A Wild and Crazy Thanksgiving: The Pie Post

I hope you were up to your elbows in some combination of pie crust, cranberries, or stuffing ingredients on Thursday... My apartment was filled with the fixings for two pies: a classic apple pie (which was served with Cabot "Seriously Sharp" cheddar cheese) and a Kramer Books inspired chocolate peanut butter (a.k.a. Goober) pie.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
A big thanks to Elissa F. for the recipe for the chocolate peanut butter pie. It can be found online from Cooks.com.

I made a graham cracker crust from scratch (read: from crushed up graham crackers) which worked well but was maybe a little too crumbly. If you go that route, I would suggest adding a little more butter to the crumb mixture to hold everything together. Lastly, I used chocolate chips as a garnish which was sort of an after thought. To make the presentation a bit more impressive, I would suggest putting a quick chocolate ganache on top of the pie then sprinkling the edges with toasted chopped peanuts. Here is a really basic ganache recipe from my friends at MarthaStewart.com. Lastly, make sure to serve the pie right out of the fridge and use a knife dipped in water to help with the slicing.


Apple Pie
I was inspired to tackle the classic apple pie because of Jodi B. (author of Tasty Touring and fellow graduate of Winston Churchill High School).

Jodi shared a hilarious (and very good) recipe for a pie crust from scratch a few days before Thanksgiving so gave it a go. I followed the directions exactly with the exception of the smoke breaks (which I spent watching reruns of Grey's Anatomy on Lifetime TV). Thanks, Choire S., the crust turned out well! The proportions of butter, salt, sugar, and ice water were the same as the usual Martha Stewart recipe I have used in the past but I really enjoyed the honest, no nonsense approach to the crust creation process featured in this article.

The guts of apple pies are always the same: firm, tart apples, cinnamon, butter, sugar, and some combination of cardamom, allspice, ground cloves, lemon juice and a few pinches of lemon zest.

To make a really good apple pie, I look to advice from both of my grandfathers: filled with thinly and evenly sliced apples and topped with melted, sharp cheddar cheese.

My mom's father loved apple pie served with cheddar cheese. Whenever I see this being suggested or listed on a menu, I always think of him. The savory and sweet combination created when apple pie is served with really sharp cheddar cheese just brings the entire pie experience to a new level. We used Cabot Seriously Sharp cheddar cut into thinish slices and put the whole pie back into the oven before serving it to melt the cheese. Let me tell you, it was GOOD.

My dad's father had expert knife skills. When we used to spend Thanksgiving at his house in New York, I remember not being allowed in the kitchen while he was carving the turkey because it required his full concentration. This skill also extended to the thin and even slicing of apples for "Nana's Apple Cake" (recipe to be featured on another post if/when I get the permission from my grandmother). When people asked for the recipe for the cake, my grandmother would always reply that it came with my grandfather to handle the apple slicing and arranging.

So even though they weren't there, their pie preferences were well represented...

I took over 100 photos at my family's Thanksgiving dinner (before the pies were even served). When I got home and began to edit them, I was really drawn to black and white finishing. Here is a selection of my favorites (including several of Miss Olivia enjoying her first ever Thanksgiving dinner complete with pureed peas). She is such a willing photo subject!