Pies - Tarts

My son Benjamin inspired me (i.e. he actually got me to stay up way past midnight baking) to make this golden pastry tart, filled with decadent brownie middle, and capped with yet more buttery pastry. This is an outstanding treat; great warm or cold, with ice-cream or hot caramel sauce or whipped cream or eaten in a chilled, thick wedge, out-of-hand. It’s the combination of pastry with a dense chocolate filling that makes it so captivating. Of course, taste  (inner beauty) is one thing but great looks don't hurt. It makes something new of two classic elements and while it has French roots, it is decidedly, emphatically, spunkily Canuck (or maybe it's the third son of a third child boldness) in spirit. I named this recipe Guys and Dolls Brownie Pie in honor of the show my son was recently involved in; he's 16 and played in the pit band for the show; I was a dancer in the same show, many years prior. With both that musical and a love of inventive baking in common, Guys and Dolls seem like the perfect name. (This pie is now long gone; it left this morning on the 8 am school bus and by now, crumbs of it litter the hallways of a certain high school).

 

This is perfectly balanced between tart and sweet, cake and pastry. It is a make ahead dessert (up to three days) and pleases a crowd. It also looks beautiful. Beauty and brains in baking – bravo!

Summer in Cape Cod, in a wedge of pie that is scarlet, sweet and tangy. Pure memory food. One bite, and you are on Route 28!

A sumptuous little cheesecake in no time flat. Who would ever suspect, that graham, a name that once synonymous with health food, would wind up in such a modest, yet decadent little cream cheese pie. This is ideal when you want a little cheesecake and not a huge one.

Cream pies with candy bar pieces in them are oh-so-decadent and unique. A great make-ahead, extravagant pie for birthdays or holidays.

This is made in lightening quick if you have a prepared pie shell.

This brown sugar and coconut wonder is a throwback to the days when Impossible pies heralded the arrival of Bisquick © which is a flour, baking powder, salt and shortening mix that made for quick biscuits, cakes and pancakes. Some of the most famous of this genre of pies were Impossible Coconut Pie and Impossible Bacon Pie which was the quickest quiche imaginable – the eggs and  bacon filling, mysteriously separating as the pie baked into a brunch cassrole/quiche that deserves its fame. Impossible referred to the quick and easy method (usually all ingredients were dumped in a blender and whizzed up in seconds), as well as the novelty of pies that went into a pan as a batter and bake into a pie filling/pie sort of dessert. This recipe is also good if you pour the Impossible filling into a pre-baked pie shell. Serve with crème anglaise, fresh churned vanilla ice-cream or a dab of whipped cream and some fresh summer berries. Vintage pie with contemporary great taste. It is not quite pie, not quite a chewy square but sort of a tender, buttery little cake that defies description. I guess it deserves to be called....Impossible.