Grape and Pear Galette

Pies are my favorite.  Easy pies are even more my favorite. And this rustic grape pear galette is EASY. I love coming up with a new pie recipe but I have been out of pie creating commission for a year. Just a little over a year ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer and frankly I have had very limited energy to think up a new recipe much less even bake. For about 6 months all food tasted weird or not at all as I went through chemo. I am in remission now but suffering from some back issues. So, when I picked up these pretty little green grapes from the farmer's market and they along with my pears started to be a little ripe -- as in the grapes may have started to smell like a winery -- I decided I would make an easy galette for Sunday dessert. 

So this little galette is a HUGE milestone for me. I haven't touched my blog forever. But I am on my way back to normal and that means coming up with a new pie/tart/galette recipe. 

I didn't try to make it pretty. Hence the rustic. But it looks kind of beautiful to me and there are only 5 ingredients because I used a puff pastry. The ingredients are not measured exactly. 

It turned out absolutely delicious. I couldn't even get a pic before we ate half the galette. 

GRAPE and PEAR GALETTE

1 puff pastry slightly rolled out 

1 1/2 Cups green grapes sliced in half

2 anjou pears thinly sliced

1/4 cup apricot jam

2 TBS water

egg beaten -- optional

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and place puff pastry on parchment paper. 

Mix apricot jam and water till fully combined. 

Place pears and grapes in a bowl with jam mixture and gently coat pear and grapes.

Mound pears and grapes in center of puff pastry with about a two inch space around the edges.

Fold pastry up over edges of fruit. 

Brush with mixed egg if desired. 

Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. 

Serve warm. 

Peach & Boysenberry Mini Pies

My goodness these mini pies were delicious. 

One morning this week, this was my fruit harvest. Happiness in a bowl. 

Pie, berries and peaches. These are a few of my favorite things.

So of course I had to combine them all together. 5 little pies for our family. I love individual pies. There is more crust per serving. It is less messy. My pie is all mine. Love them. I used the tin foil mini pie tins you can find at the grocery store in the baking section.

I decided on using a crumb topping because I love crumb toppings and I knew that the pie tins were not overflowing with fruit which meant the top pie crust would cave in. The pie crust came from the the homemade pie crusts frozen in my freezer. My bulk pie recipe.

One more sidenote: I used brown sugar instead of granulated sugar in the filling. Brown sugar and peaches is one of those food matches made in heaven. Plus, I just love brown sugar. Raise your hand if you used to sneak brown sugar clumps out of the bag when your mom wasn't looking when you were a kid.

Was that just me?

Pie Crust - use your favorite or try this bulk recipe

Pie Filling

7-8 ripe peaches, peeled and sliced (about 5 cups or 670 g)
1 cup (135 g) boysenberries or blackberries
1/2 cup (80 g) brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 pinch of cinnamon

4 tbsp corn starch

Crumb Topping

1/2 Cup of brown sugar

1/2 Cup of flour

2 TB of butter or margarine

Directions for 5 mini pies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Take chilled pie crust dough and roll into a circle. Cut pie crusts measuring about two inches larger than the tin. Re roll the remaining dough until you have 5 pie crusts.

To make filling: Combine pie filling ingredients in a bowl and let sit for 15 minutes. 

Spoon filling into pie crust to the rims. 

To make crumb topping: Combine flour and sugar and cut in butter cubes with a fork or pastry cutter until it resembles course crumbs. 

Pour about 2 TB of topping onto each pie.

Place pies on foil lined baking sheet. Pies may bubble over. 

Cook for approximately 30 minutes or until fruit is bubbling and crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

No Bake Lemon Cherry Cheesecake Sundaes

 (I need a better Camera)

Pantry Recipe: Featuring Canned Cherries and Nutella

So Nutella Day came and went. But I did actually feed my family Nutella, even if it was the last tablespoons from three different jars. I had every intention of making Individual No Bake Nutella Cheesecakes, but it turns out that all of the Nutella jars in my pantry were practically empty.

So what do you do with just a couple Tablespoons of Nutella -- Because seriously you can't waste that stuff. 

I made up these tasty (and extremely rich) individual no bake cheesecakes that turned out looking like a Sunday. Somewhere in the middle was a little dollop of Nutella -- just to surprise the tastebuds. On top I used my canned cherries and some of the cherry juice. But feel free to use cherry pie topping. But these were sweet and rich enough without the sugar shock of pie topping. 


I also used wafers for the crumbly crust -- any cookie with a little cream filling (i.e. oreos) will work


The Recipe
4 to 6 Servings (You may want to make yours smaller than I did)


Layer 1 -- The Crust
10 Dulche de Leche cream filled cookie wafers, crushed into crumbs
1 TB melted butter


Layer 2 -- The Surprise
2 to 4 TB of Nutella


Layer 3 -- The Cheesecake
8 oz of cream cheese softened
1/3 Cup of sugar
2-4 TB of Lemon juice (depends how strong you want your lemon flavor)
1 Tsp of vanilla
1 tub of whip cream


The Topping
Cherries or cherry pie topping
Chocolate chips (optional)


Combine layer one ingredients and press into the bottom of individual bowls or cups. 

Add a dollop of Nutella on top of crust layer.


Beat cream cheese and sugar until well combined and smooth. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Beat to combine


Fold in whip cream until evenly mixed and no streaks remain. Pipe or spoon into containers. Leave room for topping.


Cover with saran wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least 2 hours. 


Add cherry topping and chocolate chips if desired. Drizzle with cherry juice.




This is seriously rich and you may want to make smaller portions than those pictured here. But don't worry we ate it all. I just felt a little hippier the next day.

Yummy Gift Ideas In A Jar

I am kind of addicted to the gift in a little mason jar idea this holiday season. I mean they are adorable and personal and fun to make. I think they are irresistible.

I have shared all these recipes with you before in random posts. Well I rounded them all up and made them into an article for my online magazine. Tasty Gifts -- In a Jar. So if you are looking for a sweet homemade gift idea this Christmas try one of these tasty jar gifts.

Featured in Aliveutah.com Taste
http://aliveutah.com/content/homemade-jar-gifts

Cranberry Streusel Top Pie
Pomegranate Hot Fudge Sauce
Cinnamon Honey Butter
Strawberry Double Crust pie

Mini Mason Jar Cranberry Pies

Mason jar pies are all the rage apparently. They are cute little individual servings and they have so many possibilities.
* They make amazing Christmas gifts. I am in a quandary over what flavor pie to make as gifts.
* Perfect Hostess gifts
* You can assemble the pie in the jars, put a lid on them and put them in the freezer until you are ready to bake or give away. You just take them out of the freezer and put in the oven. Simple!
* They make perfect single serving snacks or desserts that can be easily transported.
*They are as fun as cupcakes, especially if you make cute decorative lids.
Yep! this is my new pie obsession. As if I didn't have pie obsession issues already.

I also love cranberries and wanted to try this sweet and tart cranberry pie -- which is amazing deliciousness by the way. You are going to love it. The pecan crumb topping is fantastic and the filling is perfect. I added a good bit of sugar to mine but you could reduce the sugar if you really want. I like it just the way it is.

You can halve this recipe
2 pie crusts -- make 10 mason jar pies Bulk Pie Recipe
1 Bag Fresh Cranberries
1 1/2 Cups of Sugar
1/4 Cup flour

Streusel Topping
1/2 Cup chopped pecans
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1/4 Cup flour
1 tsp shortening

Directions:
Chop cranberries ( I used a food processor) and add sugar and flour. Mix together.
Create Streusel by mixing finely chopped pecans with brown sugar and flour. Cut in shortening with a fork.

Roll out pie crusts and cut appx a four inch circle. Press crust into ungreased the short squatty half mason jars. There is no art to this. You can piece it together and patch it. I press my crust within about 1/4 inch of the top.

Fill pie crusts with filling and add about a TB of streusel to each pie.

To Freeze: Cover with lid and ring and freeze until ready to use. Can be removed from the freezer and cooked in the oven at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until the crust looks done.

To Bake: Place pies (without lids) onto cookie sheet. (They will ooze.) Bake at 375 for 45 to 50 minutes.

Gramps' Granny Apple Pie

Now this is how the grandpas in my family would make an apple pie. Doesn't everything taste better when cooked in an iron skillet or dutch oven? Ok the grandpas did not make this pie. I did, in honor of all the guys in my family who are seduced by anything made in cast iron. I actually saw the idea on television while watching the food show Amusement Park Eats. At Dollywood they make this 25 pound apple pie in a huge deep dish cast iron skillet. Oh yes. This pie girl had to make pie in a cast iron skillet.

After all I have a huge box of granny smith apples in my pantry right now. Now usually I use 3 different varieties of apples in my pie. So I was worried. But it turned out delicious. This pie was a little smaller but it was more deep dish and just the right size that I didn't feel too guilty when I ate half the pie myself. I still used a 10 inch pie crust.

I also liked how the crust turned out. It was really flaky. I will share the recipe I used. As always I am in search of the perfect pie crust. I will reuse this recipe. Of course I may keep looking. The perfect pie crust is my holy grail.

The Pie Crust

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup butter flavored shortening (cold)

3 to 4 Tb of cold water

Heat oven to 375 degrees farenheit.

In a mixing bowl or mixer combine flour or salt. Cut in shortening until consistency of small peas or cormeal. Sprinkle 1 Tb of cold water and mix gently. Add more water until moistened. You should be able to form into a ball. It should not be overly moist. I keep mine just moist enough to roll out and hold together. Dip ball in flour and roll out on lightly floured service. Roll about 12 to 14 inches in diameter. Roll from center out towards edges. 

Place pie dough in a lightly greased 8 inch cast iron skillet. Trim and tuck edges under (This is not a fancy pie)

 

The Apple Pie

8 to 10 cups of granny smith apples peeled and sliced

1/2 cup of sugar (you can use a little less if you are doing the crumb topping and you like a tarter pie.)

1 TB of lemon juice

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

1/4 tsp of nutmeg

1 Tb of Flour.

Toss sliced apples in lemon juice. Add other ingredients and toss to coat apples. Mound apples in pie crust. Remember they shrink -- so you want to make sure that your pie crust is overly full.

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tb margarine or butter

Combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter or margarine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Top pie with crumb topping. Place iron skillet on a cookie sheet.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until juices are bubbling and top is browned. If pie crust starts to burn cover edges with foil.

Let cool slightly and serve warm (or cold for breakfast). Yum.

Crumb topping

Mini Lime Tarts

photo courtesy of athensfood.com

Did you know tarts are the cupcakes of the pie world? These tarts right here are what prove to me that it is a good idea to keep sweetened condensed milk in the pantry. I love lime flavored things, especially in the spring when I am dreaming of green. I recently served these up at a St. Paddy's day luncheon. mmm mmmm they were gobbled.

They were so easy to make, especially because I used the phyllo cups as the base. I love phyllo cups and  always keep some in my freezer just for when I need an easy fancy fix

I will be making these sweet little bites of indulgence again and unfortunately I can't take any kind of credit for the recipe. It came straight from the athensfood.com site.

The easy recipe.
Ingredients


1/2 cup softened cream cheese

1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/4 teaspoon lime zest

15  Mini Fillo Shells (1 box)

2 thin slices of lime, cut into eigths, for garnish


In a small bowl, combine cream cheese and milk. Mix until light and fluffy. Add lime juice and lime zest. Mix thoroughly. Chill for 1 hour. Spoon or pipe 2 teaspoons of filling into each Fillo Shell. Garnish with sliced lime. Serve immediately.



Makes 15 desserts

Peach Almond Praline Pie

It's almost too late for this recipe. So I am rushing my pie creation to you as fast as I can. Hopefully, peach season has not completely left. It is obvious from my blog that I am a pie girl. I will always choose pie over cake. Which is one of the reasons I love Fall. I love to bake pie.

Well, the peaches were on their way out. They had been sitting on the counter too long and so it was time for peach pie. But then it hit me -- almonds and peaches make a beautiful couple. Imagine how tasty pralined almonds would taste on the top of my peach pie, peeking out of a crispy sugar shimmered lattice pie crust. Be still my peach pie loving heart, those pralined almonds were delicious.

How to make a peach pralined pie.

2  pie crusts. I use a crust from my bulk pie crust recipe. 
8 -10 large ripe peaches, peeled and sliced.
juice of 1 lemon
1 1/2 TB cornstarch
4 Tb sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla.

Praline Almonds.
1 cup raw almonds, chopped coarsely
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Tb butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

In a heavy 10 inch skilletcombine nuts, sugar and butter and vanilla. Cook over medium -high heat shaking skillet occasionally, till sugar begins to melt. Do not stir. Reduce heat to low and cook till sugar is golden brown, stir occasionally. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees farenheit.

To Peel Peaches: Scald peaches in boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute. Plunge into ice cold water. Skin will slide right off.

Pit halve and cut each peach half into four pieces. Place in a large bowl and squeeze lemon juice and vanilla over them.

Combine sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch. Toss gently with the peaches. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Prepare pie crust by rolling out each crust to a 10 inch circle. Line a greased pie pan with one crust. Cut other crust into 1 inch strips.

Fill with peach filling. Top with almond praline.

Use strips to create a lattice top pie cover. You may weave over and under. I am lazy and just lay one layer on top of the next. Brush pie crust with beaen egg. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Place pie on a rimmed baking sheet and place in oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 40 minutes until crust is browned and juices are bubbling. 

Cool on a wire rack to room temperature and serve with something white and creamy, whip cream or vanilla ice cream.


Place peach slices in a large bowl

Key Lime Pie.

As a foodbuzz publisher I receive all kinds of fun opportunities and challenges. For the  next six weeks I get to choose a Daily Special once a week that inspires me to whip up something tasty. I post about it here and give you a handy link back to Foodbuzz Daily Special so you too can feel a little inspired or hopeful too. The daily special features some fun kitchen gadget or utensil. Today it is these really cool (http://www.foodbuzz.com/daily_special) silicone ball - heat resistant whisks. I have to say that as I was whipping up the key lime pie, I couldn't help but think I wanted one of these funky and fun new whisks.

This pie is also inspired by the fact that I received a large amount of key limes in my Bountiful Basket purchases a week ago. I have always wanted to make a key lime pie from scratch and now I had an overflowing bounty of the the green little gems. So, while most of this recipe is from fresh ingredients and not pantry items, I hope it will be a reminder that delicious things can come out of your kitchen when we use in season items or what we have around us. I am a big believer in getting the best out of what you have. And occasionally that means a tasty, tart key lime pie.

Disclaimer: I always thought key lime pie was low fat. Not so my friends. Not so. It is decidedly high in eggs and fat but it is refreshing and tasty. This recipe comes from my favorite pie book Tarts With Tops On ( A deliciously naughty title, don't you think). I made some very minor changes. Also, there are recipes for key lime pie that call for sweetened condensed milk. This is not one of them. I just happened to be out of that ingredient. So I went for the butter loaded version.

Key Lime Pie

1 graham cracker crust (homemade or store bought) I would suggest not using the chocolate graham crust. It was a little too bitter for this recipe.

3/4 Cup Sugar

4 Whole eggs and 2 egg yolks. (make sure you save those egg whites in the freezer for another day)

Juice of 4 to 5 key limes

grated zest of 2 limes

1 Cup butter, diced

Whip Cream

1 1/2 Cups heavy cream
1 Tb sugar
1 Tb of vanilla

To make pie. Beat together eggs and egg yolks, sugar, lime juice and zest with a whisk in a glass heat resistant bowl. Cook the mixture in a double boiler.  Place glass bowl over simmering ( not boiling) saucepan of water. Water in saucepan should not touch glass bowl. Continue to gently whisk until mixture thickens to a soft set pudding consistency. Remove from heat and whisk in butter until melted. Pour into a precooked crumb crust and chill for 2 to 4 hours until set.

Whip cream until soft peaks form, add in sugar and vanilla beat for a few seconds. Top pie with whip cream.

Caramel Glazed Crumb Top Apple Pie and Pie Tutorial

I'm off the to the Apple Festival tomorrow with a van full of apple pies and tartlets. When an offer to bake apple pies for a booth at the local apple festival came I hemmed and hawed.
And then I decided to go for it, I was planning on going for fun no matter what. Well, 10 hours later I tell you that I have made 8 pies and 12 mini tartlets. It all looks yummy enough to eat and hopefully yummy enough to buy. But I can barely move.

I love to make apple pies because I love to eat them and I love them in all their forms: two- crust, sour cream apple with walnut topping (it's heavenly and a pain to make), crumb topped, apple and blackberry and my latest creation, caramel and powdered sugar glazed crumb top. I decided to go with the final creation for my pies for the festival, because it just seems a little decadent. I did leave a few minus the caramel -- just in case there were some traditionalists buying tomorrow. So, for this post I bring you a pie tutorial. I may not be a pastry chef but I have made a few pies in the past few years. I am not going to bore you with the actual crust recipe because you can review that post here: Bulk Pie Crust Recipe. I am going to start from the moment I take my pie brick out of the refrigerator or freezer.

Dip brick in flour and flour your rolling surface and rolling pin. When I am making multiple pies I use a pastry cloth because it really makes it easy to do the next step.

Roll your pie into an approximate 10 to 12 inch circle by rolling one direction and then turning or rolling 1/4 turn from your starting point. Continue turning until you have a good circle. I try to roll mostly from the center. If you roll on your edges too much you will have a more inconsistent circle. Reflour your rolling pin as needed.

Place pie tin on pie crust and place hand under crust or rolling surface. Flip over.

To create a clean edge, trim edges with a paring knife to 1/4 inch of edge. Then hem your edges by tucking the ragged edges under.

Make a decorative edge by pinching with finger or using a pastry shaper. You can tell by my inconsistent edge I am a pincher.

Now you have a lovely pie crust ready to be filled.

Apple Filling

7 to 8 cups of peeled cored and thinly sliced apples. ( I use an apple peeler/slicer/peeler/corer)

1/2 cup of sugar, plus a little extra for love

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

1/4 tsp of nutmeg

1 Tbsp flour

lemon juice

Topping

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup white flour

2 Tb cold butter cut into cubes

Caramel topping: 7 caramel squares

1 tsp water

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

1 cup of powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

milk

I am sorry I forgot to take any more pics but it is pretty basic from here on out.

Toss peeled apples with a few dashes of lemon juice and then add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour. Stir until all apples are coated.

Mound apples in prepared pie crust. I like to make my mound higher in the center. It deflates after cooling and if you don't over stuff your pie crust you are going to have a skinny deflated pie. Occasionally I even layer my apples in concentric circles but only on the top, because that is way too much work to layer through the whole pie.

Make topping: Combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in cold butter until you have the texture of coarse crumbs. Or throw it all into a food processor and pulse several times. It goes much faster this way. Spread crumb mixture on top of pie. It is OK if there are a few apples peeking through.

Cover edges with foil and place on a foil lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove foil from edges and bake for an additional 25 minutes or until crumb topping is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Prepare glazes.

Add caramel and water to a small microwaveable bowl and heat in 15 second increments until caramel is completely melted. Use a spoon to randomly drizzle caramel across pie.

Whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla and 1 tsp of milk. Add milk in 1 tsp increments until you have a drizzling glaze. Drizzle onto pie.

Whoo! It's a little bit of work but so worth it.

TIP: You can freeze your baked pies for up to six months. Do not add glaze and double wrap in foil. Label and freeze. To reheat, bake in 375 oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Protect crust edges with foil.

Stocking Up. Bulk Freezer Pie Crust Recipe

Kingdom Hearts Tarts made with freezer pie crust recipe.

Featured Food Storage: Shortening, Flour, Salt

Pantry Stocking Suggestion: Shortening. You should always have shortening on hand in your pantry. Suggestion: Buy an extra pack this week for your storage. I also really like the butter flavored Crisco.

I make a lot of pies. In the Fall, I make several peach and apple pies, bake them and then freeze them for later. I also love to make tarts, and other pies on a mere whim. I always need a pie crust handy. I really dislike store bought pre-made pie crusts and I don't enjoy making one or two pie crusts at a time. All that flour and Crisco equal a mess. Therefore to fulfill my pie crust needs and to make my life simpler I like to make 18 pie crusts at once, or occasionally when I am feeling less ambitious, 7 pie crusts at a time.

Pie season is upon us and so I recently spent an hour making the next several months worth of pie crusts. I love these crusts they are relatively easy to roll out (when done right) and they are tasty and flaky. So much better than those wimpy flaccid store bought things.

It is also cheap to make 18 pie crusts. 18 pie crusts cost me around $7 total which comes out out to approximately .25 cents a crust. Now that is worth the effort if you are a pie lover like me.

Note: If you like to customize each pie crust flavor to its pie, then these crust recipes are not for you.

Freezer Pie Crust for 7 dough bricks for 8 or 9 inch pies

You will also need plastic wrap or sandwich size plastic baggies.

6 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1 (1 lb) can or 2 1/3 cups vegetable shortening

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 Cups cold water

For 18 to 20 dough bricks

1 - 5 lb bag all purpose flour

2 Tbsp salt

1- 3 lb can of vegetable shortening (I use the butter flavor Crisco)

3 Cups Cold Water

If you are going to make the larger recipe you will need a full size heavy duty mixer such as a Bosch and you will need to prepare the recipe in halves.

In a bowl combine flour and salt. With a pastry cutter or mixer cut in shortening until it resembles cornmeal in texture.

Add water all at once if using 7 brick recipe add 1 1/4 cups. Mix lightly until water is absorbed and mixture forms a ball.
This is how I like my pie dough to look. If it is too dry I add water one tablespoon at at time until it is a the texture I like.

Once your pie crusts are finished divide into approximately 4x6 inch bricks approximately 1 1/2 inch thick. Wrap each pie brick individually and stack in freezer bags. Store in freezer for up to 10 months.

To use defrost in the refrigerator. Dip or roll brick into flour and roll into pie crust.

P.S. The Kingdom Heart Tarts use one pie crust brick to make one pan of mini lemon tarts. My four year-old thought we were calling them Kingdom Hearts and so they have been forever dubbed Kingdom Hearts.

Bananarama Week -- Banana Cream Cheese Pie

Oh what do you do with 16 lbs of bananas? Bananas went on sale for one day at a local grocery store for 29 cents a pound. I may have gone over the top but I easily buy this much apples and peaches for food storage later on in the summer and they cost way more than 29 cents a pound. I realize most of us don't grow bananas and so you may be wondering why bananas deserve a whole week on this food storage blog. Well, I believe an important part of food storage is cooking and preserving seasonal produce. Saturday I baked and baked and I still have 2 dozen bananas left. I thought I was going to be giving you the directions for banana chips. They did not turn out as well as I hoped. I have some more experimenting to do but I did try this banana cream cheese pie that got mixed results in my house. Three of us loved it, two of us did not. Keep in mind that one of those naysayers was my daughter who hates all cooked fruit. I loved the fresh taste of this pie and so the first banana recipe of the week is this delicious pie I found in my new pie cookbook Tarts With Tops On by Tamasin Day-Lewis. I am pretty much reading this book like it is a novel. I am such a pie girl.

I did make one alteration to the recipe in that I left out the walnuts. They would be great but I have too many people that don't like nuts in their baked items residing in this house. The pie was fine without them

The crust is a little different in that it uses a puff pastry. I used the boxed stuff from the freezer section but I fully intend to make my own puff pastry later this week and I will share that recipe with you. Pie season is upon us very soon and I will be making a bulk batch of pie crusts to put in my freezer. So much better than the store bought freezer crusts.

1 Box or two large sheets of puff pastry

1 Cup cream cheese ( you can also use mascarpone)

5 Tbsp light brown sugar

1 egg beaten

4 bananas

zest of 1 lemon

1-3 Tbs lemon juice

2 Tb milk

1 sugar

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and take out puff pastry to defrost if using frozen. Line a greased tart pan with half of puff pastry and prick all over with a fork. Cream the sugar and cream cheese in a large bowl and then add egg and mix well. Add sliced bananas, lemon zest and juice to cream cheese mixture and stir until well combined.

Spoon the mixture into the tart shell and smooth out to create an even surface. Cover with the remaining puff pastry and crimp edges together with a fork. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and puffed up. This pie is delicious both warm and cold. I prefer warm because I love cooked bananas.