Bake or Break

Peanut Butter Pie with Cookie Crust

Peanut butter and chocolate go together about as well as anything else I can think of in the food world. I’ve had a long-time love affair with that combination. There’s nothing fancy about it, but it’s just plain delicious. This pie is no exception.

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Fresh Berry Tart

I do not like summer. Really, what’s all the fuss? It’s just hot, and I don’t like being hot. Of course, if I lived somewhere other than the South, I might feel differently. Here, our summer seems to last half of the year.

I don’t mean to be start out being so negative, but all of my summer-related whining does have a point. There are a couple of things that I like about summer. Well, now that I think about it, there may just be one: fresh berries.

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Classic Apple Pie

Jennifer had her hands full this Thanksgiving as she had taken on the majority of the cooking for 16 people. I was able to take off Wednesday to lend a hand as needed with her numerous concoctions and to work on three of my own. Of course, given my favorite baker’s aversion to raw meat, the turkey was all mine (this year, anyway, as I was not struck down by some wretched little bug). I also made a focaccia seasoned to compliment the dressing Jennifer made (which, unfortunately, never made it in front of a camera). My third contribution was an apple pie. I’ve been itching to make a pie since watching Alton Brown’s pie episode, Crust Never Sleeps, so I based my pie on his method. The crust preparation was discussed at length in another post, so I’ll move right on to the filling.

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Alton Brown’s Pie Crust

Jennifer and I have a strong personal attachment to pies. Sure, it’s more the mathematical π variety, but I’m certainly not one to turn down a pretty piece of pie. Considering that the crust is literally and figuratively the foundation of a good pie, when I was tasked with making an apple pie for our Thanksgiving festivities, I naturally turned to our chief food engineer, Alton Brown. Actually, I’d seen his episode Crust Never Sleeps ages ago and have been yearning to try out his techniques ever since.

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Peanut Butter Tart

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With the overwhelming love of peanut butter in my family, I consider it a wonderful challenge to find new peanut butter recipes for family to-dos. For my Daddy’s birthday, I started searching for a recipe and re-stumbled upon this recipe from Martha Stewart. It’s a lovely combination of graham cracker crust, [...]

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Raspberry Almond Tarts

I like putting together little food gifts for the holidays. I love wrapping up something delicious from the kitchen and giving it to people. Finding new things to put in those gifts is half the fun to me. I love those bite-size sweets. So, when I found this Southern Living recipe, [...]

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