Prune Plum Pie

First of all let me say again, I LOVE where I live. Seriously! The fruits and veggies available, blow my mind! I also want to say thank you. Our friends asked us if we would care to do some gleaning, from their full plum tree....yeah! I got some for my neighbour, my sister-in-law, as well as lots for us! I hate to see yummy food go to waste, and so my mission was to figure out how to use up plums! On my way home from picking the plums I had stopped at Shoppers and they had whipping cream with a $2 off sticker, so I needed a yummy thing that we could put whipping cream on. Heck, all we needed was a little coffee, right Ruth? My boy wanted to me make to something different, not my usual go to plum recipes. He asked if I could make pie.I didn't know, was there plum pie? So, I did what we all do, I googled it.  I found Have a Piece of Pie! I didn't want the traditional crust, so I followed her recipe for the filling and then went to the site Pick Your Own. She has the graham cracker crust with the crumble to go on top. I used the graham crust recipe I usually use. I used her recipe for the crumble on top.
The graham crust
1 1/4 cup graham crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
You can either cut the butter in with a pastry cutter, or just melt the butter and mix it in. Press the crust into a pie plate.

The filling:
6 cups plums pitted and thinly sliced
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp all spice
Mix all these ingredients together and spoon into your pie crust.

The crumble on top:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
Same as the graham crust, you can melt the butter or cut it in. Sprinkle over fruit mixture. Bake at 425 for 35-45 minutes.

I followed the recipe's directions to bake for 45minutes to an hour. 45 minutes was already starting to burn, so I adjusted the time above.

It is sooooo yummy! But, so filling!

I decided to make a plum sauce with some of the other plums. I didn't follow a recipe. All I did was cut the plums in half, and take out the pits. I then added some sugar and a little cornstarch. Then I cooked and cooked and cooked it. It became a nice sauce, but there were still plum strings and pieces. I wanted a smooth sauce so I...... carefully!!!! spooned out the big chunkies into my blender and blended them up. Then I added them back to the pot and fished around for any other chunkies! In the end  the sauce below.

I had this lovely big glass jar to put it in! I made some overnight crepes and in the morning we will have crepes with plum sauce inside and whipping cream on top. Are you coming for breakfast?

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie ATK Easy!

The rhubarb is ready....it's a wonderful time of year!

Time to make some Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie!

This is the America's Test Kitchen recipe...except I cheat on the pie crust! :)  This recipe takes about 2 hours from beginning to end because of the 1 hour macerating and 50 minute baking time.

You need 4 stalks of rhubarb cut up.

You need 4 cups strawberries cut into quarters.

Add one cup of sugar and let macerate....for one hour, to draw some of the liquid out to avoid soggy pie syndrome!



This is a really easy recipe....I just have to remember to add in an hour for macerating!



Here's my "not made from scratch cause I tried that and this is easier" solution. I used a coupon...so it's ok..

Allow your professionally made crusts to thaw at room temperature.

There is lots of liquid that is left behind after draining your fruit thoroughly.

Keep 1/4 cup of the liquid.

Get the zest of an orange if you want(this is optional). You need 1 tsp.

Seems this box cost $1.48(a little of my grandpa coming out....).
You need 2 Tbsp cornstarch.

1/2 tsp vanilla(mine's from Mexico...thanks Lynn!)

Add orange zest, cornstarch, and vanilla, along with 1/4 cup reserved liquid to the fruit.

Put fruit into pie crust.

Top with second crust and press along the edges. The directions say to make 8 vent holes(oops!)



Brush crust with the white from one egg.



Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp sugar.

Bake at 425 for 25 minutes(place on a cookie sheet to save your oven) then rotate the baking sheet and reduce oven temperature to 375 and cook until golden brown, 25-30 minutes.

The directions say to let cool for 2 hours....ummm didn't happen in my house, but good luck!



I don't like pie, but this was so good.....Strawberries and rhubarb, is there a better combination????



When Life Gives you Lemons(or Grapes)......

My husband loves pie! I don't really do the pie thing as the whole pie crust making is daunting...My sister-in-law and I took a pie making course many years ago and we walked away saying..."We aren't cut out to make pie!" My mother-in-law however IS cut out to make pie, great pie! Whenever she visits and asks what to bring I often ask her to bring a pie for her son!
My girl friend is in town...and her husband likes pie too! They were coming for dinner and so I thought I should make pie! I went down to the grocery store and used my coupon for Tenderflake pie crusts( My total was $1.47!) So, I didn't feel bad about skipping the homemade crust making! :)
Then I got out my America's Test Kitchen Baking book and found a lovely recipe for blueberry pie. It made a point of saying don't use frozen berries so I was feeling quite organized as I took out my big Ziploc of blueberries the night before.(Ever heard it said pride goes before a fall??)
The next day as I was about to rinse and drain them when I thought to myself, these blueberries aren't quite the right shape. The size was right, as the blueberry patch where we pick has huge berries, but it didn't have that little blossom thing on the bottom. On closer examination(I know....I should get my eyes tested soon) I realized my blueberries were GRAPES!
Well, what does one do when they are handed lemons grapes when you were thinking you were getting blueberries? Well, what I do is run to google! After a quick search I found this recipe for GRAPE PIE! Why do you care about grape pie when Concord Grapes aren't readily available??? I blog this for next summer when grapes are plentiful and I write this to say improvising is allowed....even a good idea! Don't let the naysayers in your life tell you otherwise!

I didn't follow the recipe exactly as our grapes have no seeds. So, I skipped the taking the skins off step. I also used an extra 1 1/2 cups of grapes. I did all the cooking(5-10 minutes) in the microwave.

There is a nice crumble for the top crust.

I baked it the whole time with the crumble on so it would brown nicely.

I made sure to make this way before supper so it could cool and set. It had a nice sweet and tart taste combination. I must say some people were skeptical about my grape pie...but in the end this is the last lonely piece!