Quarantine Edition: Phyllo Pumpkin Pie

The last few weeks. I cannot even.  My mind is blown by how much love and (virtual) community I’ve witnessed as well as worry about the health of our most vulnerable populations and our economy as so many lose jobs and don’t have enough savings to weather the storm.  I am also flooded with gratitude that we have the means and ability to keep moving forward and to shelter our children from some of the most devastating aspects of this global crisis, even as my heart breaks for them that they are missing so many simply pleasures of childhood like going to school, the playground, and exchanging germs with friends! Ugh. Tough people. Tough. But we will get through this and it will have lasting effects on all of us. I believe that most of those will be positive. A course correction for the too-busy lives we lead, too connected with our virtual selves and not connected enough to the people we care about with our actual, in-person selves. Believe me, I’m not throwing stones here. One of the immediate realizations I’ve come to as a result of this quarantine is that MY status quo is rushing through breakfast and getting ready for school so that I can be at work and rushing through dinner and the evening so that I can go to bed (and/or do more work). This can’t be me living my best life can it? I’ve realized in the last couple of weeks that I’ve become so used to it that I don’t really think about it anymore...until now. Mind you, working from home and attempting to “homeschool” the kids simultaneously is no walk in the park, but just being home and present with them more is a huge change for me (even though right now, it means working really early in the morning and late into the night). It really makes a person think doesn’t it? Fortunately, I haven’t had much time to think between work, the MILLIONS of dishes I’m doing, snacks I’m preparing, tantrums I’m triaging and the lack of sleep but still...eventually when we come out of this fog and things “get back to normal” perhaps normal will look different and that “different” will be better. 

Until then, there’s pie. Yes. I’ve been cooking. LOTS. Every meal, every snack, every day for six people and we’ve been eating pretty well - another thing I appreciate - being home to start dinner whenever I please. But I keep forgetting to document our dinners.  I’m glad I didn’t forget to document this beautiful pie. The kids are obsessed with making pie so we decided not to relegate pumpkin pie to Thanksgiving only and made one today, in March! It was truly delicious and SO easy to make. Making the crust with phyllo, something I’ve done before with fish pie, was a great idea and gave the kids an additional task - painting the phyllo sheets with butter and sprinkling them with spiced sugar.

Ironically, these days, I’m loving recipes with lots of separate tasks, like, crack the eggs, mix the filling, brush the phyllo sheets with butter, sprinkle the phyllo with spiced sugar - so every child has some way to contribute.  I used “cake spice” from the Spice House instead of the five-spice called for in the recipe, but pumpkin pie spice would work just fine if your crowd isn’t down with the more exotic (adult?) flavor of five-spice. Otherwise I followed the recipe, which can be found here, verbatim with excellent results. Pie is dangerous. I ate so much I wasn’t hungry for dinner. Emmett wants to make a lemon pie tomorrow. He thinks pie every day is a good idea. I’m not so sure. 

Scenes from a walk.

What I am sure of is that this global pandemic situation is temporary and we will get through it. Together. Even if together is “virtually” for a while. Small businesses are being hit particularly hard by this pandemic and the closures that have been mandated as a result. Our family (Paddy) has weathered over 40 years of highs and lows in the retail environment and we are as committed to our customers as ever. We cannot wait to see all of your faces again as soon as it is safe to do so. In the meantime, please shop on this site and contact us if there is anything specific you are looking for or if there is anything we can do to help you get through this.  We may be able to arrange for delivery. THANK YOU so much for reading. We appreciate your loyalty during this tough time! 

Eating pie outside. Still allowed!

Midwest Made: Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle

True story. Last time I made a pie, an apple pie, I pulled it out of the oven, set it on the counter and ran out to the grocery store.  When I returned, my dear husband, Paul, had cut into it prematurely and ALL of the juices were spilling out into the gaping hole left from the piece he had served himself. I was SO.MAD. Like couldn’t see straight mad. Like the maddest I remember being in YEARS! Which, in retrospect, is actually pretty funny. Still, I think we can all agree that it’s super frustrating to spend a few hours making a pie just to have someone ruin it the minute you pull it out of the oven to rest. I explained to him that ALL pies need to rest before you cut them. Fruit pies, so that the juices can cool and thicken properly, and custard pies so that the custard can set.  He said that leaving a warm pie on the counter was entrapment. Ok. Fair point. Regardless, I think my anger scared him straight. I don’t think he’ll ever cut into a pie without permission again.  

I guess I’m glad that cutting into a pie too soon is about the most infuriating thing Paul has done in the last several years. But trust him around baked goods? I unequivocally do not. Which is why, after finding this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle a week or so I go, I knew I had to make it when he was not home.  The directions call for “cooling completely” before removing the brittle from the cookie sheet. So unless I was up for getting in between Paul and a warm Chocolate Chip Cookie-type situation, I was waiting.  

Turns out I didn’t have to wait too long. Thanks to Chicago Public School’s and all of the random days off they give the kids, there was no school this Friday.  Perfect opportunity to bake with Emmett. Good thing he’s a lot better at waiting than his dad. I love this brittle. It’s reminiscent of a Chocolate Chip Cookie, but definitely not a cookie. 

It’s something entirely different. Even if, like me, you love thin, crunchy cookies, this is still not that, it really is more of a brittle.  The surprising accuracy of a name! I feel like you have to try it to understand. And you should! The only problem with the recipe, and brittle format, is that I feel like it’s REALLY easy to eat way too much of this.   

Child baker or serial killer? You decide. (This was actually the least wacky of the camera smiles he gave me. Ha!)

It took us under 10 minutes to prep these and after about 20 minutes in the oven they were ready.  I think it was harder for me to wait for it to cool than it was for Emmett. Truth. But don’t tell Paul. 

He jammed an animal cookie in his mouth to give him sustenance for continued whisking.

We made these with mini chocolate chips, regular chocolate chips and chopped hazelnuts and sprinkled them with additional sea salt before putting them in the oven.  I think they would also be incredible with pecans, or white chocolate and crushed pretzels. I suggested pretzels but Emmett didn’t like the idea. Crazy kid. I hope the girls and Paul like this brittle as much as I do because I don’t trust myself with a whole container of this stuff in the house. 

I’m going to say this is a must make. I’m definitely bringing it to the next party I’m invited to. Maybe I’ll even bring some to the store tomorrow for the Cocoa Crawl! It’s from the book Midwest Made by Shauna Sever. If you love all things Midwest, like me, you will love this book.  You can find the recipe here. Also, I want to bake just about everything else in the book. As you can imagine, there are a bunch of homey, Scandanavian-influenced recipes in there.  Nothing Irish about it but I’m guessing it would all be Ireland approved fare. Ehhem, Potato Chip Shortbread, Brewer’s Cheddar Bread, I’m looking at you. Actually, there is a recipe for Brown Irish Soda Bread that’s on my list, so I stand corrected. 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to squirrel away some of this brittle before the rest of the family gets home. Have a great weekend and if you don’t have plans tomorrow, stop by Long Grove for the Cocoa Crawl.

Pies: Tart and Sweet

Wow. Have I really not posted here since Easter? I knew it had been awhile, and I THINK about posting all the time, but...life gets in the way. Which I guess is how it should be. So much has happened! Noelle has grown into a little girl, no longer a baby. She’s got demands now. She doesn’t sleep in a crib. She’s off to Montessori School next month. She bakes! Well, sort of. I also started a new job in June, Emmett started first grade in September and well, it’s been non-stop changing and growing and fun for the last 6 months (also years). Not enough cooking though. At least not enough new and exciting recipes, but I hope that changes in 2020.

Still, Thanksgiving brought something that I can always get excited about. PIE. I love pie. LOVE IT. As far as I’m concerned, if you cannot get excited about pie - you may not be alive, you may not even be human. Yes. PIE = HUMANITY. I’m prepared to go there.

With this background, you can probably imagine my disappointment when, a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I made an apple pie using a new pie dough recipe and failed miserably. Despite calling for extra butter the dough was tough and sort of chewy. I was glad that I had the presence of mind to test it before the holidays. Sorry work friends, you poor, poor pie guinea pigs. Next year I will make it right.

By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I was scarred by the bad crust experience and not in the mood to make another apple pie. I decided to make two pies that I hadn’t made before, using my tried and true crust recipe. You can find that here. Writing this now, I see how this too could have led to disaster - which is why everyone tells you not to use new recipes on guests. Touché.

Most of the family prefers fruit pies. Paul, Paddy and I are all partial to tart flavors like cherry or rhubarb. So, when I was thumbing through the book Sister Pie and came upon a beautiful cranberry crumble pie, I knew would be a hit.

I toyed with the idea of only making one pie and doing something chocolate for the kids, but I couldn’t let go of the fact that Thanksgiving is basically the only time all year when we have pumpkin pie. Goodness knows why. Right? I’m going to set a calendar alert for pumpkin pie in March right now. As usual, I felt torn between my love for the creamy custardy texture of a pumpkin pie and the nutty sweetness of a pecan pie - but to be honest, pumpkin always wins, at least until this year. This year, I came across a beautiful hybrid pumpkin-pecan version in the November issue of Bon Appetit. Smooth, silky pumpkin custard on the bottom with a crunchy salty-sweet pecan topping. Problem solved. Turns out you can have it all!

My pie choices solidified, I was finally able to move on and move past my crust failure. I cheated and used premade crust dough that I had frozen so that the day before Thanksgiving all I had to do was roll it out, blind bake and proceed. I’m making that sound so easy now, but let me just say that trying to roll out pie dough while simultaneously “working-from-home” and doing both of these things with Noelle around, well, I think I’ve come up with the next extreme sport. It felt extreme anyway.

But not as extremely sad as not having homemade pie on Thanksgiving. I was thrilled when the pies came out of the oven and our babysitter, who had just arrived, told me that she was amazed by how they looked and smelled. Pie is a labor of love, but always worth it.

Paul, couldn’t wait to try them. I was only able to hold him off until Thanksgiving morning, when he conspicuously dilly dallied until all of the pancakes were gone before giving me a pleading look and arguing that no one will care if a slice is missing. I gave in and he happily dug into a piece of the cranberry crumble pie, a la mode, nevermind that it was 9:00 am.

My assessment was that the pies were very good. I loved the cranberry with vanilla ice cream and the pumpkin-pecan with a huge dollop of fresh whipped cream. I wouldn’t hesitate to make either one again and maybe even make both of them for Thanksgiving next year.

I actually followed the recipes for both of these, minus crust, links and my notes are below.

Cranberry Crumble Pie from Sister Pie

• My pie crust shrunk a bit during the blind bake, I don’t think I distributed my beans (what I use for pie weights) as well as I should have. In the end, it didn’t matter at all because crumble covers a multitude of sins. Whew.

• I didn’t use all of the crumble and cannot wait to top anything with what remains in my fridge.

Pumpkin Pecan Pie from Bon Appetit

• In the magazine they make a rye crust which I think sounds amazing and would love to try - once I’m up to experimenting with new crust recipes.