Pi Day 2019: Blueberry Pie and Pizza Pie

Are you making pie for today?  I started last year - it was pretty fun so doing again this year.  

I have never made or eaten a blueberry pie - but my son put in his request for that so I gave it a try.  I think it will be delicious with vanilla ice cream tonight. 

Amazingly, it took twice as long as the recipe said it would take!
Recipe: https://www.inspiredtaste.net/23159/homemade-blueberry-pie-recipe/

Doesn't look that pretty after baking for so long.  Definitely makes the pie, as it says in the recipe "look perfectly humble and homemade".  

It took almost two hours to get the blueberries to bubble in all the little windows of the crust.  After an hour it started flowing out the edges, but the middle blue berries looked uncooked.  So I added a foil top and set the alarm on the phone to check it out every ten minutes...

I took the left over pie crust and coated it with the egg wash and covered in the coarse sugar and cinnamon and baked it for around 30 minutes until it was done.  My husband had some with coffee this morning and said it was very good - something that could be made for company!

My husband put in his request for pizza pie, so we are going to be making that together later on tonite.

The days, the years seem to be slipping away so I'm really grabbing on to creating rituals and memories with my family...

So I'll ask again - are you making pie for Pi Day this year?

Pie Day 2018: Baklava Pie

We did it!  Our first Pie Day Pie.

The recipe was a compilation of several that I found online...

Pie Filling (Son and I prepared this)

Mix together: 1/2 c sugar

1/4 c brown sugar

~ 2 T honey

1 t vanilla

5 T melted butter

Then add 3 eggs - mix well so they do not scramble

And add 2 1/2 c roughly cut walnuts, almonds, pecans and about 5 dates.

Crust (Husband worked on this)

Defrost phyllo dough

Melt 12 T butter

Combine 1/3 c sugar and 1 T cinnamon

On parchment paper, put a sheet of phyllo dough and brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar mixture.

Repeat about 10 to 12 times, rotating some of the sheets so they are in different directions.

Put a pie plate on the top and flip over using the parchment paper so the crust is in the pie plate!

Put the pie filling in the pie and fold the ends of the crust so it hugs the pie. The center will not be covered.

Put on a parchment covered pan and into 375 degree oven  for 45 minutes, or  until the crust is crispy.

During the 45 minutes of baking make a syrup of:

~1/4 c water, ~1/4 sugar, ~2 T honey, juice from one half of lemon

Cook until it foams and boils, take off heat and cool

When the pie is done, spoon the syrup on the pie and let the pie cool to room temp.

Serve with whipped cream.

If we were to make this again, I think we would add more phyllo dough sheets!

Jamie Oliver was the online author I found with the syrup idea.  He also had his recipe written so the filling was prepared first, then the crust.  Made so much sense. He had his on a baking tray instead of a pie pan. Erin McDowell's recipe amounts were in cups so I used them for the amounts of things, instead of trying convert metric.  Ann Clark made her pie using regular pie crust. Erin McDonald added allspice, but I didn't have any so skipped that. Giada made hers in a little muffin tins, which sounded great until I saw the date was March 14, Pie Day, and then looked for baklava pie. (In the comments people said they didn't like the cloves in her ingredients.)  and the first recipe I found, by Renu Jain Chandarana was also using little muffin pans, sounded delicious, but I decided on the pie format.

Did you make pie today?