Fill Your Face with Pie

Happy Thursday everyone! I've been eyeing pie recipes lately, so I thought I'd share a few good ones for the fall dinner table.


For those who love the chocolatey-hazelnuty goodness...
Nutella Pie
Allison Kave

Ingredients
Cookie Crust

• 1 1/2 cups (175 g) finely ground chocolate cookie crumbs
• 5 to 8 tablespoons (70 to 115 g) unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 2 cups (270 g) Nutella
• 1 1/2 cups (338 g) mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping

• 1/2 cup (55 g) chopped toasted hazelnuts

Directions
Crust

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
2. Crumble the cookies into the work bowl of a food processor and process until finely ground. Alternatively, you can put them in a bag and whack them with a rolling pin until finely crushed. Pour the butter into the crumbs and mix (hands are best for this) until the butter is fully incorporated and the texture is that of wet sand. Firmly press the crumbs against the sides of a 9-inch (23-cm) pie pan, then against the bottom of the pan (the underside of a measuring cup works well for smoothing the bottom crust). Chill the crust for at least 15 minutes to help prevent it from crumbling when serving.
3. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, or until fragrant. Remove it and allow it to cool before filling.

Make the filling

1. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together the Nutella, mascarpone, and salt until light and fluffy. Spread the filling into the pie shell, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
2. Top the pie with the chopped nuts, slice the pie, and serve. This pie can be refrigerated for up to 1 week, covered in plastic wrap.

When you want to keep it southern...

Maple Shoofly Pie

Jacob Griffin

Ingredients
Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1/4 cup ice water

Filling

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup maple sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup plus 3 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, preferably Grade A dark amber
• 2 1/2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 3/4 cup hot water
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon unsulfured molasses
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

Directions

Crust

1. In a food processor, pulse the flour with the salt. Add the butter and pulse until it is the size of small peas. Add the ice water and pulse until the pastry is moistened. Turn the pastry out onto a floured work surface and knead 2 or 3 times, just until the dough comes together. Pat the pastry into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
2. Preheat the oven to 425°. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to an 11-inch round. Ease the round into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the overhanging dough to the edge of the pie plate and refrigerate the shell for 20 minutes.
3. Line the pie shell with parchment paper and fill it with dried beans or pie weights. Bake the shell for about 10 minutes, just until dry. Remove the parchment and beans and bake the crust for about 10 minutes longer, until lightly golden. Reduce the oven temperature to 350° and let the shell cool completely.

Filling

1. In a food processor, combine the flour, maple sugar and salt and pulse to combine. Add 1 tablespoon of the maple syrup and pulse until blended, then add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse, wet sand.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the hot water with the baking soda. Whisk in the remaining cup plus 2 tablespoons of maple syrup and the molasses, then whisk in the egg. Add 1 1/3 cups of the flour mixture and whisk until the filling is uniform in color. Pour the filling into the cooled pie shell and sprinkle the remaining flour mixture (about 2/3 cup) on top.
3. Bake the pie for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and set. Let the pie cool completely before serving.

MAKE AHEAD: The pie can be covered and kept at room temperature overnight.
SERVE WITh: Whipped cream.

When you want those fall-y flavors...

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Four & Twenty Blackbirds

Ingredients

• Flour, for dusting
• 1 recipe Flaky Butter Pie Dough
• 3 tbsp. flour, plus more for dusting
• 7 baking apples, such as Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, or Honeycrisp (about 3 pounds), peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp. plus 1 cup granulated sugar
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
• ½ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup Demerara sugar
• ½ tsp. Angostura bitters
• ¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp. ground allspice
• ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. Kosher salt
• ⅛ tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• ½ tsp. flake sea salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp. water

Directions

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll 1 disk of dough into a 12″ round. Fit into a 9″ deep-dish pie plate. Trim edges with a knife, leaving 1″ dough overhanging edge of plate; chill 30 minutes. On a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, roll remaining disk of dough into a 12″ round; trim, discarding edges, into a 9″ square. Slice into six 1½″-thick strips; chill 30 minutes.
2. Toss apples with 2 tbsp. granulated sugar and lemon juice; cover with plastic wrap and set aside 1 hour. Whisk 1 cup sugar and ¼ cup water in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat; cook, without stirring, until the sugar dissolves, 2–3 minutes. Add butter; bring to a boil. Continue cooking until the mixture turns a deep red-brown, about 25 minutes or until a candy thermometer inserted in sauce reads 325°. Remove from heat. Carefully add cream, stirring until sauce is smooth.
3. Heat oven to 375°. Stir ⅓ cup Demerara sugar with 2 tbsp. flour, plus bitters, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, kosher salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Drain apples, discarding juices, and add to bowl; toss to coat in spice mixture. Sprinkle remaining flour and sugar over crust; tightly arrange apples over dough, mounding them slightly higher in the center. Pour caramel sauce evenly over apples. Sprinkle with half the sea salt. Lay three strips of dough vertically across the top of pie, about 1½″ apart. Fold first and third strips in half upward. Lay one horizontal strip at pie's center. Unfold first and third vertical strips over it. Fold second vertical strip upward. Lay another horizontal strip below the first. Unfold second vertical strip over the bottom horizontal strip, then fold it again downward. Lay a third horizontal strip just above the pie's center and unfold second vertical strip. Pinch bottom crust and lattice edges together; roll toward center of pie to hide lattice edges; crimp edges. Brush egg over crust, then sprinkle lattice with remaining Demerara sugar and sea salt. Bake until crust is golden and filling is bubbly, about 1 hour. Let cool completely before serving.

Happy baking!