Apple Pie Cake

Prep Time: 22 minutes
Bake Time: 70 minutes
Cool Time: 2 hours

Grade: B+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (January 2003)

Note, my prep time is based on making a half recipe and only using 2 pounds of apples. Making a full recipe would take longer since there are more apples to peel and cut.

The half recipe should have used 2.5 lbs of apples, but 2 pounds was plenty. I could barely fit them in my tall 7" springform pan. And the end result still felt heavy on the apples.

This is one of the very first recipes I tried from the first issue of Everyday Food and it made me a fan. It is a fun recipe using the same mixture for the crust and topping and it was very tasty. The only complaint is the apple to crust ratio is a little high.

It is more pie like than a cake, even though it ends up looking like a cake. I will probably make again sometime in the Fall.

Pumpkin Prailine Pie

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Chill Time: 1 hour
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Chill Time: 50 minutes
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Bake Time: 35 minutes
Topping Time: 10 minutes

Grade: B+

Make Again: Probably not

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (October 2006)
Recipe Source: Best of ATK 2008

This recipe is currently available on the Cooks Country website, but probably won't be forever, so print it out if you want to try it. 

This tasted good, but I guess pumpkin pie is not my favorite. The biggest complaint I have with the recipe was I could not make it as pretty as it should have been. The sugar on top didn't caramelize and after sitting in the fridge all day (which they said was OK) the outside topping liquified a bit. The topping did taste very nice though and I liked that in combo with the pumpkin.

Also, I'm not great at pie crusts, so mine ended up a bit tough, although I thought it tasted quite good.


If I wanted to make a pumpkin pie again, I might try this once more. However, if I was just going to make a pie, I would go with another type. I would like to get better at pies someday.

Banana-Caramel Coconut Cream Pie with Dark Rum

Prep Time: 46 minutes
Cool Time: 3 hours
Grade: B

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (May 2004)

I didn't feel like making this look pretty, so I skipped the whipped cream and coconut on top. It was good, but I don't think it would be my first choice for a cream pie. (That would be the chocolate version.) I love coconut, but I'm not sure if I love coconut cream. I did really like the crust with the bananas and caramel. I actually ended up not eating much of the cream part, because it just wasn't too exciting to me (or worth the calories.)

The prep time would have probably been less, or included a break while waiting for things to cool. I took longer because I burned my first caramel. I've only done caramels two times before (the Turtle Brownies and Caramels) and both times I didn't cook the caramel enough. The problem though, is that this was a small amount, so didn't take much time at all to make.

I tried to use all the correct ingredients since it was my first time with this recipe, but I didn't want to get unsweetened coconut when I had sweetened on hand. Also, my rum wasn't dark.

I should mention I made a half recipe and put it in a 7.5" pie plate. I thought the crust might not be enough so I used a few extra animal crackers. This was a mistake, because the crumbs were a bit too dry and I couldn't make the crust as sturdy as I would have liked. It was also too thick on the sides, so a simple half recipe would have worked fine.

This is a good recipe, but not an "A" for me just because of my taste buds more than anything else.