More Fun with Pie

As you may recall, last week's blog post featured my annual "year in pie", where I shared pics of the various events from 2017 that we depicted via crust.

Who's the lucky winner? Here's a clue.

Today we conclude all this pie talk with the winner of last week's contest. Also included here is my most-requested pie recipe and some shopping links for some of my favorite pie-making tools.

First, the Winner

At the end of last week's post, I asked readers what event from their lives in the past year deserved a pie. Then I said I'd pick a winner from among the responses and create a pie in honor of that event. (They wouldn't actually get to eat the pie, but I would make it and post a photo.)

Between the responses on this blog and on my Facebook page, it sounds like a lot of good things have been happening! Yay!  With such a nice variety of events to commemorate, it was hard to pick my favorite, so in the end I gave up trying to choose one by myself. Instead, I compiled all of the responses into a single list and showed it to my family members. I asked them to weigh in, and overwhelmingly their top choice was...drum roll please...the birth of a new baby in the family! Thus, the honor goes to:

 Melissa Henderson 

and 

Janet Gaylor Filley, 

both of whom welcomed new grandsons into the world in 2017. So ladies, for what it's worth, here is your pie, which we made (and enjoyed) on New Year's Day:

The winning pie, which celebrates the birth of a new grandson.
(For what it's worth, that's a teddy bear, a rattle, and a baby bottle around the periphery.)

Sorry you couldn't have a slice of your own, but it was a tasty one, and we definitely thought of you as we were eating it! :)  Congratulations to you both and to all who shared their big events of 2017!

Our Favorite Pie Recipe

Whenever I see a recipe for apple pie, I'm astounded at the amount of sugar or sweetener that it calls for.  We don't eat refined sugar, and we try to avoid sweeteners where we can (ignore the Diet Dr. Pepper in my hand as I write these words!), so our pies are made with none of either—yet most of the time they come out truly sweet regardless, thanks to our secret ingredient.

What is that secret ingredient, you ask?  We simply add about a cup of some second, supplementary fruit that happens to be nice and sweet at that time of year. Most often we use blueberries or strawberries, but when they're not sweet enough we've also had success with blackberries, pears, cherries, peaches, and even plums.

Here's the recipe we've honed over the years, in case you'd like to give it a try. (Note that we don't bother making our own crust; we think that the boxed Pillsbury pie crusts that come in the refrigerated section–next to biscuits, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, etc.–are as good as any we could make from scratch.)

My Best Pie-Making Tools

Just for fun, here are some nifty tools that I highly recommend...

1. A great set of mixing bowls

2. My favorite-ever measuring cup

3. A silicone crust protector

4. An apple peeler/corer/slicer 

5. Cutters to cut out little shapes from your pie crust

6. A hand mixer for making whipped cream to go on your pie

Also, here are some cool pie pans, (though I don't own any of these myself so I can't personally vouch for them). These are for when you can't make up your mind, when you want a really pretty pie, when you'd rather make a bunch of small pies, or when you want to impress people with how smart your pi(e)s are... 

Hope you enjoyed all this pie talk! That's it for now. Be sure to come back next week for our monthly list of new Christian Fiction releases–and congrats again to our two new grandmothers, Melissa Henderson and Janet Gaylor Filley!


Please note that this post includes affiliate links, which means that clicking on the photos and making purchases will generate affiliate commissions for the author.