You Want Pies with That - Taste of Summer

This month’s You Want Pies with That theme is “a taste of Summer”. It is the middle of winter here at the moment, so conjuring up summer pies was kind of a hard one. I think one of the things that signifies summer to me is berries – I love strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, any kind of berries! Last summer I bought a large 2 kilo box of blueberries and froze them in 1 cup plastic bag lots for muffin making over the winter. I thought that they would also make a good pie for the taste of summer pie.

I had some leftover chocolate pastry in the freezer, so used that to make these little blueberry cheesecake pies. The filling is basically a cheesecake filling using cream cheese, yoghurt, vanilla, eggs and sugar. I made the pies in large muffin tins and managed to get four. They are quite big though – probably just a little larger than a single serve. I did really like the chocolate base though. There is something about chocolate pastry which is just delicious! Check out the other pies here.

Taste of Summer Blueberry Pies

Chocolate shortcrust pastry to line tins
80g cream cheese
50g natural yoghurt
1 egg
40g sugar
½ tsp vanilla
½ c blueberries

• Line muffin tins with chocolate pastry and blind bake
• Beat together cream cheese, yoghurt, egg, sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy
• Divide blueberries evenly among the cooled pie cases. Spoon over the cheesecake mixture evenly
• Bake at 180c for 22-25 minutes or until set

You Want Pies with That - Childhood memory pies

Ellen at Kittymama chose the You Want Pies With That theme for May which is a childhood memory pie. I had to think long and hard about this one as I had a wonderful childhood and converting only one of my memories into a pie was going to be tricky. I think of my ideas for these kind of challenges when I am out running in the morning, and it was on such a run that I had my inspiration for this pie.

My Aunty Margaret is my Mum’s older sister. She and Uncle Bill don’t have any children of their own and when I was growing up my sisters and I would often go and stay with them in Dunedin, 2 ½ hours away from where we lived, in the school holidays. Sometimes I would go by myself, but usually with my sister next to me in age, Rachelle. We would have a wonderful time and be totally spoiled.

Aunty Margaret did the pastry baking in a local bakery in the mornings in those days. Uncle Bill was a TV technician, working from home, so while Aunty Margaret was at work in the mornings, we would play while Uncle Bill worked, mostly playing shops with an old cash register that Aunty Margaret had for that purpose, her cans, packets etc of food in her well stocked larder and real money – people were paid in cash those days and Aunty Margaret honestly used to give us real money to play with. I always had to be the shop keeper, and Rachelle the customer – the prerogative of the bossy older sister! I had a supermarket obsession even in those days (I think it is in my blood, my Grandad owned the equivalent of a 4 square shop, and I ended up being a check-out-chick at New World after school and in University holidays).

This big long story is leading onto the story of my pie!! Aunty Margaret’s specialty at the bakery she worked at was custard slice. I think custard slice is an iconic Kiwi creation – thickened custard sandwiched between layers of flaky pastry and topped with white icing and coconut. I didn’t really like them as a child, but if you ever get a chance to try a denheath’s custard square you must – they definitely take custard squares to another level. If you live in new Zealand you can order Denheath’s Custard Squares from their site – they are a treat not to be missed!

I digress, my pie in honour of Aunty Margaret’s custard square are mini custard pies. I was going to ice the top with white icing and sprinkle with coconut, but I thought that may have been gilding the lily a bit. The tarts are really easy to make and were very delicious. I made a small batch, using only 1 egg yolk, and got 5 small tarts. For someone who doesn’t really like flaky pastry all that much, I ate one of these quite happily. I had made my own rough puff pastry a while ago and there was a leftover bit in the freezer, but you could use bought sheets of flaky pastry. Check out the other pie makers childhood memory pies here.



Custard Pies in memory of holidays with Aunty Margaret and Uncle Bill

3 egg yolks
120g sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
200ml cream
200ml milk
2 tsp vanilla

• Whisk together yolks, sugar, cornflour, and then whisk in cream and milk.
• Cook over a low heat until thick
• Stir in vanilla and chill the custard
• Line muffin tins with thinly rolled puff pastry,. Fill each pie with custard and bake at 180c for about 20 minutes or until pastry is browned and custard has set

You Want Pies With That - family favourite

This month’s You Want Pies With That theme was chosen by Rebecca at Ezra Poundcake and Mary from Alpineberry. The theme was to take a family favourite pudding and turn it into a pie. When I think back to when I was a child, my favourite (and I think the family’s favourite) was chocolate self saucing pudding. I didn’t really fancy that in a pie, so instead when for a rice pudding tart.

I made a simple shortcrust pastry, sweetened with icing sugar and enriched with egg yolk, baked it blind and then filled it with rice pudding which I had made, cooled, and then added a couple of eggs and some cream to make the filling more custardy and then hazelnuts and raspberries. I actually got the idea from a recipe in Dish magazine from a while back, so it is not a truly unique creation, but does encapsulate a family favourite pudding.

We had the tart warm with whipped cream on Saturday night for pudding and then cold with yoghurt on Sunday night. It would be a great tart to make ahead and you could vary the ingredients (almond and apricot, macadamia and blueberry etc).

Check out the other pies here.

Rice Pudding Tart (adapted from Dish magazine)

• Bake blind shortcrust pastry rolled to fit a tart dish with a removable base (I used a square on)
• Fill with the following filling, then bake at 180c for a further 30 minutes or until the filling is set.

50g Arborio rice
1tsp vanilla paste (or extract)
¼ c sugar
2 c milk
1/3 c cream
2 eggs
70g chopped hazelnuts
Raspberries to decorate top

• Combine the rice, vanilla, sugar and milk and simmer over gentle heat until a rice pudding consistency is met, stirring every now and again. Cool
• Lightly beat eggs and add to the cooled rice with the cream. Stir in the hazelnuts. Put the filling into the pastry case, dot the top with raspberries and bake as above

You Want Pies with That - April

The You Want Pies With That theme for April was Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It took me a lot of thinking to come up with my pie for this theme, but I was really pleased with the results. Be warned, there is a big story that follows.

For those of my overseas readers who don’t know the history of my country, New Zealand was colonised by the English in the early nineteenth century and was part of the British empire (and now part of the Commonwealth). The Queen is still our reigning monarch and I think she is one of the world’s rich and famous. Now, back in 2004 my husband and I spent some time in Europe and part of that was about three weeks in total staying with friends in London. One particularly memorable, trip we took was to Windsor, a beautiful village just outside of London which is home to Windsor Castle. Going to Windsor Castle was just amazing. The history is incredible (incidentally I have a history degree as well as my law degree – history is my passion). But one of the other incredible things about Windsor was the fudge.

There is the most amazing fudge making shop in Windsor. Actually, I think that there are these fudge shops all over England – we spotted one in Bath as well. The varieties are delicious and you can actually see them making the fudge on a huge marble slab – there is an amazing technique which you have to see to believe. But the taste! Honestly, this is some of the best fudge I have ever tasted. So good that we spent 12 pounds on a box of fudge (roughly NZD $36). So, whenever I think of Windsor castle (where the Queen resides at Easter I think), I think of the fudge we ate in Windsor!

So, my pie for this month is Fudge cheesecake pie with a toffee sauce. I made 4 little individual pies but you could do 3 times the mixture to make a large 22 cm round pie. See how others interpreted the theme here.

Windsor Castle Fudge cheesecake pie

125g crushed wine biscuits (Graham crackers)
75g melted butter
80g cream cheese
80g natural yoghurt
120g white chocolate, melted
50g chopped Russian fudge (make your own or cheat and buy it like I did)
80g brown sugar
50 extra grams butter
80ml cream

· Heat cream, second measure of butter and brown sugar together, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then simmer for 5 minutes until thick. Set aside to cool
· Combine crushed biscuits with melted butter, and press into the base of 4 muffin sized moulds. Chill
· Beat cream cheese and yoghurt, then beat in melted chocolate
· Stir in diced Russian fudge and swirl through caramel sauce, reserving some for the topping.
· Spoon cream cheese mixture over the biscuit bases and chill for at least 3 hours
Serve with extra caramel sauce over the top of each pie

You Want Pies with That - March

This month all the You Want Pies With That players are posting on the same day - that is meant to be tomorrow 14 March, so I hope I don’t get told off for posting a day early. But, tomorrow we have got a wedding to go to. My husband is the best man and I’m just not sure when I will get the time to post, so I thought I would just do it now and hopefully no-one will notice!

This month’s theme is a pie using herbs or spices which was chosen by Elizabeth from Cake or Death. A spice which I think you either love or hate, is cardamom. I love it and I also love it combined with plums which are currently in season here, it being late Summer, early Autumn. So, after much deliberating on my pie, I decided to make these individual cardamom and plum tarts.

They are actually kind of like cheat’s tarts, as they are so easy to make. All you do is make a dough (which turns out a bit softer than a crisp tart base), press the dough into tart tins (I used 6 individual 8cm tart tins, but you could do one big tart – square shaped would be nice), then push your plums into the tart dough, sprinkle with sugar and bake. The sugar nicely caramelises the plums and the baking powder in the tart dough helps the dough to rise nicely round the plums.

These are such easy tarts and would be great for a dinner party as they look lovely, are very quick and easy and taste great with a dollop of whipped cream or scoop of ice-cream. I bet there will be heaps of creative tarts, so check them out here.

Plum and Cardamom Tarts

100g sugar
200g flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cardamom
90g cold butter
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp water
3 halved plums (or more if you are making a large tart)
75g sugar, extra

· Combine first measure of sugar, flour, baking powder and cardamom in a food processor, then add butter in chunks and pulse until the mixture becomes breadcrumb like.
· Add egg mixture and pulse until the dough starts to come together
· Tip onto bench and gently bring together
· Press the dough into oil sprayed tart tins
· Place a plum half in each tin, cut side up and sprinkle with the remaining sugar
Bake at 180c for 30-40 minutes until golden and the plums are caramelised.

You want Pies with That - Literary Pie

This month’s You Want Pies With That theme was chosen by one of my favourite bloggers, Mary of The Food Librarian. Quite naturally, Mary’s theme is Literary Pies. I am an avid reader, so the decision was difficult, only because of the range of my reading material over the years. Mary also mentioned that we would get bonus points if we have visited the library in the past year – well, I belong to two book clubs and probably go to the library at least every 3 weeks. At the moment I am reading Paula Radcliffe’s autobiography, trying to keep myself motivated while battling this injury!

Anyway, after much deliberation, I delved back into my childhood, when my favourite books were Trixie Beldon books. I am the only person I know who has the whole series. I loved them so much that the covers are falling off many of them as I would re-read them so many times. I loved the adventures of Trixie, her friend Honey Wheeler and their respective brothers. I had Trixie and Honey cut out dolls as well – cut out dolls were my thing and I loved them so much more than my Daisy doll and Barbie doll. Trixie was an amateur detective and her and her friends would solve all sorts of mysteries. I quite fancied myself as a detective (I guess being a lawyer is kind of like that!), so I loved Trixie’s adventures.

One of Trixie’s mysteries was called Mystery on the Mississippi. So, my pie for the month is my take on a Mississippi mud pie. It is not truly authentic, but it tasted pretty good!!! I used Dorie Greenspan’s shortbcrust pastry for the base (a half recipe) and then made a fudgey chocolate filling. I then topped the little pies once cold with a layer of ganache. These were really good with natural yoghurt. I made 4 individual tarts and did have quite a bit of filling left over, which I baked in a pudding dish – it tasted delicious as a fudgey pudding. You could try halving the filling again, but I think the quantity may get to be too small to work with. Check out the other literary pies here.

My Mississippi Mud Pie Filling

35g dark chocolate (I used Whittakers 70% cocoa)
1/3 c brown sugar
25g butter
½ c sugar
1/3 c milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 whole eggs and one egg yolk

· Melt together the chocolate, butter, sugars, milk and golden syrup until combined and the sugar has dissolved. Cool a little and then beat in the eggs one at a time and then the yolk
· Chill completely
· Pour into blind baked tart cases and bake @ 180c until set (about 25 minutes)
Once cold, top with a spread of ganache made by melting cream and chocolate together (I use a ratio of 2:1 chocolate to cream – I heat the cream in the microwave for about 40 seconds, pour over the chocolate and stir until smooth).

You want Pies with That - January

Happy New Year! I didnt think I would be posting again until we come back from holiday on January 12, but we are home for a couple of days before heading down to Taranaki to visit my husband's family. We have had a fabulous Christmas and new year - the weather in Christchurch was just superb! I have been keeping up with Tuesdays with Dorie, but thought I would wait and do one post with all the TWD things I have baked over the break.

But I did want to post my "You want pies with that" January pie. The theme was a decadent pie - one that would break all your new years resolutions. I thought a pie that would fit with that is a pie that contains all of my favourite "naughty" treats - chocolate, cream and caramel! So, here is my chocolate banoffee pie! A delectable combination of chocolate biscuit base, caramel, banana and whipped cream. This is one of the most simple desserts to put together - a good thing for this time of year! The base is simply a chocolate biscuit base (I used girl guide biscuits with melted butter and a little dutched cocoa), a caramel base (you could use caramelised condensed milk or dulce de leuche - i cooked some condensed milk, brown sugar, a little butter and golden syrup together), topped wiht sliced banana and cream whipped with icing sugar and vanilla. I made two mini pies - one that we ate tonight and one to take down to my father in law tomorrow. A truly decadent but delicious treat!

You Want Pies With That - White Christmas Pie

This month’s “You want Pies with That” theme is Holiday Songs. Initially I was quite excited as I imagined that I would have lots of ideas, but the more I thought about it, the harder it became. I settled in the end for a “white Christmas” pie. I chose this song because in New Zealand, Christmas is in the middle of summer, so we will never get a white Christmas, but also because a traditional kiwi dessert is pavlova (in fact there is a long debate between NZ and Australia regarding who “invented” the pavlova – people have written dissertations on the subject – everyone knows it was a Nzer!), so my White Christmas pie has a touch of pavlova to it as well.

The inside of the pie is Greek yoghurt, which I strained to thicken and then swirled with passionfruit pulp – passionfruit is a popular topping for pavlova. I then topped the yoghurt filling with mini meringues to represent little pavlovas. The base is a simple shortcrust pastry.



I have to confess to being a little disappointed with my creation. I did think long and hard about it, but in the end, my pie came down to what I could put together in very little time – perhaps that is another reason why it can be considered a Christmassy pie, as it was made in between the usual holiday rush. The pie bases were baked on Saturday when I was baking gingerbread Christmas trees, the meringues were baked last night when I got home from my cake decorating class and the filling was thrown together, because that is what I had in the fridge!!!!

So, I do apologise for my White Christmas pie. I look forward to seeing what the other participants made for their Holiday Songs pies.

You Want Pies with That? Fashion Statement

This month’s theme for “You Want Pies with That” is Pies as a Fashion Statement. Gosh, I did find this quite a hard theme. I had a few ideas, but after my sisters bought me a huge punnet of strawberries up from the Hawkes Bay, I went with my very first idea. When I was little my Mum made me a dress from material that I chose myself. The dress was yellow gingham with little strawberries dotted all over it. It was sleeveless with red bias binding round the sleeves and two patch pockets with bias binding across the top of them. I loved that dress and I still love it – in fact I still have it! Unfortunately it is packed away, so I couldn’t photograph it for my blog.



So, my fashion statement pie resembles my favourite dress! I made lemon and passionfruit tarts with strawberries on top. The yellow of course representing the yellow gingham. I made the tart crusts from Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for sweet shortcrust pastry, but you could buy ready made. The lemon and passionfruit curd is a perfect combination of sweet and tart. I made 8 cm tarts, but you could make one big one or even mini tarts in mini muffin tins. These tarts sing of summer and they really do remind me of my favourite dress! The fabric in the background is actually similar to my yellow dress - it is my favourite apron - I bought the fabric to make it beacuse it reminded me of my favourite dress!!



My favourite Dress Tarts

· Line six 8cm tart tins with shortcrust pastry, prick the bottoms and freeze. Bake from frozen for 15 minutes at 180c
· When cool, fill the tart cases with lemon and passionfruit curd (recipe follows) then top with sliced strawberries
Lemon and Passionfruit Curd

½ c sugar
½ c passionfuit pulp
juice of 5 lemons
6 egg yolks
200g butter

combine all ingredients in a small pot and warm over a low heat, continually whisking until smooth – don’t let the mixture boil. Cool before storing in the fridge.

You Want Pies With That?

You Want Pies With That (click on the link to see what the other challengers made) is a new blog challenge run by some other TWDers – each month there will be a theme and you have to make a pie or tart inspired by the theme. This month the theme is “I love that Movie!”. I took a while batting ideas about with some friends and thinking of movies I really love. My favourite movies include Shawshank Redemption (I couldn’t imagine prison food made into a pie!) and The Sound of Music (I did consider apple pie – apple streudel is one of the favourite things, but thought it was a bit boring).

However, another idea popped into my head – the line “Life is Like a Box of Chocolates” from Forrest Gump popped into my head. My friend suggested making a pie with different flavoured slices, like different flavoured chocolates! I wasn’t quite that ambitious, but made these mini pies instead – chocolate pies with a hokey pokey topping. Hokey Pokey or “crunchie” chocolates feature in Cadbury milk trays and my pie reflects that.

The pastry is a flaky pastry – you could easily buy ready made, but I made a rough flaky pastry using equal amounts of butter and flour and a little milk and vinegar to bind. I folded the pastry like a letter for an envelope four times to get the flaky texture. I then chilled the dough before slicing off sections and rolling them out to line the inside of muffin tins (in much the same way as you would when making Portugese tarts). I didn’t bake the pastry blind for my small pies, but I would if making a large tart.

The filling is a chocolate filling made by making a basic chocolate custard and then baking in the pastry shells. Using some cream in the custard filling gave the tarts a great mouth feel – creamy but with a bit of body. Once the tarts were cold I topped them with hokey pokey.

Hokey pokey is a fun thing to make with kids – in fact I remember making it as a science experiment at school. You gently melt 50g sugar and 2 tbsp golden syrup together, let it boil for a minute or so, then add ¾ tsp baking soda. The baking soda makes the sugar mixture puff up, it then sets to a crisp but chewy lolly. Yum!
We had the pies with whipped cream.



“Life is Like a Box of Chocolate Pies”
flaky pastry (make your own or bought would be fine)
35g sugar
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornflour
50ml milk
100ml cream
50g dark chocolate
2 egg yolks
hokey pokey to top

· Line muffin tins with pastry
· Combine sugar, cornflour, milk and cream in a small pot and stir over medium heat until thickened. Boil, stirring constantly for a minute
· Beat in egg yolks one at a time and then stir in chocolate until melted’
· Spoon into pastry cases and bake at 200c for 10-12 minutes or until custard is firm
When cold, top with hokey pokey