[capozzoli]

Whats your dessert specialty? Anybody else bake? Winter is coming and with more time for indoor activities now is the time to do it. Nothing like staying home with the family and baking an apple pie.

Here is my famous peach cobbler. Works great when peaches have flavor but are not very juicy.

What makes my peach cobbler unique is that I use semolina flour instead of regular flour. I also use maple syrup instead of brown sugar.

This one bakes up relatively easy and it is a crowd pleaser.

[bluesman]

Peach Cobbler is one of my all-time favorite desserts.  I like it best still hot out of the oven and served with vanilla ice cream.

To die for...

[capozzoli]

I served that on top of a cream reduction of about 50% flavored with a little sugar and a touch of vanilla.

I make a lot of pies around the holidays. Give them out to friends and stuff.

I start running some tests in the weeks before. Im gonna do an apple pie this week with some fresh picked winesaps. Im thinking of putting that semolina maple crumble crust pictured above on top of the apples instead of regular crust.

Another pie idea swirling in my head is an avocado custard pie. I know I can make it taste delicious because I make awesome avocado shakes. Im just affraid it will turn brown. I want it to stay green. Wonder if there is something I could add?

I made a banana custard pie;not a cream pie, ore like the texture of pumpkin. It turned black. Still tasted good though.

Another one I am gonna do which I tried and turned out great is pistachio pie. Really Really good. Make the filling as per pecan pie but trade out the nuts, leave out the spices, and use reduced caramelized  sugar instead of molasses.

One that is really good and old fashioned is the regular potato pie. I got that recipe from that old cook book I had from the 1800's. The custard filling is made with mashed potato, eggs, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Makes for a nice looking tasty pie and people go nuts trying to figure out what it is.

Im gonna swap out the mashed with avocado for my avocado custard pie.

[boulderbrewer]

I scoop out ice cream, homemade. It is better that way. The wife bakes, I cook.

[capozzoli]

I love baking, I even have a frilly apron.

Homemade ice cream? What ya using to make that? Im thinking ice kefir.

Here is lemon poppy seed cake and apple cake. 






sweet potato

Here is the white potato pie.

[boulderbrewer]

Kitchen Aid attachment. Home made cream and goats milk. Kefir might work.

[tschmidlin]

Another pie idea swirling in my head is an avocado custard pie. I know I can make it taste delicious because I make awesome avocado shakes. Im just affraid it will turn brown. I want it to stay green. Wonder if there is something I could add?

Typically it will turn brown because it is getting oxidized.  Acid like lemon or lime juice might help, but I'm not sure it will hold up to the baking.  I don't have a lot of experience with that.

One that is really good and old fashioned is the regular potato pie. I got that recipe from that old cook book I had from the 1800's. The custard filling is made with mashed potato, eggs, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Makes for a nice looking tasty pie and people go nuts trying to figure out what it is.

That sounds tasty, what else goes in it?

[euge]

Ordinarily I don't care much for desert but I can make a mean cobbler. Prefer Bisquick dropped on the surface of the fruit and then baked.

Also a pretty darn good cheesecake. The secret is you make it like Crème anglaise and use a water bath. Then an hour rest still in the oven with the door partially open after baking.

[tumarkin]

I'm not much of a baker, but I do make a habanero pumpkin pie... usually for Thanksgiving. Almost ashamed to say it, but it starts with Libby's canned pumpkin & a frozen pie shell. However, I spice it to my taste, not the recipe on the can, and I add some finely diced habanero. The amount varies depending on whether it's for my consumption or for the TurkeyDay table.

You'd be surprised at how well this combination works. Keep it restrained and even non-pepper lovers go crazy for it. The fruity habs mix with the pumpkin flavor in a really nice earthy way. Discard the seeds & the inner membrane, use just the walls of the pepper. You'll still get plenty of heat, but more of the distinctive hab flavor (this is generally true with any hot peppers). Most folks go for the heat, but I like the pepper flavors. You can always get as much heat as desired by using another pepper.

My wife's the baker. She recently made an incredible tiramisu for my birthday. She bakes the biscuit herself, rather than using lady fingers. She uses both turkish & regular dried apricots, killer chocolate, and Zaya (my favorite rum). I'll see if I can dig up a good picture from the birthday dinner.

[theDarkSide]

My son and I took 1st place in our Cub Scout Pack Dad and Lad Cake bake last year ( no female assistance allowed and everything has to be edible, including the decorations ).  We made a Hogwarts castle.

I guess it helps that my mom used to bake up a storm when I was a kid...I guess some of it rubbed off.

[phillamb168]

One of the EASIEST tricks for turning any baked good utilizing flour into something different and usually better is:

Take the flour you'll be using and dump it out onto a half sheet pan. Preheat the oven to 160 * c/ 320 * f and once it's nice and warm, put the flour in and let it brown for about 20 minutes. Think of it as cooking with torrified wheat. You'll get some lovely nutty flavors, kinda like cooking with bread crusts but in a good way.

For other desserts: my wife made me a candied-bacon-and-peanut-butter ice cream pie for my birthday one year. That was a hella good pie.

[tschmidlin]

My son and I took 1st place in our Cub Scout Pack Dad and Lad Cake bake last year ( no female assistance allowed and everything has to be edible, including the decorations ).  We made a Hogwarts castle.

I guess it helps that my mom used to bake up a storm when I was a kid...I guess some of it rubbed off.

I don't bake much because I don't really crave solid dessert, a nice glass of barleywine or RIS almost always sounds better.  But I admit to being fascinated by gingerbread house and other construction projects using food.  Was this an upright castle, or was it more of a flat thing and the castle was in the icing/decorating?  Got any pictures?

[theDarkSide]

Was this an upright castle, or was it more of a flat thing and the castle was in the icing/decorating?  Got any pictures?

Not professionals, but it sure tasted good. 

[tschmidlin]

Was this an upright castle, or was it more of a flat thing and the castle was in the icing/decorating?  Got any pictures?

Not professionals, but it sure tasted good. 

I love it!  Great idea for the inverted cones for towers. 

[capozzoli]

Yeah that castle is great. Its funny, when the daughter and me eat those pretzels we say that we are eating windows.

Im really interested in Phil's idea of toasting the flour before making the dough.

Tom that pie has just those few ingredients. Potatoes, (Yukon Golds are great for this, dont use baking potatoes) eggs, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, sugar., you may have to add some regular milk to adjust consistency. The original recipe if I remember properly also included nutmeg and clove. I dispensed with these after the first one I made. The potato pie fillings consistency is somewhere between a custard and cheese cake. You can fudge the consistency to your liking as I did by adding more potato and less egg for a more dense product and more egg less potato for a more custard like consistency.

This recipe is just a straight up custard pie with potato added to the mix. Ever have just a regular custard pie? They are fashioned and rare. Made with only eggs, cream (or condensed milk) vanilla, sugar and a table spoon of cornstarch. Sorta like the creme in creme brulet. When I make a vanilla custard pie I torch a sugar shell on top.

with the egg custard pies even pumpkin pie, you have to cook it only till a tooth pick stuck in the middle comes out clean. You want the eggs to only set not curdle. When making an egg custard pie you really have to keep an eye on it. To long in the oven and it turns into scrambled eggs. Takes a little practice.

Pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes pie and white potato pie are more forgiving. If they go a little long it is not that noticeable, but giveing alonger time in the oven they will be ruined.

For the potato custard pie I use a short bread style pie crust made in the food processor.

Start with two cups of flour and a stick of butter. Cut the butter up into 1/4" or so cubes and put them in the freezer to chill it. Put the two cups of flour into the food processor with a teaspoon of salt and a small pinch of baking powder. Run the food processor to sift the ingredients together. Then add the cubed butter. Pulse the machine for a while till the butter starts to break up and blend. Then run it for a few moments watching it. Stop it when the ingredients are still kinda dry and in pea size grains.

Then take a bowl of water run the food processor and sprinkle water in. Add a little at a time and be sure not to add to much. When the dough is moist enough it will form a ball. Then take it out and set it on a floured surface roll it out and put it in a pie pan. Here is one of my secrets. When I moisten my dough at the end, I use maple syrup instead of water. This is a secret so keep it under your hat.

I put another pie tin on top fiting inside of my crust and pre bake it at 400 for a little while before adding the custard.

For the potato custard (Make this before you make the dough) I mash two med. size potatoes and set them aside to cool. In the food processor I put six eggs vanilla, 1/2 a can of sweetened condensed milk Then blend for a little while. Then I add the mashed potatoes. Blend for a little while more till smooth. It will get thick on you so add some milk or cream till it smooths out. It should be about the consistency of pancake batter. Taste and adjust sweetness with sugar if needed. Pule to blend added sugar.

Pour it into the crust and bake it at about 400. When a tooth pick comes out of the center clean take it out of the oven and put it on a cooling rack so it does not continue to cook too much.

After I take it out I drizzle maple syrup over the top and it sort of gazes it. Works great for pumpkin and sweet potato pie too.

Ive been toying with some bean pie ideas to. Assalaamu 'alayakum.