Blueberry Custard Streusel Pie

It's berry season and one of my favorites because of all the delicious ways you can use berries.  I recently went blueberry picking and came home with a big bucket of blueberries.  I ate some, froze a lot and baked with the rest!  

I love making pie and what's better in the summertime than a blueberry pie?  So I did a little research and settled on a blueberry custard streusel pie.  I liked the idea of a custard-based pie as it would add a little more stability and flavor to the filling.  And who doesn't love a crunchy, nutty, streusel?  This was a delicious pie and a recipe that I'll keep on file for the next time I have a bucket of berries!  The only change I would make is to blind bake the pie crust first to ensure a fully baked bottom (mine was slightly underdone).

Blueberry Custard Streusel Pie

adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Crust

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 salt
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 2 to 3 Tbsp cold water

Filling

• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 Tbsp flour
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Streusel Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup pecans, toasted & chopped

To make the crust, mix flour and salt in a large bowl.  Add shortening and using fingers, work the shortening into the flour until resembles pea-sized crumbles.  Add enough water to make the dough just come together.  Turn out onto a floured surface and roll about 1/8th inch thick. Transfer to a pie plate and crimp crust as desired.  Line the pie crust with a piece of foil and add ceramic pie weights or dried beans (these help keep the crust from creating bubbles and the sides from sliding down). Blind bake in a 425 degree oven on the middle rack for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is just turning golden.  Remove the foil and weights and return crust for about 5 minutes or until the bottom of the crust looks dry.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees.

While the crust is cooling, prepare the filling.  In a large bowl, whisk together sour cream, sugar, egg, flour, vanilla and salt.  Gently fold in the blue berries.  Pour into the crust shell.  Cover the edges of the crust with foil (to prevent burning) and bake for 25 minutes.

While the filling is cooking, prepare the streusel.  In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and flour.  Work in softened better until you have coarse crumbles.  Add in the chopped pecans.  After the filling has baked for 25 minutes, top the pie with the streusel topping and return to oven for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the pie is set and the streusel is browned.

Let the pie cool for at least 15-20 minutes and serve warm or refrigerated and serve chilled.  Enjoy!

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BONUS!!  

If you happen to have lots of blueberries like I did and want another pie-in-the-sky idea...here's another pie recipe!  This recipe was featured on the cover of Southern Living a few years ago and it looked so tempting, I had to make it.  The secret ingredients?  Honey and balsamic vinegar!  Though I would consider adding a splash or two more of the vinegar, as once the pie was baked, you couldn't really taste the balsamic - but you could taste that it was a tasty pie!  And I can't resist the look of a beautiful lattice crust.  Find the recipe here.

Baking Club Adventure: Cookie Exchange!

I realize it's May and we're talking about Christmas cookies - but the way the weather is behaving, it might as well be December! (Christmas Eve was MUCH warmer than it is today!)

One of the things the members of the baking club told me when I first joined, was that they did an epic Christmas cookie exchange every December.  Each member would make four dozen of four different kinds of cookies...that's 16 dozen cookies...per person!! Needless to say, I was excited and intrigued and started making my list of cookies I wanted to make last June (hey, it's never too early to think about Christmas!).

When December finally came, I took off a day of work just so I could focus on baking cookies - and it was a delightful vacation day, well spent. The day started with an 8:30am showing of the new Star Wars movie, a stop by one of my favorite Mediterranean restaurants for lunch to go, and then an afternoon in my kitchen with Christmas music playing in the background.  Heaven.

Keep reading for all of our cookies and some recipes!

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LIBBY - Spritz Cookies, Pecan Pie Bars, Rosemary-Lemon Shortbread, Italian Seed Cookies & Cheddar Cheese Wafers

In the end, I made 5 different kinds of cookies - a mix of classics that I used to make with my Mom and some new ones.  I even included a savory "cookie" for variety.   Here are some of the recipes I made:

PECAN PIE BARS

I love pecans but am generally not the biggest fan of pecan pie.  The ratio of crust to pecans to sweet, gooey filling is all off for me.  There ends up being way too much of the gooey stuff and I can really only take a bite or two before it's too much.  But these bars are a game-changer. A thick, slightly sweet crust is the base for the perfect blend of filling and pecans.  There's just the right amount of each component - and I dare you to eat just one!

Crust:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Filling:

• 4 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 1/2 cups Karo light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 Tbsp butter or margarine
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped

Grease bottom and sides of a 10x15x1 inch baking pan (a half sheet or jelly roll pan will also work fine).

Prepare crust: In large bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat flour, sugar, butter and salt until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press firmly and evenly into the pan.  Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes.

While crust is baking, prepare filling: In large bowl, stir eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla until blended.  Stir in pecans.  Spread evenly over hot crust. Return to 350 oven and bake for 25 minutes or until set.

Cool completely before cutting.

ROSEMARY-LEMON SHORTBREAD

These cookies are a variation on a shortbread recipe my mom received from a friend back when we were living in Germany in the 1980s. It called for rice flour before that ever became a common ingredient you easily find in the regular grocery store.  We often would replace the rice flour for another cup of regular flour - which never affected how quickly they were eaten! Since the shortbread is cut into 1" squares - it makes for a lot of cookies (up to 16 dozen) - and perfect for a cookie exchange or to give as gifts! 

• 1 pound (4 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup rice flour
• 3 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon rind
• Sanding sugars (optional)

In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and add sugar.  Slowly add in flours and then the rosemary and lemon rind. Pat in a half sheet or jelly roll pan.  Pre-cut the shortbread into 1" squares and prick each square with the tines of a fork.  Bake at 325 for 40-50 minutes until light golden brown.  Sprinkle with sugars (I either use clear sparkling sugars or seasonal red & green sanding sugars.)  While still warm, re-cut and prick the squares.

Variations:  Instead of rosemary & lemon add: 2 tsp cinnamon or 1 cup mini chocolate chips or 1 cup roasted pistachios, finely chopped.

CHEDDAR CHEESE WAFERS

Cheese wafers are a classic Southern staple, especially at the holidays.  Whenever I'd travel to Louisiana to visit family, I could always anticipate finding a plate of these at any one of my relative's homes.  It wasn't until my Mom moved to Tennessee that she discovered this variation on the cheese wafer, with the unexpected-but-delightful ingredient of...Rice Krispies!

• 2 sticks butter or margarine
• 2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (best if you hand-shred from a block)
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 cups Rice Krispies

In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter and cheddar cheese.  Add flour, salt and cayenne and mix well.  Add in Rice Krispies and gently stir in until fully incorporated.  Shape the dough into small balls (about 1 tsp) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten each ball with a fork and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  These don't get brown - so be careful not to overbake.

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GINA - Caramel Oat Lace Cookies, Hazelnut Kisses, Dulce de Lece Macaroons, Crunchy Almond Cookies & Triple Chocolate Drops (clockwise from top)

Caramel Oat Lace Cookies - via The Washington Post

These are a lovely cross between candy and a cookie, with hints of citrus and cardamom.  They look so fancy and elegant and would make for a perfect after-dinner treat, served with coffee or tea.

Hazelnut Kisses (Baci di Dama) - via The Washington Post

OMG - these were pretty much my favorite cookies of the whole bunch.  What's not to love with hazelnut shortbread cookies filled with homemade nutella?  While I gave away most of my cookie haul as gifts, I kept all of these for myself (sorry, not sorry!).

Dulce de Leche Macaroons - via The Washington Post

If you love the flavors of coconut and caramel - these cookies are for you!  They are an easy 5-ingredient cookie that come together in one bowl - and can be made in advance.

Crunchy Almond Cookies - via The Washington Post

These French cookies are dairy free and just four simple ingredients.  As a lover of anything almond flavored - these cookies weren't almond-y enough for me.  I would add a bit of almond extract to amp up the almond-ness of these cookies. 

Triple Chocolate Drops - via The New York Times

These cookies have it all: looks, taste and chocolate!  And not just one kind of chocolate...three! (technically four, if you count the semi-sweet chocolate shavings on top). The white chocolate glaze is really the shining star in this cookie - the smooth, creaminess of the glaze is the perfect pairing for a rich chocolate cookie base.

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KLARE - Bullseye Chocolate Mint Cookies, Chocolate Raspberry Pinwheels, Ribbon Cookie & Orange Coconut Cookie (clockwise from top)

Klare got very creative in the kitchen with her cookies - making little tweaks here and there to make these cookies her own.  She also figure out how to be the most efficient with shaping and baking her cookies...all of these are slice and bake cookies.  It's amazing how different they all look - round logs, square logs, spirals and layers.  They're quite pretty and the flavors of each one are unique and so delicious.  The bullseye peppermint cookies taste like there's a peppermint patty hidden in the middle!

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TONYA - Salted Dulce de Leche Thumbprints, Sicilian Almond Cookies, Chocolate Caramel Chews & Fruitcake Cookies (clockwise from top)

Salted Dulce de Leche Thumbprint Cookies - via Baked by an Introvert

These are just delicious...and dangerous!  It's much too easy to knock out four or five of these little one-bite cookies in the blink of an eye! The soft and tender shortbread cookie and the pool of ducle de leche with the sharpness of sea salt all make for a winning combination.

Sicilian Almond Cookies - via The Washington Post

Another call for almond lovers - these almond and cinnamon cookies get an extra dose of cinnamon when they're rolled in a cinnamon & sugar mixture right before baking. 

Chocolate Caramel Chews - via Rose Levy Beranbaum

These cookie bars have some of my favorite things layered one on top of another: crust, caramel, chocolate and nuts.  And they play together nicely in this cookie playground.  In a sea of round cookies, these triangle treats will surely stand out on any cookie platter!

Fruitcake Cookies - via Ina Garten

I think in the world of fruitcake, you're either a lover or a hater. I happen to fall in the latter camp - but my Mom LOVES her some fruitcake - so she was very excited to try these.  These cookies do require some advance planning - first you have to make your candied fruit mixture and let it sit overnight before you prepare the cookie.

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So when the day was done, we sampled 18 different kinds of cookies.  I loved the diversity of flavors, ingredients and techniques but most of all enjoyed sharing this time with my fellow bakers.  So which ones are you going to put on your Christmas baking list for this year?  It's never too early to start planning...after all, Christmas is just 216 days away!!

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

It's St. Patrick's Day - and also the 2nd Anniversary of O-YUM-G!  What a fun 2nd year it's been!  I joined a baking club, enjoyed a 10-course Chinese wedding dinner, ate my way across NYC for a weekend, experimented with a variety of different ice cream flavors (pistachio was my favorite!), introduced a special "What's for TV" series with the advent of the fall TV season, and celebrated friend's birthdays with some fun cakes!

To celebrate the occasion (and as a nod to my first blog post), I made these mint chocolate chip cookies!  They're a fun way to get your green on for St. Patrick's Day and super easy to make.  By adding peppermint extract to the dough and chopped up Andes mints - you get a double dose of mint (but don't worry, it's not overpowering).  These cookies are really great for any occasion and are nice twist on a familiar favorite.  

Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp peppermint extract
• green food coloring
• 2 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup chopped Andes mints
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In large bowl, beat butter for 3 minutes.  Add sugar and beat for another 3 minutes.
3. Add egg and beat until mixture is light and fluffy.  Add extracts and enough green food coloring to your desired shade (I used about 20-25 drops).
4. Mix in flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder until just combined.  Do not overmix.
5. Gently stir in chopped Andes mints and mini chocolate chips.
6. Using cookie scoop, drop cookies onto un-greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Chill cookies on the cookie sheet in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes - this will help keep the cookies from spreading out too much.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack.

Yield: about 40 cookies

Chocolate Linzer Heart Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!  It's a chilly, three-day weekend here in the nation's capital, and there's nothing better to stay warm than get a little love in your heart...or these cookies in your tummy!  The flavors of chocolate and raspberry come together perfectly in these little sandwich cookies.  One of the things I like about this recipe, is that the dough doesn't need to be chilled (I hate having to wait longer than necessary for cookies!).  If you don't have a Linzer cookie cutter - all you need is a round biscuit cutter (about 2 1/2") and a smaller cookie cutter of any shape.

Chocolate Linzer Heart Cookies

• 2 cups butter (cold, cut into pieces)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 pinch salt
• Raspberry jam (preferably unseeded)
• Powdered sugar (for sprinkling)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In bowl of electric mixer, add butter and sugar and beat until well blended.  Add extracts.
3. Slowly add flour, cocoa powder and salt until a dough forms.  If dough seems too dry and crumbly, you can add vodka or amaretto (or milk) just until the dough comes together.
4. Take half of the dough, and roll out onto a floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut out bases of cookies (about 32). Roll out the other half of the dough, and cut out the tops of the cookies, along with the heart cutout (about 32).  Reroll dough scraps to cut more cookies.
5. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, until just golden brown.  Cool completely before assembling.
6. To assemble, first set the tops of the cookies on a cookie sheet and  sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Then turn the base cookies upside down and add 1 tsp raspberry jam.  Place tops onto the bottoms to complete the Linzer cookies.

Yield: about 32 cookies  

My Mama's Ex-Boyfriend's Mother's Carrot Cake

Happy Easter everyone!!  Hope you celebrated this special day with friends and family.  I hosted a group of lovely ladies for an Easter tea & dessert and wanted to make something special.  And I knew exactly which recipe to go to.  There was no need for a Pinterest or Allrecipes.com search this time around.  No evaluating one recipe against another to find the best one.  All I had to do was go to my personal recipe book - and pull up the recipe for the most perfect carrot cake.

As the title of this blog post suggests, this is my mama's ex-boyfriend's mother's recipe.  Did you follow all that?  No joke!  I have my mom's high school boyfriend's family to thank for this recipe (thank you Miss Patsy!)  It all started on a night that my mom went over to her boyfriend, Larry's, house for dinner. (I think for Baton Rouge in 1966, that was a common date night activity?)  After dinner, his mom said that they were having carrot cake for dessert.  My mom had never heard of such a thing - who would put carrots in their cake? How gross!  But being the polite, Southern, young lady that she was (and still is), she graciously took a piece and took a bite... And it was the most amazing cake my mom had ever had!.  So amazing, that she immediately requested the recipe and made it her signature birthday cake every year after that!

So growing up, this was the only carrot cake I knew.  To me, it was perfection. Moist and tender, full of cinnamon and pecans, and just the right amount of cream cheese frosting.  For me and my mom, this was the gold standard (or 14 carrot gold standard?) of carrot cakes.  There would be no raisins nor pineapple, no coconut nor walnuts (pecans only, please!) EVER, in our carrot cake.  We say, give us a carrot cake with just that and some pecans for good measure.  Any other additions are just not welcome.  (We really take our carrot cake seriously!)  But once you try this recipe, you'll understand why.  Check out the recipe below and try it for yourself!

MY MAMA'S EX-BOYFRIEND'S MOTHER'S CARROT CAKE

• 1 1/2 cups Wesson oil
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup pecans, toasted & chopped, divided
• 3 cups carrots, grated (about 5-6 whole carrots)
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1 8oz bar of cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 Tbsp milk

1. First, preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour, two round cake pans, set aside.
2. In the bowl of stand mixer, mix sugar and oil together.  Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, sift (or whisk) together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add 1 cup of pecans to the flour mixture and then slowly add to the liquid mixture.  Mix until fully combined.
4. Add grated carrots, a small amount at a time.  Mix just until combined.
5. Divide batter between the two cake pans.  Bake for 28-32 minutes, or until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let cool completely before frosting and assembly.
6. For the frosting, beat butter and cream cheese. Add powdered sugar and vanilla.  Add enough milk to get your desired consistency.
7. To assemble, level tops of each cake, as necessary.  Place one cake on a platter and scoop about 2/3 cup of frosting.  Spread over the top of this first layer.  Add the top layer of the cake and use remaining frosting to cover the top and side of the cake.  Top the cake with the remaining 1/2 cup of toasted pecans.

Happy Blogiversary!

Hello readers!  Can you believe it's been one year since this whole crazy thing started?  One year ago I was stuck at home in the snow and decided to finally start this blog - and I am so glad I did!  I've had so much fun sharing favorite recipes from my personal recipe box as well as trying out new recipes and techniques.  Whether the recipes were simple or a little more complicated, what they all had in common is they were OyuMG delicious!

Since this blog started with a St. Patrick's Day recipe, I thought it was only fitting that we celebrate its blogiversary with another holiday recipe: Pretzel Shamrocks!  I found this recipe to be 1) stinkin' adorable and 2) super-duper easy to make.  All you need is a baking sheet and and oven.  No bowls, no spatulas - just a little assembly and you've got yourself some festive treats for office or classroom celebrations!

You may be familiar with the chocolate pretzel concept, where you top a Snaps pretzel with a Hershey's Kiss or Hugs, put it in the oven for just a few minutes to soften the chocolate and top with an M&M in a color that fits your theme.  There are tons of variations out there (like using Rolos and pecans to make a Turtle-inspired treat) - and this treat is just one more variation on the theme.

This time, you take three pretzel twists and arrange them in a shamrock formation and top with a Hershey's kiss in the middle, where all three pretzels come together.  Then carefully transfer the pan to the oven and bake at 300 for 3-4 minutes until the chocolate is softened.  Take a pretzel stick and press into the Hershey's Kiss at the base of each shamrock and then place a single M&M on top, pressing down so the melted chocolate spreads a bit and sticks to all the pretzels.  Let the pans cool and then transfer to the fridge to fully set the chocolate.

Then take them to the office or send with your kids to school - and you'll have a treat that will have everyone smiling and feeling the "luck o' the Irish"!

Thanks for a delicious first year - here's to many more!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I think it's only fitting that my first blog post is in tandem with a holiday, 'cause there's nothing I love more than decorating...and baking for a holiday!  So here I give you some festive shamrock cookies!

The secret to any decorated cookie is a good cookie dough.  And I have no better recipe than this one.  It has simple ingredients, great flavor and great structure for holding cookie cut out shapes.  Unfortunately, I don't have the step-by-step pictures for making the dough, but it's pretty easy. The only hard part is waiting for the dough to chill before rolling out!

So here's the recipe:

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BEST ROLLED SUGAR COOKIES

• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla.  Mix well.  Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt.  Place half of the dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll out to a thick slab.  Repeat for the other half.  Chill the dough for at least 1 hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400.  Turn one slab of dough onto a floured surface and roll to 1/8 - 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut into any shapes with any cookie cutter.  Place cookies 1 inch apart on and ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 6 minutes.  Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet before transferring to cooling rack.  Let cool completely before icing/frosting.

Yields 4-6 dozen cookies, depending on cookie cutter size.

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And here are the baked cookies.  Now for the fun part...the decorating!  

I had made this recipe a few weeks ago to make some cookies for a friend's baby shower.  She is adopting from the Congo and so I made cookies in the shape of the state of Maryland (where she lives) and the African continent (where her daughter is).  I made royal frosting and dyed it yellow and blue - two of the colors in the Congolese flag (see the decorated cookies in the Gallery page).  

Well, the recipe made WAY too much for what I needed, so I just saved the frosting for another time.  A few days later, we had a snow day (yet another one) and seeing how it was the day before Mardi Gras, I thought, "I'll make some Mardi Gras cookies!"  The colors of Mardi Gras are green, purple and gold.  Since I already had the building blocks of those colors, I used my knowledge of the color wheel and magically made the colors I needed.  But once again, I was found with leftover frosting, particularly green.  And so, my brain jumped to the next holiday...St. Patrick's Day!  And what a perfect excuse to use this green frosting but to make shamrock cookies!  And now we've come full circle.

So one of the handy shortcuts I've learned over the years is the value of a plastic zipped bag as a piping bag.  Simply snip off a corner and insert your tip and coupler.  Fill with your frosting and go to town!  

For these cookies, I used two different kinds of green sugar sprinkles: dark green and light green.  Mainly because I didn't have enough of the dark green for all the cookies.  Plus, it will make for some nice contrast when the cookies are plated.  Once I put the light green sprinkles on, their color sort of got absorbed by the frosting color, so it looks more like a frosted sparkle - but I think they still look pretty.

Well, that's a wrap, I think, on this first blog post!  Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing more recipes, stories and pictures with you!