Category Archives: Holiday

Cranberry Crumb Pie

Updated 11/06/2019 to add better photos and halve the crumb. Cranberry Crumb Pie What a week. I had planned to post this recipe on Wednesday, but when I got home from catering an election party on Tuesday night, I knew I wasn’t going to get any work done until I knew who would become President-Elect. Since then, our country’s citizens have been more deeply divided than ever before (and we were already pretty divided). It’s tough to be an American this week. Regardless, we need to come together for change and for the future. I suggest we start with pie. Cranberry Crumb Pie When I first came to New York nine years ago, I had a friend who loved pie. I mean LOVED it. At the time, I had never eaten a slice of pie that I considered revolutionary, so I asked him: why is pie so great? What he said has stuck with me since. Every time I make pie, I think of his words. He said that pie is a communal food; it brings people together. Pie is designed to be shared. While one certainly can eat a whole pie by their lonesome, it’s much more enjoyable to share it. I think the same goes for our nation.In a couple of weeks, Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving with their families and friends. Of course, just because you share DNA or a last name with someone doesn’t mean you have the same beliefs. There are some of us who dread these family holidays for fear of awkward political talk over turkey. I love my family, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some of these fears, too. And while there’s little anyone can do to change someone else’s beliefs over the course of one holiday, there is one thing we can all enjoy together: Cranberry Crumb Pie.This pie has it all. Orange-scented cranberries with sweet, buttery cinnamon crumbs in my favorite Cream Cheese Pie Crust. If you love cranberries and the crumb on top of coffee cakes, this is the pie for you! Some don’t particularly care for the tartness of fresh cranberries, but here they are sweetened with sugar and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg before being tossed with the zest and juice of an orange. They are still tart, to be sure, but the combination of sugar, spices, and citrus mellows them enough to be enjoyed on their own. Cranberry Crumb Pie The crumb is an old stand-by for American bakers. Melted butter is stirred into a combination of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla until evenly combined. The cranberry filling is baked for 15 minutes before being topped with the crumb and going back into the oven. As the pie bakes, the cranberries burst and bubble around the crumb, spreading the buttery cinnamon flavor a bit, but also allowing those crumbs the get crisp-crunchy and super delicious. Soft, juicy cranberries and sweet, crispy crumbs? Yes, please! Cranberry Crumb Pie Now, go forth and start to heal your community. Make a pie and have friends over (make one of them bring the vanilla ice cream). Be good to each other.Looking for more pie? You’ve come to the right blog! Check out this Black Bottom Pear & Almond Pie, this light & fluffy Pumpkin Pie, this Cranberry Apple Pie, this Salted Butterscotch Pie, and this Maple Pecan Pie. One more pie recipe is coming your way next week!

Cranberry Crumb Pie
makes one 9-inch pie

Pie:
1/2 recipe Cream Cheese Pie Dough or other good crust
4 cups (about 15-16 ounces) fresh whole cranberries, rinsed and picked over
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 tablespoons cornstarch (or arrowroot powder)
1/4 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
zest of one medium orange
milk or cream, for brushing
vanilla ice cream, for serving

Crumb:
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
7 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

Roll out the pie crust to 14-inch diameter. Fit it in a pie pan, trim the excess to 1/2-inch, and crimp as desired. Freeze 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Place racks in the top and bottom positions.

Place cranberries in a large mixing bowl. Use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to fold in sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornstarch, salt, and orange zest.

Place chilled pie crust on a baking sheet. Pour the cranberries into the pie crust. Brush exposed crust with milk. Place pie (on baking sheet) on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake 15 minutes.

Make crumb. Combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a small bowl, and whisk with a fork. Add melted butter and stir until large clumps form.

When the 15 minute bake time is up, remove pie from oven and top with crumb.

Return pie to oven and reduce temperature to 350F. Bake 30-40 minutes, tenting with foil (or using a pie protector) if anything gets too dark.

Let pie cool on a rack at least 4 hours, until room temperature. Slice and serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Pie will keep covered at room temperature for up to three days, or in the refrigerator for up to five.

Salted Butterscotch Pie

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Did y’all watch the World Series? I did–I always do. I don’t care who’s playing (unless it’s the Texas Rangers), I just love baseball. Over the last month, I have watched nearly every single game that was broadcast. I’ve politely turned down invitations, ducked out early, and informed friends that I’d be back up for socializing just as soon as the World Champions were crowned. That’s not to say that I have been a hermit. My friend, Jody, and I have a running text chat for the duration of every postseason (check out his web comic here). And my pal, VJ, was brave enough to watch the last game of the NLDS with me. While I experienced the full range of human emotion over the first few innings, she said “Betsy,* watching you watch baseball is way more interesting than actual baseball.” Perhaps it’s a good thing that the postseason is over now 😬

*Yes, she calls me Betsy. Read the story on that here.

I’ve been a little slow to blog these past few weeks, but can you blame me? The Chicago Cubs were playing. And they WON after 108 years! I couldn’t miss that.

Now that all the baseball is suddenly over, I’ve got a bit of a postseason hangover: I kind of don’t know what to do with myself if I’m not watching a high-stakes game! Rest assured, it’ll pass. I’ve got plenty to do to distract myself–Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks! Here on E2 Bakes, that means it’s pie season. I’ll be sharing three new pie recipes leading up to Turkey Day.

First up? This Salted Butterscotch Pie. You read that right. Salted. Butterscotch. Pie. YUM!

This pie, y’all. It’s going to be a new favorite. Not only is it bursting with the buttery brown sugar flavor of butterscotch–it’s quick and easy to assemble and slices like a dream! The crust is my go-to Cream Cheese Pie Dough. It’s my favorite pie dough ever: there’s no guess work with the liquid, it never tears, and it is seriously flaky and delicious. Try it sometime!

Anyway, roll out your crust, fit it in a pie plate, and crimp it. Then throw it in the freezer. Freezing the shaped dough will help keep your pie crust from shrinking while baking. Since this pie’s filling is just liquid (and liquid moves when heated), there’s not a whole lot keeping it in place. Don’t skip this step!

The butterscotch filling is super easy to make. It’s mostly just whisking. Start with two cups of dark brown sugar and a bunch of eggs. There are four eggs and two egg yolks in this pie. That may seem like a lot, but they are a powerhouse in this filling. The eggs, along with the brown sugar, provide the smooth texture as well as richness and structure!

Once the dark brown sugar and eggs are combined, mix in milk, apple cider vinegar, vanilla, and melted butter. Lastly comes a little flour to thicken the filling, some cinnamon and nutmeg for depth, and salt. The filling will be soupy going into the oven, but once it bakes, it will become dense and custardy.

When the pie comes out of the oven, sprinkle it with finishing salt. I am partial to Trader Joe’s Cypriot Pyramid Salt because of the big crunchy flakes, but use whatever salt you like. Gray salt and Fleur de Sel are good choices, but if you have some specialty salt in the back of your spice cabinet, feel free to use that. As the pie cools, the salt will adhere itself to the top, adding a little salty punch to every sweet butterscotch bite.

And speaking of cooling, this Salted Butterscotch Pie doesn’t require a long rest between baking and eating. The pie pictured was sliced just one hour after baking! It’s super structurally sound at any temperature and can be served warm, room temperature, or cold. It’s the dream. And if you have vanilla ice cream to go with it, all the better.

Looking for more Thanksgiving pie inspiration? Check out this Black Bottom Pear & Almond Pie and this light and fluffy Pumpkin Pie!

Salted Butterscotch Pie
makes one 9-inch standard pie

1/2 recipe Cream Cheese Pie Dough or other good crust
2 cups dark brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs + 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2-1 teaspoon finishing salt, for topping
vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)

Roll out pie crust to a 12-inch diameter and fit it in a 9-inch standard pie plate. Trim the excess to 1/2-inch and crimp as desired. Freeze prepared crust for 15 minutes while you make the filling.

Position oven racks to the top and bottom positions. Preheat oven to 350F. Place dark brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in eggs and yolks one at a time until completely combined. Stir in milk, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla. While whisking constantly, drizzle in the melted butter until combined. Stir in flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Let filling sit five minutes for any large bubbles to dissipate. Remove crust from the freezer and place it on a baking sheet. Pour filling into prepared crust (you may have a few tablespoons leftover).

Bake pie for 25 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven. Move pie to the top rack of the oven and tent loosely with foil. Bake 25-35 minutes, until filling is puffy. When the filling is done, it should jiggle just slightly when the pan is jostled and a toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean. Once the filling deflates, sprinkle the pie with finishing salt. Let pie cool on a rack until it reaches room temperature. Serve in small slices with ice cream, if desired.

Pie will keep covered at room temperature for up to three days, or in the refrigerator for up to five.

Candy Corn Cupcakes

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Updated 10/27/2020 to add better photos and slightly alter the amount of frosting. Candy Corn Cupcakes Cake week, y’all. It gets me every time. The last week of every month is full of cake orders, and between those and my day job, this blog always seems to get shoved to the side. Perhaps one day I’ll be more organized. Or be able to afford an assistant.

Fortunately, the cake madness is done just in time for me to post a Halloween treat! I am not actually a fan of Halloween, but I cannot get enough candy corn. I know half of you think the stuff is disgusting, and I totally get it–it’s too sweet, a bit chalky, and gets stuck in your teeth. But I love it. I have three huge bags of the stuff in my kitchen, so I’m set on candy corn for at least a month.Surely by now you’ve seen candy corn cupcakes on Pinterest and other social media. The gist is that vanilla cake batter is dyed orange and yellow, baked into cupcakes, and topped with white vanilla buttercream. Sure, the cupcakes are cute and festive, but for a candy corn aficionado like myself, they leave something to be desired. Namely, the very distinct flavor of candy corn. Candy Corn Cupcakes What does candy corn taste like? Well, mostly it’s just sweet–so sweet, in fact, that it’s hard to detect any real flavor. Many brands of the stuff boast that they are made with “real honey” (as opposed to all that fake honey). Armed with this information, I figured a honey-vanilla cake batter was a good place to start. However, when I tasted the batter before baking, I found the flavor to be lacking a little. My vanilla cake batter is good, as is the addition of honey, but this batter tasted nothing like candy corn.

Enter my secret ingredient: imitation butter extract. It sounds super gross, but it’s really not. It has this uncanny ability to give baked goods that sort of nostalgic quality that’s found in the boxed mixes of our youths. It makes sugar cookie dough with sprinkles taste like Funfetti cake mix, and here, it makes these honey-vanilla cupcakes taste a little more like candy corn. There’s only 1/4 teaspoon of the stuff in the entire recipe; just enough to make the final products taste a little like candy corn without making them taste completely artificial. If imitation butter extract is not for you, feel free to leave it out. Your honey-vanilla cupcakes will still be festive and delicious. Candy Corn Cupcakes The frosting is just my vanilla buttercream doctored up with a little honey (and the extract). It’s luxuriously light and fluffy, and oh, how I wish my cake decorating skills could make it look as delicious as it is. You’ll just have to take my word for it (or better–make it!). Although it does look pretty good sort of drooping over the tops of these cupcakes.

Happy Halloween, y’all! Let me know if you make these Candy Corn Cupcakes this weekend 😊

Candy Corn Cupcakes
makes 12-14 cupcakes

Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon imitation butter extract (optional)
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
yellow food coloring
orange or red food coloring

Frosting:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon imitation butter extract (optional)
3 tablespoons heavy cream
candy corn, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-cup standard muffin tin with cupcake liners. Set aside.

In a small-medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar, followed by honey. Add eggs one at a time, combining completely after each addition. Beat in vanilla, imitation butter extract, and buttermilk.

Divide batter into two bowls, about 1 1/2 cups each. Add yellow food coloring to one bowl, stirring as you go, until the desired color is reached (I used 3 drops yellow gel food coloring). Add orange food coloring to the other bowl, and stir until evenly distributed (I used 3 drops orange gel food coloring). If you don’t have orange food coloring, add yellow to the second bowl, then add red a drop at a time until the color is reached.

Add 2 tablespoons of yellow batter to each cupcake liner. Top each with 2 tablespoons of orange batter. Liners should be 1/2-2/3 full. Tap full pan on the counter five times before baking for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Make the frosting. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until light and fluffy. Add confectioner’s sugar and salt in two installments, combining completely after each addition. Beat in honey, vanilla, and optional imitation butter extract. Mix in heavy cream until combined. Frost cupcakes as desired. Garnish with candy corn.

Cupcakes will keep covered at room temperature for up to three days, or in the refrigerator for up to five. Candy Corn Cupcakes

Maple Pecan Pie {One Year Anniversary!}

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Updated 11/08/2018: This post was edited to add better photos and to remind you to toast your pecans.Tomorrow’s a big day–this little blog is turning one year old! That’s 140 posts, 136 recipes, and more flour and sugar than I care to think about. It’s also late nights, hours of recipe testing, and a lot of joy. I have a job and a side business, but this blog is what matters most to me. It’s probably the biggest project I’ve ever undertaken, and I can’t wait to see how it grows in year two.

It’s comments, encouragement, and support from all of you that keep me in the kitchen creating new things. Thank you for reading and making my recipes in your kitchens. Thank you for sharing this little blog with your friends and family. It’s a real blessing to have so many people following my little passion project. Maple Pecan Pie So, how does one celebrate their blog’s anniversary? Well, they furiously text their little sister and two close friends saying “What should I make for the blog’s one year anniversary?” One recommended a throwback to my first post. One recommended something from my childhood. And one goes to Harvard and doesn’t have time for my petty nonsense (love you, Smel). Maple Pecan Pie With their suggestions in mind, I started thinking about pecans and about my grandmother, Nonnie. She lived in a tiny little house near Benbrook, Texas, and she made the very best biscuits and chocolate cake in the world (according to my family, at least). She made my dad breakfast literally every Sunday morning until she was no longer able to cook. My mom, little sister, and I would go to church while my dad ate fried eggs with sausage and biscuits, following it up with a twenty minute power nap in her red chair. Every fall, Nonnie and my dad would go into her backyard and rack her huge pecan tree. He’d bring home gallon-size zip-top bags full of Texas pecans and show Eliot and I how to properly break the shells and eat the meats, just like his mom showed him, just like we’ll do with our (figurative) children someday.

I don’t remember Nonnie ever making pecan pie from her tree in the backyard–I figure that cracking the shells was too much for her arthritic hands. But I also don’t remember a holiday without pecan pie. It’s always been a part of my family’s story.So, today, let’s celebrate one year of blogging with Maple Pecan Pie, the perfect tribute to my family, my Texan childhood, and my northeastern adulthood. This pie has everything you love about traditional pecan pie, but with a hefty dose of maple syrup and my go-to Cream Cheese Pie Crust. The filling is sweet, but not cloying, thanks to a little apple cider vinegar, and it has a little depth from the addition of nutmeg. If you’re going to mess with something as iconic as pecan pie, this is the way to do it.

And if you’re going to acknowledge one year of baking and blogging, Maple Pecan Pie is the perfect way to celebrate.

Maple Pecan Pie
makes one 9-inch standard pie

2 cups pecan halves, roughly chopped
1/2 recipe Cream Cheese Pie Dough
1 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Scatter chopped pecans on a dry rimmed baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 5 minutes or until fragrant. Remove to a plate to cool completely.

On a floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll pie dough to a 12-inch diameter. Fit in pie plate. Cut excess to 1/2-inch, and crimp as desired. Chill pie crust.

Place the oven rack in the bottom-third position. Preheat oven to 350F.

Make the filling. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together maple syrup and dark brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, whisking until combined. Stir in apple cider vinegar, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk constantly as you drizzle in the melted butter.

Remove pie plate from the refrigerator and place it on top of a rimmed baking sheet (for catching overflow, although you shouldn’t have any). Place pecans in the bottom of the pie crust. Pour filling over the top. Bake pie 40-50 minutes, tenting with foil at the 20 minute mark.

Let pie cool completely on a rack. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature with whipped cream, if desired. Maple Pecan Pie

M&Ms Sandwich Cookies

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If you haven’t noticed, I love sandwich cookies. This blog has existed for eight months, and I already have six sandwich cookie recipes in my recipe index. I mean, cookies and frosting together–does a more perfect dessert even exist?!

Today’s sandwich cookies are my version of a favorite treat from my teenage years. Back then, I was on the high school dance team. Once classes were over for the day, I’d have thirty minutes to change and eat something before practice. Usually the whole team would go for some sort of fast food (ah, teenage metabolism), but occasionally, when everyone was attending tutorials or some other after-school program, I’d zip over to Ridgmar Mall, run to the cookie kiosk, and grab one or two (okay, okay, three!) miniature M&Ms sandwich cookies before driving back to school to dance off all the calories.

To this day, I get nostalgic for those soft cookies, M&Ms, and creamy vanilla filling. But I can’t remember the last time I was in a mall (one of the advantages of living in New York City). And as I always have fresh baked goods at home, I no longer stop for mass-produced treats.

These days, if I want a few M&Ms Sandwich Cookies, I make them myself. They’re so much better than anything you could get at a mall. Soft, chewy cookies speckled with colorful milk chocolate M&Ms and sandwiched together with a smooth vanilla filling?! Yes. I’ll take three.

Most of my sandwich cookie recipes make five or six dozen very small cookies–far more than anyone really needs. This recipe makes a much more manageable two dozen sandwich cookies. If you’d like more, this recipe doubles very well.

Also, these cookies are slightly larger than my regular sandwich cookies. Where all of my other sandwich cookie recipes require you to scoop dough by the teaspoon, the cookies in this recipe are each made with 1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) of dough. The larger scoops cut down on the time spent rolling dough and also allow for more M&Ms in every bite!

I love working with M&Ms for holidays. There’s a perfect color combination for every occasion–red and green for Christmas, orange and black for Halloween, pastels for Easter. Since the Fourth of July is coming up next week, I went with the red, white, and blue variety for this batch! I think they’re pretty cute 😊 No matter which holiday you’re making these for (even if it’s just that it’s the end of a long week), I know these M&Ms Sandwich Cookies will be a hit!

Want more M&Ms treats? Check out my M&Ms-Potato Chip Cookies!

M&Ms Sandwich Cookies
makes 2 dozen sandwich cookies

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup M&Ms milk chocolate candies

Filling:
1/2 cup shortening (or room temperature unsalted butter)
2 1/2-3 cups confectioner’s sugar
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream

In a medium-large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, cream of tartar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in granulated and light brown sugars, followed by egg and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients in two installments, combining completely after each addition. With the mixer on low, add in M&Ms and mix for 10-15 seconds until they are evenly dispersed. Cover and chill dough for 90 minutes, or up to three days.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Scoop chilled dough by the 1/2 tablespoon (1 1/2 teaspoons) and roll into balls. Set dough balls about two inches apart on prepared pans. Bake 7-8 minutes, until the tops are no longer shiny. Let cookies cool on pans for five minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with any remaining dough.

Make the filling. In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat shortening (or butter) until fluffy. Beat in 2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar and salt. Mix in vanilla and 1 tablespoon heavy cream. If filling is too thin, add more confectioner’s sugar. If it’s too thin, add an extra tablespoon of heavy cream. If you would like to pipe the filling, spoon it into a piping bag and snip off a corner.

There are two options for filling:

1. To assemble a sandwich cookie by piping, apply filling by pipe a circle in the middle of the underside of one cookie, leaving about 1/4″ around the edge. Top with a second plain cookie, with the underside filling-side-in. Repeat until all cookies have been used.

2. To assemble a sandwich cookie by spreading, use an offset frosting knife to spread 1/2-1 teaspoon on the underside of one cookie. Top with a second plain cookie, with the underside filling-side-in. Repeat until all cookies have been used.

M&Ms Sandwich Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Note:

There is no substitute for cream of tartar in this recipe.

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Category Archives: Holiday

Cranberry Crumb Pie

Salted Butterscotch Pie

Candy Corn Cupcakes

Maple Pecan Pie {One Year Anniversary!}

M&Ms Sandwich Cookies