Saturday, July 23, 2011

Red Velvet Pie with Cream Cheese Cloud Frosting

For all of you who love the cake version and always feel like you are betraying your one true love, which is pie, then here is your solution! I guarantee that this pie will not let you down, if it does I will just insist you did it wrong ;)


Red Velvet Pie
1 pie crust (because I have better things to do than make a crust)
1 cup unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled
1 cup sugar
½ cup all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon of cocoa
1 ounce of red food coloring

Preheat your oven to 325*F. 
Line a 9-inch pie plate with dough and crimp the edges.

In a bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and flour, and stir well. One at a time, add the eggs. Mixing well after each addition. 

Add the buttermilk and vanilla and stir well. Next, add the cocoa and stir into filling. Last, stir in the food coloring. 

*Disclaimer: I know that your pie looks weird right now, if you have never made a pie with buttermilk than you are probably stressing that you did something wrong. It is ok that the filling looks like it is separating and that the red color is bleeding into the crust. If you put it in the oven right now it will bake up beautiful and you will wonder why you ever freaked out. 

Pour the batter into the pie crust and throw that sucker into the oven cuz it's baking time!

Bake for 45 minutes or until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. It took 50 minutes in my oven for it
to get thick. When you insert the knife, there will be a little filling on it—but it continues to firm up as it cools.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes, until the filling firms up. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

I prefer mine chilled with Cream Cheese Cloud Frosting

Cream Cheese Cloud Frosting
1 8oz. package of cream cheese
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cornstarch
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

In a chilled bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream and 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar until it forms stiff peaks but is not buttery, that's BAD... then put the bowl in the fridge to stay cold. 

In a second bowl mix the softened cream cheese, salt, vanilla, cornstarch, and remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar until creamy. Now take the whipped cream out of the fridge and gently fold half of it into the cream cheese mixture. I like mine a little thick for this pie so I only do about half of the whipped cream, but if you are doing a cake or pie that you will not be piping a design on, go ahead and add the rest of the whipped cream and fold gently. 

When the pie is totally cool, I prefer it to be very cold (fridge overnight) so the frosting doesn't melt, pipe the icing along the outside edge and in the middle. Feel free to use any pattern. You can even scoop and plop on each piece as you serve it. I just didn't want to cover up the beautiful red color.

And there you have it, your very own, Red Velvet Pie!



Banoffee "Danger" Pie

If you have never heard of this pie before, do not be alarmed... Just saddened that it has taken you so long to discover it. 


So just make it, you will not be disappointed!




First things first, the day before you want to make this pie, you need to make the toffee layer. It is not difficult but takes some time and a little patience. 


Step 1:
Remove the label on the condensed milk and submerge the unopened can in pot of water. 
Cover and boil for 2.5 hours. Remove pan from heat and let cool before removing the cans (may take up to 4 hours). This toffee sauce will now keep, unopened, as long as regular sweetened condensed milk will. I made 2 cans just incase I want some on ice cream this week ;)


 Warning: Be sure to keep the can covered by water at all times!! If it is not covered by water the can may explode. 


Now you are ready for the real pie making!


  • 3 bananas
  • 1 tin of sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 cups whipping cream
  • 1/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 small bar of chocolate 


Step 2:To make the crust (*You can skip this step entirely by buying a ready made graham cracker crust.)




  • Grind up Graham Crackers in food processor.
  • Melt stick of butter in microwave and pour most of it into crumb mixture (you may not need all of it and since it's easier to add than to remove, start with less).
  • Blend until you have a moist sand mixture.
  • Smooth wet crumbs into pie plate to make a crust.
  • Bake at 350*F for 10 minutes.
  • Set aside to cool.
Step 3:
To make whipped cream (*You can skip this step entirely by using cool whip. )



  • Whip cold cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla on high until whipped
  • Set aside
Step 4:
Now its time to bring it all together. Cut up bananas into slices and lay into your crust. It doesn't matter how you arrange them really. Just go wild.
BanoffeePie11
Open toffee can, mix with knife until smooth, pour on bananas.
BanoffeePie13


Spread whipped cream over the whole mess

BanoffeePie16
Grate chocolate on top (optional)
Put in fridge to set for at least 1 hour




I hope that you enjoy this pie as much as my friends did at todays BBQ and pie bake-off!


*Original recipe (I changed a few things) and all photos except first, courtesy of www.brooklynlimestone.com