No Bake Apple Butter Pie

Hope all of you had a happy and thankful Thanksgiving.
For this Thanksgiving along with with pumpkin pie and the pecan pie, I thought of making a lighter no-bake pie.
Here is the result of my experiment. We loved this and  I am planning to make this next year too or the next time I have craving for a pie. This is an entirely home made version because I think home-made is always better as you can make it to your liking. But if you are pressed for time, you can easily put this together using store bought crust and apple butter of your choice. Apple being a fruit available year-round, this is something you can make any time of the year.
 So enjoy!

For the Pie crust:
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (from about 9 whole graham crackers)
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
Pinch of salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Method:

If you’re using whole graham crackers, finely crush them in a food processor or place them in a ziploc bag and roll with a rolling pin.
Stir graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Add melted butter and stir with a fork.
Press mixture  into each ramekin or serving dish  to form a even layer along the bottom. Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling. I prefer chilling the  pie crust for at least one hour before filling. Cover if chilling longer.

For the Apple Butter:
Ingredients
2 lbs of good cooking apples (we use Granny Smith or Gravenstein)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (or substitute with water)
1/2 cups water
Sugar (about 2 cups, see cooking instructions)
Salt
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup Butter
Method:
Pressure cook cored and peeled apples along with apple cider vinegar and water for 5 minutes. Puree the apples and add rest of the ingredients into a wide thick-bottomed pot(the wider the pan the better, as there is more surface for evaporation) and cook on medium low heat, stirring constantly to prevent burning. Scrape the bottom of the pot while you stir to make sure a crust is not forming at the bottom. Cook until thick and smooth.

Final assembly:
Spoon in the apple butter to the chilled crust and smooth out the top. Serve along with a dollop of whipped cream with a sprinkle of left over cookie crumb. Or if you are not a fan of whipped cream you can leave that out and serve with just the  left over cookie crumbs.

Caramel Spiked Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving without a pie or two is not complete. So here is a pie from our home to yours. This year, as always, we made both the pecan pie and the pumpkin pie. Aishwarya made the pecan pie which turned out perfect and I was all the more challenged to make a perfect pumpkin  pie. Luckily for me it turned out perfect and had all my pie tasters asking for more. It was light, smooth and the best part was it was not mushy like most pumpkin pies are. And the addition of caramel takes this pie to a whole new level. Try this out with some whipped cream and caramel sauce, and its even more irresistible. So if you are still in search of that perfect pumpkin pie with a an extra oomph do try this.
Recipe source:Annie's eats

Yield: 1 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

1 (9-inch) partially baked pie crust

1 cup sugar, divided

¾ cup heavy cream, warmed

1 tbsp. dark rum (optional)

2 tbsp. butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 cup pumpkin puree

1¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¾ tsp. ground ginger

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Pinch of ground cloves

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs

Method:
To blind-bake a pie crust, preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  Roll pie dough out on a lightly floured surface to a 12-inch disc.  Place it in a 9-inch pie plate, trimming away the excess and creating decorative edges as desired.  Prick the bottom and sides of the crust with the tines of a fork.  Line the crust with a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper and fill with baking beads.  (If you don’t have baking beads, dried beans or rice also work.)  Bake 25 minutes.  Remove the baking beads and foil and bake about 5-10 minutes more, until light golden.  Transfer to a wire rack and let cool. While pie crust is baking take a medium saucepan, spread ½ cup of the sugar out in an even layer over medium-high heat.  Once the sugar begins to melt and change color, gently mix together so that the sugar is evenly melted.  Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has turned a deep amber color (keep a careful eye on it to be sure it doesn’t burn).  Once it has reached the desired color, remove the pan from the heat.  Add in the cream in a slow steady stream down the inside edge of the saucepan, stirring or whisking constantly to incorporate evenly.  (If any lumps remain, return the pan to the burner over medium heat and cook just until melted.)  Continue mixing in the cream in this manner until it has been completely incorporated.  Stir in the butter and the rum and mix just until smooth.  Set aside the caramel and let cool for at least 15 minutes.

In a bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, remaining ½ cup of sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla.  Whisk to blend.  Whisk in the eggs one at a time.  Blend in the caramel.  Pour the filling into the partially baked crust.

Place the pie plate on a baking sheet and transfer to the preheated to oven 350 F.  Bake 45-50 minutes, or until the center is just set and the edges are puffed.  Transfer to a wire rack to let cool at least 30 minutes. Serve with freshly whipped cream and caramel sauce as desired.

Aishwarya's 1st  Pecan Pie :-9

Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving celebration without a pie, especially a Pumpkin pie, is incomplete. If you want to get that taste of the home made pie, but is pressed for time with all the Thanksgiving dinner preparations going on, you may resort to a pre-made pie shell and make your own fillings. This will cut the time and effort for making a pie into half.  You can still enjoy a scrumptious semi-home made Pumpkin pie.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Ingredients:
Two 8-inch pie shells
3 eggs
2 3/4 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/4 cups milk
For serving:
Whipped cream
Method:
In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add pumpkin puree, sugar, salt, and spices and mix well. Add cream and milk and beat on low until combined.
Pour filling into pie shells. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake pies on middle rack for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for about 40 minutes longer, until filling is thickened, tops are lightly browned, and/or a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (or mostly clean). If you're making a bigger pie, or an especially deep pie, you will need to increase the baking time. Cool finished pies on a wire rack.
Serve cooled pie with whipped cream on top!
Store leftover pie in the refrigerator.

Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes 'N Vegetarian Gravy

Even though thanksgiving is a few days away, we had already had a few "advance" thanksgiving get-togethers from this weekend. Mashed potatoes with gravy is part and parcel of a typical thanksgiving meal. Whenever I gets invited to a traditional thanksgiving meal (even  the advance thanksgiving dinners), I typically offer to make the vegetarian gravy so that the hostess would have one less dish to take care of. For yesterday's get together, I made the mashed potatoes as well. One thing I noticed about this gravy  is that its equally loved by both vegetarians and non vegetarians,so I always make it a point to make enough to meet the demand.  It feels great that something you have made is in so much of demand. After all, the proof of the pudding is in eating!
Usually I make the plain mashed potatoes. But this time around, when I came across this recipe, I thought of trying this out as it sounded different and delicious. And it turned out to be such a crowd pleaser.
Recipe source:Foodnetwork and Food.com
Ingredients
3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
2 tablespoons kosher salt
16 fluid ounces (2 cups) half-and-half
6 cloves garlic, crushed
6 ounces grated Parmesan
Method:
Peel and dice potatoes, making sure all are relatively the same size. Place in a large saucepan, add the salt, and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Cook until potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
Heat the half-and-half and the garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
Remove the potatoes from the heat and drain off the water. Mash and add the garlic-cream mixture and Parmesan; stir to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes so that mixture thickens and then serve.

Vegetarian Gravy

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
2 tbs flour
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp to 2 tbs cornstarch( as required for your desired thickness)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp soy sauce
Method:
Heat the butter over medium heat in a large skillet and saute the onion for 2 minutes along with the garlic. Add the flour  and saute for 5 more minutes.
Add the vegetable broth and cornstarch, stirring to mix the cornstarch well. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently to make sure no clumps are formed.
Add  soy sauce and reduce heat. Cook for one more minute, stirring.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Here is one of the perennial thanksgiving favorites - the pecan pie with a twist.
Hope you would enjoy this one.
Once again, Happy Holidays to you all!
Recipe adapted from Tyler Florence
Ingredients:
For the crust:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. salt
8 tbsp. cold, unsalted butter, cut into medium cubes (about 16 pieces)
3 tbsp. ice cold water

Filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup or sugar cane syrup (such as Steen's)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
11/2 cups pecan halves

Method:
To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix briefly to combine.  Add the cubes of butter to the bowl and mix on low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal and the largest chunks of butter are not much larger than peas.  Add the water to the bowl and mix on low speed just until the dough comes together.
Form the dough into a 1 " thick disc, wrap  with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until chilled.
Heat the oven to 350 degree F .Roll the dick on a lightly floured work space into a 12 " circle.Fit this into the bottom of a 9 "pie pan .Trim the excess and crimp as desired.

To make the filling: melt the butter and chocolate in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, remove from heat and let cool. Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl until frothy and then blend in the sugar. Stir in the syrup, vanilla, salt, and the melted butter mixture until well blended.
Arrange the pecans on the bottom of the pie crust and carefully pour the egg mixture over them. Bake until the filling is set and slightly puffed, about 45 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking a thin knife in the center of the pie, if it comes out pretty clean, you're good to go. Transfer the pie to rack and cool completely before cutting.

Fruit Salad with Custard.

Last week, it was the  Diwali Celebration at Aishwarya's school. All the Indian parents made a dish each to give a taste of India to the staff and teachers of the school. Since I had a hectic week even otherwise, I thought of making a "make ahead" dish. As I am desserts person, I opted for this one. This is something I could make blindfolded as we make this so often at home. My mom used to make this when I was a kid and I literally "grew up" having this!
This was well appreciated by everyone who had this at the feast and I had the recipe requests from many. So here is a quick, simple and healthy dessert for the holidays.
Ingredients:
Custard powder -4 Tbs (can substitute this with corn starch)
Milk -2 1/2cups
Fruits ( apples,grapes,oranges,pineapple, banana or any others of your liking)-1 cup
Lemon-1/2
Sugar- 5 Tbs
Vanilla extract -1/2 tsp ( if using corn starch)
Jello-1 packet (You will only need half of the Jello for this quantity of fruit salad)
Method:
Mix the custard  powder or  cornstarch in 1/4 cup of cold milk. Bring the rest of the milk to a boil along with 4 table spoons of sugar. Take the milk away from the heat; add the custard mix. Cook this for about 5 minutes or till the custard  thickens. (For those of you who are using corn starch in place of the custard powder, add a little bit of yellow food color to give your custard the usual color and add the vanilla extract to this.) Refrigerate this for 5 hours or till evenly cold. Make Jello as per the directions on the pack but use 1/2 a cup less water so that the Jello can be cut into little pieces after it sets. Refrigerate this till it sets and cut into small pieces. Meanwhile cut the fruits into little bite sized pieces. Add 1 tablespoons of sugar along with juice of half a lemon and mix well and refrigerate this too. After 5 hrs or so mix the fruits  and jello along with custard and serve

Baked Sweet Potatoes

In our house I do a lot of baking during the winter months; the reason behind this is that I don't like using the heater.The heater always gives me a headache so I try to use it minimally.So on cold days I bake something that gets the temperature up.This method works for me because we are in California,were the temperature doesn't go so low.This is one dish that I made on  a cold rainy day to keep us warm and full.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large sweet potatoes
2 pinches of dried oregano
2 pinches of salt
2 pinches of ground black pepper
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Coat the bottom of a glass or non-stick baking dish with olive oil, just enough to coat.
Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Cut them into medium size pieces. Place the cut sweet potatoes in the baking dish and turn them so that they are coated with the olive oil. Sprinkle moderately with oregano, and salt and pepper (to taste).
Bake in a preheated 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) oven for 60 minutes or until soft.
Source courtesy: allrecipes.com

Pecan Pie

Happy Thanksgiving! In our house we get into the Thanksgiving mood only when we make this Pecan Pie (not that we are thankless people without it :-). This is that dish that I make only for Thanksgiving ; not because its a dish that requires lots of effort or anything but because I wanted my daughter to associate something  with each celebration. And as vegetarians we since can't have a turkey, I choose Pecan Pie to embody the Thanksgiving spirit.This recipe is originally from  Food.com and I have been using this recipe for the past 4 years with a few minor changes.
Ingredients:

3 eggs
1 cup corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups pecan halves
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown Sugar
1/3 cup butter (melted)
Pie crust(I use a 10 and 1/2 deep dish pie pan)

Method:
Beat eggs lightly with an electric mixer or fork until combined.Stir in corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla extract.Chop the pecans.Pour chopped pecans in an even layer on the bottom of the unbaked pie shell.  Pour the syrup mixture over the top of the pecans.  Allow to stand about 20 seconds to let pecans float to the top.Bake in a 350 degree preheated oven, for 50minutes or until knife comes out clean. Cover edge of pie crust with aluminun foil for first 25 minutes of bake time, then remove for remaining 25 minutes, to prevent the crust from burning.

Enjoy!

Sweet-n-Savory Haricot Verts

This is a recipe I got from Ocean Spray. I loved this recipe as it had the right combination of spiciness and sweetness that we all liked. Another point I liked about this was that it had all the ingredients like almonds, cranberries and beans that my daughter likes and is very attractive to the eye with the combination of green and red. If you want a change from the routine cranberry or bean dishes, you should definitely give this a try.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup sherry
1/4 cup Cranberry Juice Cocktail
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup blanched almonds, toasted
10 ounces fresh or frozen green beans
1 small onion, sliced
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 ounces Dried Cranberries

DIRECTIONS:

If using fresh green beans, cook in salted boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes or until just tender. Drain; rinse in cold water.

Combine onion, water and salt in large skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until water evaporates. Add beans, garlic, butter, cumin and curry powder; stir to coat beans. Stir in dried cranberries, sherry, juice cocktail and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until liquid evaporates and mixture is heated through. Sprinkle with almonds.