deep, this pecan pie. Deep in the maple/brown sugar/molasses, complex-and-nuanced sort of way, not in the literal depth sort of way. You know. It’s like, deep, man.”

…Still true.

To make this thing we toast pecans for true nuttiness, use maple syrup and a glug of molasses instead of the usual corn syrup (for a cleaner, whole-er kind of sweetness), and round the pie out with some brown sugar for depth, heavy cream and egg yolks for pure richness, and salt to make it sing. And oh, does it sing.

And if you use store-bought pie dough? (Which I do only sometimes but have no shame in doing?) Easy as PIE. (…See what I did there?)