Pie is a popular dessert during the holidays and there are a variety of pie types so you could have a different pie evey day of the week and still not run out of new recipes. While the fillings may change, the foundation for a great pie is a great pie crust.

Have you ever been served pie that has crust so tough you can’t get your fork through it? Sure, we all have. Well, here’s an easy pie crust recipe that makes crust that is always tender and flaky.

This recipe is for a 2 crust (one on top and one on bottom) 9 inch pie crust. You can halve this recipe for pies not requiring top crusts.

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 c solid shortening like Crisco (not oil, and not melted)
a few tablespoons of water.

OK, The most important step is how you measure the flour. Too much flour = tough crust.

Most people take the cup and dip it in the flour sack and level off the top with a knife or finger. This will usually get you more flour than you need because the flour packs down into the cup. Instead, spoon the flour into the cup and then level off with a knife.

Put the flour into a bowl along with the salt. Measure out the Crisco into the bowl. I usually use the Crisco sticks as they are much less messy to work with and it is easier to measure it by reading the measurements on the side of the foil.

Using a fork (or your fingers) cut the Crisco into the flour until the Crisco lumps are about the size of peas.

Next, add one tablespoon of water. (Yes. Only one. Too much water and you’ve got tough crust.) Pie crust recipes vary by how much humidity is in the air. In a damp climate, you may only need 2 tablespoons of water.

Using your hands, gather the dough mixture together. You don’t want to make a dough ball, you just want it to stick together. A good way to judge this is to put some of the dough mix in your hand and close it into a fist. If the dough sticks together, your mix is good, do not add more water. If it is just crumbly, you need to add another tablespoon of water.

Do not work with the dough mix very much because the more you mix the dough, the tougher it gets. Once it looks like dough, STOP MIXING. (It might even still look more like a loose flour mix at this point.)

Next, put a portion of the dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and roll it out. You want to roll it out very thin so it is only about an 1/8″ thick. Piece the dough pieces into the pie pan, sticking the edges of the pie crust together so it covers everything. This is easier than trying to put together one huge piece of dough for the pie pan. Again, don’t work with your dough too much to prevent it from being tough.

Next, you’ll add your filler ingredients for your pie, bake and you’re done!

If you’re wondering about what to put in your pie, check out our apple pie or mixed berry pie recipe

Autumn is one of the most beautiful seasons. With the foliage turning and birds migrating there is plenty to see when your outdoors. One special activity in the fall is apple picking. This is a great way to get out with the family or your significant other and have some fun. Then if you feel inspired you can bake with those yummy apples. Who wouldn’t want some warm apple pie or apple crisp on a cool autumn night? I know I would and that’s why I’ve put two of my favorite recipes together to share with you all!

Apple Crisp

In order to make an apple crisp large enough for eight people you will need eight of your yummy freshly picked apples. So figure in an apple per person and make the recipe larger or smaller as needed. Since it is relatively simple to make and only calls for seven ingredients you shouldn’t have too much to worry about. That makes it a reasonable task when preparing dinner too!

You will need the following ingredients;
• 8 medium apples
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ cup butter or 1 stick

To get started you will want to preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and take out your cutting board and apple cutter. I find the apple cutter (wedge/corer) the easiest way to prep the apples before cutting off the skin with a small knife.

Once you take the skin off all the apples, slice each wedge into three slices and place them in a small mixing bowl.

Then take your sugars, flour and spices and mix them with a whisk in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.

Take the butter and melt it in a small saucepan. Once the butter is melted, pour over the dry ingredients and mix until it turns into a crumbly consistency.

Next take out your 2 quart baking dish (8 in x 11 in or there about) and spray with anti stick baking spray. Then evenly place all the sliced apples in the bottom of the dish and use your hands to spread the crumbly topping all over the top.

Place in the oven and bake for 35 – 40 minutes, take out and let cool 10 minutes. Then cut into 8 squares and serve alone or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Mmmm Mmmm Delicious!

Apple Pie

There is nothing like a warm slice of apple pie when the weather outside is cold a dreary. Also as a pick-me-up you can make a delicious apple pie for a friend or family member. As for the filling I’m all set but I personally struggle making pie crust and find it a lot easier to get a pack of two deep dish pie crusts at the supermarket. Either way, it is all in how much time and skill you have for setting and rolling out the dough. Don’t worry if you can’t make it yourself because those pie crusts taste delicious!

To make apple pie filling you will need the following ingredients;
• 6 medium sized apples
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup flour
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 egg
• ¼ teaspoon salt

To get started making this delicious pie you will want to pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, remove your pie crust from the freezer and take out your cutting board and apple cutter. Just like in the apple crisp recipe you want to cut all your apples into wedges and then slice off the skin. Once ready, slice each wedge into three slices and place in your medium mixing bowl with the lemon juice.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, brown sugar, butter, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix the ingredients together thoroughly. Then add the apples to the other ingredients and make sure they are evenly coated.

Once ready to bake the pie put the apple mixture into one of the deep dish pie crusts.

Take the other pie crust and turn upside down so that it lays flat on the counter/table. Gently pull it off the counter/table and place on top of the full pie crust. Use your fingers to pinch the edges together and then cut an X in the middle with a knife.

Then you’re ready to make the egg topping by cracking one egg into a small bowl and putting the salt in. Whisk well and then pour on top of the pie.

Place the pie in the oven and bake for 25 minutes with foil on and then take the foil off and bake an additional 25 minutes. Take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving either alone or with vanilla ice cream on top. Yummy!

With these two recipes you shouldn’t be able to waste any of those delicious hand-picked apples. Get out and have fun in the autumn with your friends or family and find an apple tree or orchard near by. Ask a neighbor if they have a tree or find a farm in the countryside. Either way it is a fun activity that gives you the perfect excuse to bake a delicious desert!

Do you have some over-ripe bananas that you are about to throw away? Or kids that much down food the minute they walk into the door after school?

I have the perfect solution! Bake some delicious Monkey Bread Muffins. They are healthier than most sweet snacks and simply irresistible.

Keep reading to get the recipe with my special tips on how to make these yummy muffins!

You will need the following ingredients;
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 brown medium bananas (about 1 ½ cups mashed)
• ¼ cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• ½ cup melted butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

To get started preheat your oven to 350 degrees and take out three mixing bowls (small, medium and large). Also you will need; beaters, a whisk, a rubber bowl scraper, a fork, a small saucepan, measuring cups and spoons, a muffin tin, muffin papers and a cooling rack.

To begin the batter peel your very ripe bananas and put them in the small mixing bowl. Then add the milk and vanilla extract. Use your whisk straight up and down to mash the bananas and mix the ingredients together. This will create an even consistency. Set aside.

In the medium mixing bowl add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Mix these ingredients together thoroughly with a fork. Set aside.

Next put the stick of butter in your small saucepan on medium heat. Melt the butter thoroughly, making sure not to boil it or burn it. Then pour the butter into your large mixing bowl along with the sugar. Use your beaters and beat for about 3 minutes on high. Then add the eggs and beat for another 3 minutes on high.

Now you are ready to combine all three of your bowls.

To begin add the contents of the small mixing bowl into your large mixing bowl. Beat all these wet ingredients together for about 3 minutes. Then add part of the dry ingredients and beat 2-3 minutes until it is all mixed. Continue doing this until all the dry ingredients are mixed in.

The final step for the batter is to add the cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and mix it in well with the rubber bowl scraper.

Then put your muffin papers in the muffin tin and use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to pour the batter into the muffin tin. Once the muffin tin is full, put it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.

Carefully remove the muffins from the muffin tin 10 minutes after you take them out of the oven and put them on a cooling rack. Allow them to finish cooling for an additional 10 to 15 minutes. Then they are ready to eat! You should get 18 muffins from this recipe so double it or triple it if you need more.

I hope you enjoy these muffins as much as my husband and I do! Good luck baking them!

If you like this recipe you might also try these recipes:

Mixed Berry Pie Recipe with a divine mixture of blueberries, blackberries and strawberries. You can’t get much healthier than that.

Healthy Banana Nut Bread Recipe made with buttermilk, bananas, nuts and eggs. Very moist and freezes well so you can make it ahead of time.

Summer wouldn’t be complete without Berry Pie and this is my all time favorite berry pie recipe. Not only does it taste out of this world, but its full of antioxidants to help keep you healthy so you can enjoy it and be guilt-free.

This recipe is surprisingly simple and fast. The lemon juice and the lemon zest are the secret ingredients that really bring out the berry flavor.

Crust
9-inch Deep Dish Pie Crust (with top)
1 beaten egg

Filling
2 cups blueberries
1 cup blackberries
1 cup strawberriesv
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
2-3 teaspoon grated lemon peel (I like zest so I put in the 3)
3 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare crust in deep dish. Wash and pat dry berries.
Combine berries, sugar, flour, salt, lemon peel, and lemon juice in mixing bowl.
Add berry mixture to pie shell.
Drop butter bits on top.
Add the top crust and seal. You can use any extra dough to decorate top. Cut a couple of slits in top crust.
Take beaten egg and brush it on the top crust to give it a shiny finished look.
Bake on cookie sheet for 20 minutes.
Cover pie with foil and bake for an additional 25 minutes. Crust should be lightly browned and juices should bubble.

Once cooled, serve with ice cream for a memorable desert experience.

Ingredients
1 package of fresh strawberries - washed and hulled
8 oz of sour cream - low fat and fat free work great
3 tablespoons brown sugar - more if you like it sweeter
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur
Sliced almonds (optional)

Place strawberries in a glass bowl. Drizzle cream sauce over top. Sprinkle almonds if desired.

Options - Try cream sauce with blackberries, blueberries, or mixed berries. Brandy can be substituted for amaretto.

Want more healthy eating ideas? Check out our article on Mixed Berry Pie and the Key Relevance Factors for Grading Honey and

Can you imagine a world without fruitcake? One where it’s actually illegal for Great-aunt Gladys to drag out the family fruitcake recipe and bestow her traditional, indigestible gift on all the nieces and nephews?

It could happen. It has before.

As much as we laugh at fruitcakes now, they were once considered delicacies so rich, so tempting, that eating them was akin to a near occasion of sin. Step back in time and learn what all the fuss was about.

A European Tradition
Fruitcakes date at least as far back as the Roman Empire. Historical documents mention recipes that include raisins, barley, spices, preserved fruits, and pomegranates. They were heavy cakes that traveled well and packed a lot of energy into a small package – the perfect treat for soldiers on the march. Crusaders also ate fruitcake on the march across the continent to the Middle East and brought new fruits and spices back home with them.

Fruitcake recipes changed over the years as trade increased and made different ingredients readily available. The average Middle Ages cake was a light bread with fruit sprinkled throughout, but the recipes steadily became more elaborate. By the 1700’s, the British celebrated every nut harvest with a fruitcake. They baked the cake with the current year’s harvest and saved it to eat the next year, hoping to ensure a successful harvest.

Eventually, the fruitcake evolved into a rich dessert reserved for special occasions like weddings and major holidays. By the 1800’s, laws actually restricted fruitcake to these particular celebrations because fruitcakes were considered to be too “sinfully” rich for everyday consumption.

Fruitcake and the New World
If you ask the average resident of the United States to describe a fruitcake, you’ll probably hear some version of this: a dark, sticky loaf loaded with a variety of garishly-colored candied fruit. You know; something that looks like a cook burned a loaf of bread after dropping a bag of gummy candies in the dough.

We have only ourselves to blame. Traditional fruitcakes were tasty, relatively healthy cakes made with nuts and dried fruits. But excess sugar production in North American colonies made candied fruit so cheap and plentiful that it became a standard ingredient in fruitcakes. The more pedestrian version flavored with dried dates, raisins, and chopped nuts was replaced by cakes laden with sticky candied cherries, plums, and citrus.

Give the original version a try, and savor the “sinful” mixture of raisins, dates, pecans, honey, and rum. You’ll never look at candied fruit again.

Yo Ho Ho and a Slice of Fruitcake
A good fruitcake requires advance planning. It’s probably the only baked good that tastes better after sitting for several months – or even a year. How does the “maturing” process enhance the flavor? Well, it’s soaking up rum, for one thing. Not only does the rum (or liqueur) add flavor, it retards mold as well. Yum!

No, really. A traditional fruitcake is absolutely delicious. Try this recipe for yourself. It’s a variation of another great traditional recipe called “Christmas Fruitcake” that can be found at AllRecipes.com. As the author notes: “It’s a shame that fruitcake as a species gets such a bad rap. With its two key ingredients - rum and butter - it ought to be a hit.”

Three Month Fruitcake
This recipe is substitution-friendly. You can mix and match the dried fruit based on your favorites, although bananas don’t work well. The nuts are optional; if you leave them out, add extra dried fruit. Also, some family members use brandy instead of rum. It’s cook’s choice!

Ingredients• 1 cup dried fruit – figs, raisins, dates, cherries, and cranberries work well.
• ½ cup chopped pecans (walnuts also work)
• 1/3 cup rum (dark rum adds more flavor)
• ½ cup butter
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• ½ cup cake flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking spice
• ¼ cup raw honey (orange blossom adds a great flavor)
• 2 tablespoons milk
• ¼ cup dark rum

Preparation
1. Soak the dried fruit and nuts in 1/3 cup rum for 24 hours in tightly covered container.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a small (6 inch) cake pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper.
3. In small bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, and baking spice. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg.
5. Slowly, by hand, stir in flour mixture, alternating with milk and honey. Don’t use the mixer.
6. Add rum-soaked fruit and nuts (and rum if there’s any left!)
7. Pour batter into cake pan and bake 40 minutes.
8. After cake cools, pour 2-3 tablespoons rum over the top and let it soak in.
9. Cut a piece of parchment paper that’s large enough to wrap around the cake completely. Place the parchment in an airtight tin. Place cake in tin and sprinkle with the remaining rum. Wrap parchment tightly around the cake and cover the tin.

You can eat the cake after a week or so, but it tastes better if it sits for several months. Check the cake every six weeks or so. If it seems to be drying out, add a few teaspoons of rum.

With all the rum, this fruitcake recipe isn’t exactly the most family-friendly recipe available, but it is delicious.

If fruitcake won’t do the trick, check out our kitchen gadgets as holiday gifts article for some gift giving ideas.

Cooler weather makes me think of baking and home-made banana nut bread is one of my all time favorites. Here’s my mom’s famous banana nut bread recipe that I’ll share with you. My mom used to make several at once and we would wrap up the extra ones and freeze them for later. This recipe is the best from scratch banana nut recipe I’ve tried. The secret is beating the egg whites separately until they are fluffy. It’s worth the extra step.

Banana Nut Bread Recipe

Ingredient List

1/2 cup Butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks (put whites in a separate bowl for mixing later)
3 mashed bananas (the more ripe they are the sweeter the bread)
4 TBSP buttermilk
1 TSP Vanilla (sometimes I add a little extra)
1 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup nuts

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg yolks, bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla. Mix.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they are stiff. Set aside.

Add the dry ingredients to the main mixture and mix. Now fold in the egg whites and the nuts.

Grease and lightly flour a loaf pan and pour the batter into the pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes (depends on pan). 25 min for mini loaf pans.

Happy Eating! My mom would be pleased her banana nut recipe lives on. It is a source of yummy memories for all my family. We often make a number of loaves and freeze them and then give them away during the holiday season. Do you know anyone who doesn’t love banana bread?

If you like fruit recipes, you might also try the mixed berry pie recipe. It is delicious, easy to make, and very healthful.