Teeny’s Tour of Pie: A Cookbook + A Giveaway

If you have follow me for a bit than you know I love cookbooks and I love to bake. Recently I was sent a copy of Teeny’s Tour of Pie: Mastering the Art of Pie in 67 Recipes written by Teeny Lamothe, owner of Teeny Pies in Washington, D.C., to review and to also to give away a copy to one of my readers. 

Pies have never been my strong point, the crust always eludes me, that is unless it is a graham cracker crust. Teeny Lamothe changed all that with this book. I made my first successful and I might add fabulous pie crust by following the recipe for Buttery All Purpose crust(recipe below). 

Mastering the the Art of Pie is a wonderful book chronicling the adventures of Teeny who wanted to learn the art of pie making. She decided to forgo pastry school and instead wrote an email to bakers around the country asking to come and be an apprentice. After several weeks with either no answer or a sincere apology declining her offer, Dani Cone owner of Seattle’s High 5 Pies said yes, and then adventure began. 

The book is divided by season and filled with recipes for 10 no-fail pie crusts, and 67 sweet, savory, traditional and a few unexpected pie recipes too! I think you will love the recipes, profiles of other pie makers and the beautiful photography.

I made the Banana Cream Pie and Food Lion graciously provided my with all of the ingredients to make my perfect pie. The crust is flaky, and buttery and the perfect compliment to the sweet custard filling and bananas.

Banana Cream Pie

Recipe from Teeny Lamothe

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons corn starch

1/2 tsp. salt

2 cups while milk

4 medium egg yolks

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 bananas

1 Batch Homemade whipping cream

1 Buttery All Purpose Crust Pre-baked

Directions:

Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan with a wire whisk. Add the milk and the egg yolks, whisk again until there are no lumps.

Place the saucepan over medium heat and cook, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a low simmer and begins to thicken, about 7 minutes. Continue cooking and whisking, careful not to let the mixture scorch the bottom of the pan, for another 2 minutes, until the mixture begins to boil, Then boil and stirring for another minute.

Remove from heat, add the butter and whisk until butter is melted.

Either mix the bananas into the mixture or pour mixture into the pre baked pie shell and place bananas on top.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Then top with whipped cream.

Buttery All Purpose Crust

Recipe from Teeny Lamothe

21/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cups of cold butter cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 cup of cold shortening

1/4 cup of cold vodka

6 tablespoons cold water, extra as needed

In a large mixing bowl mix together the flour, salt,and sugar until combined. Add the butter and the shortening and cut the mixture together using a pastry blender of two knives, until the mixture resembles small pea-sized crumbs coated in flour.

Pour the vodka over the ingredients a few tablespoons at a time while using a rubber spatula to press the dough together. Add the water, and continue to press the dough together to form a large ball. The dough should be wet and sticky, if it needs additional water add it a tablespoons at a time. Be careful not to work the dough too much or the crust will become tough. 

If you would like to win a copy of this beautiful book, leave me a comment with your favorite pie and I will pick the winner at random on Friday.

I hope that you have a great day!

Note: I was given a copy of the book by Workman Publishing  and the ingredients by Food Lion. All opinions are my own.