Easy as Pie

..... well tasty, anyway. Just wanted to share to fruit of Erica's and my efforts today. After a quick trip to the grocery store to see what looked good. We settled on making a pumpkin pie, a rustic apple and cherry tart, and some cookies.

Yum.

I am not a fan of pumpkin pie. Or wasn't. I don't care for pale orange, wussy pumpkin pie. I like a little kick in my pie. We found this recipe and it's sooooo yummy. Dark molasses and heavy cream and orange marmalade really give this some kick. The recipe called for a tiny amount of spices, so of course, I had to go well over that!

We couldn't find any cookie cutters as the grocery (and I don't own any, sadly) so I took the bottom of my maple leaf muffin pan and pressed it into the pastry, then cut our around the leaves. They turned out beautifully, then I put a pinch of maple sugar on each one so it would melt over the surface. It kind of obscured the design on the leave, but it is tasty!

Tart-y goodness. Country-Style Brandied Apple and Dried Cherry tarts. Well actually the recipe calls for you to brandy the cherries. Dried out a bit, I tend to like my apples saucy in a pie, but very tasty. We put an egg wash on the outside to strenghten it a bit, and baked them on parchement paper on a pizza stone. We also addes some chopped pecans and currants to the mix. I can't leave anything alone, I know.

Looks like miles of the stuff, eh?

"... the sweetest cherry in the apple pie..." We had so much filling left over that we brandied some more cherries and Erica showed off how handy she can be with pastry. She hand cut each of those little apples and leaves.

It when it came out, between the egg wash and the coarse sugar, it was just so pretty! I think this time we didn't let the cherries plump up in the brandy as long as they should have. So the dried cherries are exceptionally chewy, and the apple dried out a bit on top of the pie, a bit of butter did help that.

Peanut Butter cookies. I may mess with and/or butcher many recipes that come may way in order to suit my preferences. I do NOT mess with the Fanny Farmer peanut butter cookie recipe. And the best peaunut butter for cookies? The government issue stuff, of course! Erica's daughter, Eve, who is 4, was a huge help in making these. She leveled and added all the flour while I was mixing... of course, getting the flour out of all the other places it got added to is another trick altoghter..... but I think she had a good time.