Thanksgiving Pies

We've been tasked with helping with pies for Thanksgiving, so we've been busy practicing lately! Here are a few of the results, in case you still need some ideas for Thanksgiving, or want some good pies for Christmas too!

Pear Cranberry Pie

This was my favorite new recipe we tried! The tartness of the cranberries was perfectly balanced by the sweet pears. We'll be making this for Thanksgiving and probably for Christmas too because it's so pretty! We followed this recipe from Serious Eats for Pear and Concord Grape Pie, but substituted cranberries for grapes. 

Apple Pie

This was from another Serious Eats recipe. We like more spice, so we used 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg. The flavor and crust were fantastic! The only problem we had with this one was the apples and crust puffed up while baking and then fell after cooling, even with par-cooking. The flavor and crust were excellent though, so it still made the cut. If you have any suggestions to prevent puffing or falling filling, let me know!

Chocolate Pecan Chess Pie

This is my favorite pie! I just love the combo of flaky crust and dense chocolate filling! I used the same recipe we did last year. I've found that since then, my taste for crusts has shifted toward more well done ones, so if you're in that camp I'd add an extra 10 minutes onto the blind baking time. But otherwise, this is perfect. If you like fudgy brownies, or dense chocolate pudding then this is your pie!