Written by Maureen Murphy & Sarah Palmer
When it comes to baking a pie, mastering the crust is key! While you can purchase pre-made pie crusts in the dairy & frozen section of our stores, making a pie crust from scratch will make your pie the star of the dessert table! Below are some tried & true tips to help get you started!
- Your butter & water must be cold; even frozen butter works as long as you cut it into cubes before freezing
- Measure ingredients carefully to prevent a tough, greasy or soggy crust
- Cut the fat into the flour just until the size of peas (use a fork or pastry blender)
- Handle pie dough as little as possible to ensure a flaky and tender crust
- Chill pie dough for several hours to tenderize the dough, and prevent shrinkage during baking
- Allow the dough to come to room temperature before rolling
- Roll dough from the center out to a 1/8̋ thickness or less
- To place the pie crust in the pie pan, carefully loosen it from the cutting board; fold it over the rolling pin. Unroll it into the pan and press down lightly
- Trim any excess dough, leaving approximately ½ ̋ for fluting the edge
- Flute the edge by pinching dough between the thumb and forefinger or seal the edge by pressing the dough with a fork against the rim of the pie pan
- When baking a crust without the filling, prick the dough with a fork and place dry beans or rice in the bottom to prevent shrinkage while baking. Bake in a preheated 450°F oven for 10 -12 minutes or until lightly browned.
- For the crust to be baked with a filling, do not prick the crust. For pies with juicy fillings, brush the bottom of the crust with egg white or melted butter to prevent a soggy crust.
- For pies that bake more than 30 minutes, place a rim of foil around the edge of the crust during the first half of baking to prevent over-browning
Now that your pie crust skills are feeling confident, fill your crust with this delicious Chocolate-Pecan filling for a sweet pie your holiday guests will love!
Chocolate Pecan Pie
- 2 PICS eggs
- 1 cup PICS sugar
- ½ cup Price Chopper flour
- ½ cup PICS butter, melted
- 1 T. PICS vanilla
- 1 cup PICS pecans, chopped
- 6 oz. semi sweet chocolate morsels
- 1 pastry shell, unbaked
Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat eggs slightly in mixing bowl. Blend in sugar, flour, butter and vanilla. Stir in pecans and chocolate. Pour into pie shell. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and serve. Serves 6-8.
Written by Maureen Murphy & Sarah Palmer
Holiday Baking
Holiday baking is a wonderful way to share the joy of the season with those we treasure. Start a new tradition with your family this year and bake some special holiday memories! Keep reading for helpful baking tips & time-saving ideas to help get you started!
Baking Tips
Making time to bake is often fun and rewarding, and can be done with proper organization and a few helpful hints.
- Bake in quantity and freeze whenever possible – baked cookies will keep in the freezer for up to 3 or 4 weeks
- Prepare cookie dough when you are able to steal a little extra time – prepared dough will keep at least 3 days in the refrigerator or in the freezer for up to 3 months
- Assemble all ingredients and equipment before beginning a recipe
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper to help cut down on clean up
- While cookies are baking, prepare other cookie sheets to go in the oven
- Save time when shopping and measuring:
- 1 lb. box confectioners’ sugar = 4 cups
- 1 lb. box brown sugar = 2 cups, packed
- 5 lb. bag granulated sugar = 10 cups
- 5 lb. bag all-purpose flour = 20 cups
- 1 cup cake flour = 7/8 cup sifted all-purpose
- 1 lb. box seedless raisins = 2 3/4 cups
- 6 extra-large eggs = 8 large eggs
- Allow butter and eggs to come to room temperature before using
- Measure ingredients carefully
- Do not over-mix cookie dough
- Chill dough well when instructed so the dough will be easier to work with
- Allow at least 2 inches of space between cookies on cookie sheets, and at least 2 inches around the sides of the oven for proper heat circulation
- Use bright, shiny aluminum cookie sheets rather than dark colored cookie sheets to prevent over browning
- Bake cookies on a rack in the middle of the oven; for best results use only one rack
- Do not over-bake – a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean when a cookie is baked
- Allow cookie sheets to cool before baking more to prevent the edges of the cookie from spreading out and becoming too thin
- Cool cookies on a wire rack
For recipes & ideas, visit our baking Pinterest board!
Written by Sara Lilkas, Marketing Intern
BOO! Did Halloween sneak up on you too? Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Growing up I took every single excuse I could to wear a princess dress and ran with it. (I mean there was also the free candy thing, but who doesn’t love running around in a poofy ball gown?) Now that I’m 23 and trick or treating is no longer an option, more creative measures have to be taken to celebrate this spooky and sugar high inducing holiday. For adults, even those who are reluctantly adults, there a couple of fairly simple and budget friendly options that can be planned out in almost no time at all!
The Scary Movie Marathon
A movie marathon is an easy and fairly cheap way to get the spook factor in. Even though video rental stores are no longer a thing, RedBox sometimes has seasonal offerings and for around $1 a night you can’t really go wrong. Another option is to ask your friends to bring over their favorite scary movie DVDs if they have any. I personally don’t believe any scary movie marathon is complete without
The Shining, a film from the
Scream series, and
A Nightmare on Elm Street. I am sure there are some horror aficionados out there who will disagree with me, but these are the scary movies I grew up not being allowed to watch, so obviously they became my favorites….well at least once they stopped giving me nightmares. Now for those who are feeling nostalgic I would recommend the
Halloweentown series or
Nightmare Before Christmas (or really anything done by Tim Burton since he has mastered the art of being creepy and awesome without being terrifying.) And there is simply no such thing as a Halloween movie marathon without
Hocus Pocus. I don’t care what you are doing when
Hocus Pocus is on TV, you sit down and watch.
But the pillowcase full of free candy is still missing. Now this is the true tragedy of growing up. What hits the sweet spot (see what I did there) is inviting your friends over for a spooktacular movie marathon with Halloween themed baked goods and snacks. One of my favorite Halloween time movie snacks is this
sweet and salty popcorn recipe featuring peanut butter and the sugary goodness known as candy corn! Now I have personally decided that the calories from candy corn consumed in October simply do not count. So I recommend adding it to as many snacks as possible such as Halloween themed
trail mix and
cupcakes.
The Halloween Party
Now if you do not think it is fun to watch movies that are meant to terrify you, a more low-key affair may be more your style. And by low-key I mean anything from a few friends over to a raging costume party. Halloween can also be the perfect excuse to throw a masquerade party(I’ve always wanted to go to a masquerade party so I’m just throwing that out there.) At any Halloween event costumes should be required, it does not hinder your cool factor to dress up, in my opinion it makes you more awesome, but let’s talk about planning this thing. No matter how extravagant your Halloween affair may be (or how big your party budget is) there are plenty of easy food and decoration ideas, using a lot of things you may already have around the house. Creepy pictures can be printed out and put into the frames you already have, and food dye can go a long way for making regular drinks look like something you’d find in the Haunted Mansion. Instead of having all the lights in your house on, save some electricity and use candles where you can.
Painting items is also a fairly cheap way to decorate, but is obviously more permanent. Using black paint on every-day items can go a long way in creating a spooky feel for your party. Try painting your pumpkins in addition to carving them and I’m sure you will win spookiest house on the block. (Plus make sure you save the pumpkin seeds while carving, you can bake them to make a tasty snack!) Whether it’s black painted pumpkins, frames, or other items, matte black paint can make decorations look eerily goth, but not childish (chalkboard paint is another cool option here, since you can then write and draw on the decorations as well.) As you may have guessed with my ramblings about the black paint, black is my go to decorating theme for Halloween (and let’s face it, for everyday life), but I’m also a girl who happens to love glitter. A can of black glitter spray paint costs around $4 and can be purchased at any home improvement or craft store. I personally believe that glitter can be added to almost any decoration depending on the feel you are going for with your party, but beware once you put glitter on one thing it will get everywhere, there’s just no stopping it.
As always check out our
Pinterest board for more holiday recipes and ideas!
BOO! Did Halloween sneak up on you too? Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. Growing up I took every single excuse I could to wear a princess dress and ran with it. (I mean there was also the free candy thing, but who doesn’t love running around in a poofy ball gown?) Now that I’m 23 and trick or treating is no longer an option, more creative measures have to be taken to celebrate this spooky and sugar high inducing holiday. For adults, even those who are reluctantly adults, there a couple of fairly simple and budget friendly options that can be planned out in almost no time at all!
The Scary Movie Marathon
A movie marathon is an easy and fairly cheap way to get the spook factor in. Even though video rental stores are no longer a thing, RedBox sometimes has seasonal offerings and for around $1 a night you can’t really go wrong. Another option is to ask your friends to bring over their favorite scary movie DVDs if they have any. I personally don’t believe any scary movie marathon is complete without The Shining, a film from the Scream series, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I am sure there are some horror aficionados out there who will disagree with me, but these are the scary movies I grew up not being allowed to watch, so obviously they became my favorites….well at least once they stopped giving me nightmares. Now for those who are feeling nostalgic I would recommend the Halloweentown series or Nightmare Before Christmas (or really anything done by Tim Burton since he has mastered the art of being creepy and awesome without being terrifying.) And there is simply no such thing as a Halloween movie marathon without Hocus Pocus. I don’t care what you are doing when Hocus Pocus is on TV, you sit down and watch.
But the pillowcase full of free candy is still missing. Now this is the true tragedy of growing up. What hits the sweet spot (see what I did there) is inviting your friends over for a spooktacular movie marathon with Halloween themed baked goods and snacks. One of my favorite Halloween time movie snacks is this sweet and salty popcorn recipe featuring peanut butter and the sugary goodness known as candy corn! Now I have personally decided that the calories from candy corn consumed in October simply do not count. So I recommend adding it to as many snacks as possible such as Halloween themed trail mix and cupcakes.
The Halloween Party
Now if you do not think it is fun to watch movies that are meant to terrify you, a more low-key affair may be more your style. And by low-key I mean anything from a few friends over to a raging costume party. Halloween can also be the perfect excuse to throw a masquerade party(I’ve always wanted to go to a masquerade party so I’m just throwing that out there.) At any Halloween event costumes should be required, it does not hinder your cool factor to dress up, in my opinion it makes you more awesome, but let’s talk about planning this thing. No matter how extravagant your Halloween affair may be (or how big your party budget is) there are plenty of easy food and decoration ideas, using a lot of things you may already have around the house. Creepy pictures can be printed out and put into the frames you already have, and food dye can go a long way for making regular drinks look like something you’d find in the Haunted Mansion. Instead of having all the lights in your house on, save some electricity and use candles where you can.
Painting items is also a fairly cheap way to decorate, but is obviously more permanent. Using black paint on every-day items can go a long way in creating a spooky feel for your party. Try painting your pumpkins in addition to carving them and I’m sure you will win spookiest house on the block. (Plus make sure you save the pumpkin seeds while carving, you can bake them to make a tasty snack!) Whether it’s black painted pumpkins, frames, or other items, matte black paint can make decorations look eerily goth, but not childish (chalkboard paint is another cool option here, since you can then write and draw on the decorations as well.) As you may have guessed with my ramblings about the black paint, black is my go to decorating theme for Halloween (and let’s face it, for everyday life), but I’m also a girl who happens to love glitter. A can of black glitter spray paint costs around $4 and can be purchased at any home improvement or craft store. I personally believe that glitter can be added to almost any decoration depending on the feel you are going for with your party, but beware once you put glitter on one thing it will get everywhere, there’s just no stopping it.
As always check out our Pinterest board for more holiday recipes and ideas!