Sunday, May 6, 2012

Cream Pie Heaven

I've made a lot of pies throughout my life, but for some reason never made cream pies from scratch. I always cheated and used instant pudding. But recently I decided that needed to change, and I have been learning to make cream pies. I have been using the "Lionhouse" recipe book, and the pies have been turning out heavenly!

I first made a lemon cream pie, and a coconut cream pie for Easter. I know the lemon sounds divine, which it was, but the coconut cream was my favorite. Last week I decided to make another coconut cream pie, and a chocolate cream pie. I still think the coconut cream pie was my favorite, but the chocolate was sinfully good! I think next I'm going to make a banana cream pie.

Because of copyright issues, I'm not going to put the recipes here. But seriously, you should google a recipe and try it. The recipe from the Lionhouse uses just the egg yolks. I saved the whites to use in an omelette the next day. It is a little tricky to temper the eggs, but it's not too hard. And then you have to stir..... a lot. It takes a little while for the mixture to thicken, but it eventually does.

If you need a pie crust recipe, try this one that I posted years ago. The key to a good pie crust is to use ice water when making it. I saw one chef that used cold fruit juice to add a little sugar to the gluten mixture. But I just use water, and my pie crusts turn out good.

Although I"m not sharing a cream pie recipe in this post, I just really want to encourage you to try one. You will never go back to instant pudding again. The only really bad thing about cream pies is that you will want to eat a lot! :)