What Are The Best Apples For Apple Pie
It’s best to use a mix of different types of apples in your pie. Some apple varieties cook up faster than others. Some cook up firm, some more soft some apples are more tart, some more sweet.
- Granny Smith – Green and tart, Granny Smith apples have wonderful flavor, but they they often lose their shape and turn mushy when cooked. So use no more than 2 Grannies in your pie, and combine with other varieties.
- Jonagold – A cross between a Golden Delicious and a Jonathan, Jonagolds have a lovely aromatic flavor, they’re both sweet and sharp, and they hold their shape with baking.
- Fuji – Crisp, firm, juicy, balance of sweet and tart, holds its shape in baking
- Golden Delicious – Yellow and sweet, holds its shape after baking
- Braeburn – Sweet and crisp, bakes up firm and juicy
- Cortland – Juicy and tart, relatively soft, great all purpose apple for baking
- Honey Crisp – Honey sweet and tart flavor, crisp and juicy, holds shape in baking
- Avoid Red Delicious apples for pies, they don’t cook well.
For more information on which apple varieties are best for baking, check out our Guide to Apples.
Use Cold Fat In Pie Crust
Why the emphasis on temperature? Keeping your pie dough as cold as possible helps prevent the fat from melting. If the butter melts inside the dough before baking, you lose the flakiness. When the lumps of fat melt in the oven as the pie bakes, their steam helps to separate the crust into multiple flaky layers as explained above. Warm fats will lend a hard, crunchy, greasy crust instead of a nice tender flaky crust.
I keep some of my butter in the freezer and transfer it to the refrigerator a few hours before beginning the crust. This way it is part frozen and very, very cold. For shortening? Just keep it in the refrigerator.
Making Individual Meat Pies
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How To Add A Lattice Crust
We love adding a lattice crust to our pies. The juices in the filling bubble out and over the lattice making a pie that looks perfectly humble and homemade.
If youve never added a lattice crust before, it can seem a little daunting, but dont fret! Its easy , and if you watch the video, we walk you through the entire process.
If you dont want to go the lattice route, you can always place a sheet of dough over the filling, and then add slits to the top . Or add a crumble topping, like the one we used for these apple pie cupcakes or the one we use to make this delicious blueberry crumble.
Before baking, we like to brush the crust with a rich egg wash made from egg yolk and cream. Then we bake until bubbling and golden brown.
The most difficult part of making any fruit pie is waiting for it to cool you need to wait for two to three hours before cutting. Otherwise, the filling will spill out and make the crust soggy.
Serve the pie with ice cream, whipped cream or do what we do and enjoy it plain .
Southern Sweet Potato Pie Recipe
Dessert 2 hrs
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This Southern Sweet Potato Pie is an heirloom recipe loved for generations! A delicious Southern favorite made with simple ingredients and perfect for Thanksgiving!
Sweet Potato Pie has been a well-loved dessert here in the South for generations and is gaining popularity in other regions now, too. I think its wonderful that many more people are trying and loving this classic southern pie!
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How To Know When The Sweet Potato Pie Is Done
The best sweet potato pie recipe may take less time on your oven . Check the pie at the 45 minute mark, if the pie jiggles in the middle the Pie is done, and if the pie sloshes put the pie back into the oven to cook longer checking every 10 minutes to make sure you do not over bake the pie. If you see the pie crust getting dark, add tinfoil around the edges of the pie crust to avoid it burning.
Specific Savory Pie Recipes
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Embellishing The Top Of Your Icebox Pie
I used a teaspoon of lemon zest to sprinkle on top of the pie. I feel it adds a little lemon punch with every bite!
You could also top it with Whipped Cream if you like.
But I feel this pie is sweet enough as it is. So I typically stick with only using lemon zest on top.
Want to make this cooling lemon ice box pie for yourself? The recipe is below.
Did you make this dessert? Please rate the recipe in your comment below!
How To Make Pie Crust From Scratch
Posted by Erika | Jan 19, 2021
The secret to a great slice of pie is all in the crust! A buttery, flaky crust that holds its shape is key to pie perfection, and this step-by-step guide on how to make a pie crust will help show you how quick and easy it is to do!
The best thing about this easy pie crust recipe is that it uses staple ingredients you probably have on hand already: flour, salt, fat and water. Thats it! With these basic ingredients, you can make a buttery, flaky crust you can use with pretty much any filling.
Not only will we walk you through this easy homemade pie crust recipe, but well also share a few basic tips and tricks to help ensure you get great results every time. Weve also included a few of our favorite go-to pie recipes, perfect for trying out your new homemade pie crust!
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Making The Pie Filling
To make the filling, we toss blueberries with a mixture of sugar, cornstarch, allspice, cinnamon, salt, and a little lemon zest. When everything is well tossed, we tumble the filling into a prepared crust.
As far as the crust goes, we prefer to use this recipe for all-butter pie crust. Its delicious and bakes up to be very flaky.
Just as with this pie recipe, we have shared a quick recipe video showing you how we make it, you can watch it here: How to Make Flaky Pie Crust.
Tips For Making Southern Sweet Potato Pie:
- I love to use this Flaky Pie Crust recipe, but a store-bought pie crust or your favorite homemade one is just fine.
- Youll need 1 cup of mashed sweet potato for this recipe. I bake a few medium to large sweet potatoes until they are very soft. Let them cool and then peel the skin off. Hand mash them really well.
- Instead of baking them, you could peel the sweet potatoes, cube them, and boil them in water until soft, but I find they have better flavor if you bake them.
- This pie is done when it jiggles in the center just slightly when you shake it.
- Can be served chilled or at room temperature.
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How Long To Cook Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken pot pie is truly comforting food at its finest, typically combining a flaky, buttery crust with onions, diced chicken, peas, and carrots in a creamy sauce. You can always readily get pre-made chicken pot pie in practically any grocery freezer department, but cooking your own homemade version is definitely a worthwhile experience.
Chicken pot pies promise an entirely delicious experience, as long as they are made the right way. We have recommended ideal methods of preparing this recipe and some really helpful tips to help you achieve the best results.
Start With The Right Tools
When you are tackling a baking project, it helps to have the right tools. Besides the pie dish itself, heres what we recommend for this recipe:
- Silicone Pastry Mat with measurements This is the perfect surface to roll out your dough. You will still need to lightly flour the mat, but it works so much better than the countertop. It has measurements on it so you know how big to roll out your crust.
- Rolling Pin with offset handle This will help you to make a perfectly smooth crust.
- Adjustable Measuring Cup An adjustable measuring cup is perfect for measuring shortening. You wont have to worry about it getting stuck or getting it all over your hands.
- Pastry Blender This is the easiest way to blend the shortening and dry ingredients together. You can also use a food processor.
- Fluted Rolling Pastry Cutter If you plan on making a lattice top, this is a must!
- Large Plastic Bowl Get a bigger bowl than you think you need. You dont want flour flying all over the place.
- *Optional: Cookie cutters for decoration
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What Is Frozen Chicken
Frozen chicken is, quite simply, chicken that has been frozen. It can be whole chickens, chicken breasts, thighs, or wings. When chicken is frozen, it stops the growth of bacteria, which can lead to food poisoning. However, freezing chicken does not kill bacteria it merely stops it from growing. Thats why its so important to cook frozen chicken properly.
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Make Ahead Preparation Tips
This chicken pot pie recipe is so versatile and can be made ahead in a variety of ways!
First, making the chicken before prepping the recipe is a big time saver. I like to grill a big batch of chicken and chop or shred it to use in all kind of recipes, including this one. Batch cooking chicken is great and Ive also baked, boiled or used my Instant Pot over the years to make it.
Next, the filling can be made and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two days until you are ready to prep the pies. You can also freeze just the filling itself .
The whole pie can be assembled, wrapped in foil or plastic wrap, and stored in the refrigerator for up to a day in advance. Keep in mind that sometimes this will make the crust a little soggier so you may need to bake it longer.
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Is This Chicken Pot Pie Freezer Friendly
Yes! That this homemade chicken pot pie recipe is freezer friendly is one of the best things about it! You can enjoy this classic comfort food anytime.
There are a few ways that you can prep it for freezing. Often, I will make double or even triple batches of the filling. I like to use my 2-cup Souper Cubes to freeze the filling but any airtight container will work. You can freeze the filling for up to six months, just dont forget to date and label you container!
Freezing just the filling saves space in the freezer but also allows you to assemble the pot pies just before baking. The recipe card below has all the instructions on how to do that.
Another option is to assemble the whole pie, then wrap in foil or put in a zip top bag . This is a great option if you bring meals to others or have the space in your own freezer to store it. Instructions on how to bake the pie from frozen are in the recipe card below.
No matter what you choose, I love the flexibility of this recipe and of course its simplicity and great flavor. I hope you enjoy it too!
Can You Cook Pies In An Air Fryer
Yes! I actually bought one of these with apple pie filling inside too! Timing was basically the same and tasted pretty amazing. SO you could put one of these and your dinner pot pie in at the same time and have a complete meal.
Once you thoroughly enjoy this one there are several other air fryer frozen foods you can try too. Our air fryer frozen meatballs are a great snack or appetizer tossed with sauce. Frozen chicken wings are the bomb too.
Another snack idea my girls love is making air fryer pierogies or frozen salmon in air fryer too.
Now for a Banquet frozen pot pie they are a bit smaller so I would decrease the initial time to 15 minutes.
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