Pies for the Holidays or Any Day!

I love pies!  It's easy to make and a great addition to dinners or parties.

The great thing about pies is that you can make your own variation.  There are different kinds of pie crusts like graham crackers, digestive cookies, oreo cookie crust and flaky pie crust.  You can then use nuts, fruits, chocolate as the filling.

Some pies don't even need to be baked!  You just need to chill it for several hours.  You can also opt to make tarts instead by using smaller pans.

Here are 2 tried and tested pies I've made recently.

Pecan Tart (adapted from allrecipes)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
6 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
3 cups brown sugar
4 tbsp melted butter
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans

1. Pastry: Cream butter and cream cheese.  Add flour and mix well.  Divide into mini tart pans and press out into a tart shell.
2. Filling: Break the eggs, but do not beat.  Add sugar, melted butter, salt, vanilla and pecans.  Mix well.  Fill the tart shells.  Bake at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes or until delicately browned.

You can substitute the pecans to pine nuts or pili nuts for this.  Add a scoop of ice cream to make it ala mode!

Salted Caramel and Dark Chocolate Pie (adapted from Rupert's Kitchen)

Ingredients:
375g digestive biscuits
75g unsalted butter
397g tin caramel (wikihow shows how to make caramel with condensed milk)
1 tsp sea salt
300g 70% dark chocolate
25g icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Melt butter in low heat.  Crush digestive biscuits into crumbs and mix butter evenly until consistency is like damp sand.  Press into the bottom and sides of the tart/pie tin.  Freeze for at least 15 minutes.

2. Scoop 2 tablespoons of caramel into a small bowl.  Stir the teaspoon of salt in the remaining caramel.  Carefully spread it across the chilled biscuite base, leaving a 1-2 cm border around the edge.  Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

3. Break the chocolate into chunks and gently melt in a large bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.  Add a tablespoon of the double cream to the 2 tablespoons of caramel, stir well to mix.  Put into the fridge.  Once the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat but leave the bowl where it is.  Add a quarter of the remaining cream and stir until combined.  Repeat, adding another quarter of cream and stir to combine until all cream has been used.  Add icing sugar into the chocolate, add the vanilla and stir well until combined.  Let the sauce cool for 10 minutes.

4.  Pour the sauce into the base, sealing the edges of the caramel layer.  Pour until you have a smooth, even surface.  Put back into the fridge and chill for at least 5 hours, until the chocolate is firm.

5.  Spoon the reserved cream-caramel mixture before serving.

To make Banana and Dark Chocolate Pie I added 2 large bananas in the middle layer of the pie.  It turned out yummy!

I'm excited to try out other pie/tart recipes and experiment on my own!