REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY – America’s Best Harvest Pies #Cookbook – With Real Pumpkin #Pie #Recipe

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America’s Best Harvest Pies: Apple, Pumpkin, Berry, and More!

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing; 1 edition (October 8, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1626362599
• ISBN-13: 978-1626362598
• Cover price $11.95

ABOUT AMERICA’S BEST HARVEST PIES

Since 1995, amateur, commercial, and professional bakers have competed in the National Pie Championships to determine who makes the best pies in America. America’s Best Harvest Pies is a collection of seventy delicious recipes that have won awards at the National Pie Championships. Organized by harvest crop—apple, pumpkin, raspberry, strawberry, peach, sweet potato, and more—the recipes in this book are sure to inspire a baking frenzy. Bakers will find a selection of unique recipes, such as peanut butter-n-strawberry explosion pie and sweet tart cherry pie. But the classics are well-represented too, with plenty of two-crust, one-crust, and crumb-topped favorites.

MY THOUGHTS

Chapters in this cookbook include

• Apple
• Blueberry
• Cherry And Mixed Fruit
• Mixed Berry
• Peach
• Pumpkin
• Raisin
• Raspberry
• Strawberry
• Sweet Potato

I live in an area where “U-pick” farms and roadside produce stands are not uncommon. I remember as a child we’d go picking for different fruits. It wouldn’t be uncommon to find a bushel of apples in the house. Back then I never thought about it, but what does one do with a bushel of apples, or any other fruit? My young mind would only think of whatever familiar recipes I knew off the top of my head, such as apple pie. Well, now that I’m an adult I know that there are tons of recipes out there and a bushel of fruit could make thousands of different things.

Each chapter in the cookbook has a table of contents. The recipes are all written in a simple and easy to understand format. Missing are prep and cooking time, which I would love to see added if a future edition is released. This cookbook has lots of color photos, which I love because the photos are always the first thing that get my attention when I am deciding what to make. Pies that I’d like to try my hand at making include Simply Divine Cinnamon Roll Raisin Apple Pie, Royal Sapphire Blueberry Pie, Cherry Streusel Pie, Deep Dish Banana Split Pie, Octoberfest Pie, and Glazed Strawberry Cheesecake Pie, to name but a few. This cookbook is perfect for anyone who likes baking or enjoys eating pie.

Here’s the recipe, courtesy America’s Best Harvest Pies.

Real Pumpkin Pie Recipe

(Page 88, Jill Jones, Palm Bay, FL 2009 APC Crisco National Pie Championships Amateur Division 1st Place Pumpkin)

INGREDIENTS

CRUST

• 1 cup flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ tablespoon sugar
• ½ cup shortening
• 1 egg
• 1 ½ tablespoons water (ice-cold)
• ¼ tablespoon vinegar

FILLING

• 1 small cooking pumpkin (4 to 6 inches)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 smidgen fresh ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

DIRECTIONS

For the crust: Mix flour, salt, and sugar, then cut in shortening with fork or pastry cutter until crumbly. Add egg, water, and vinegar. Scrape out of bowl onto floured surface. Roll into ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate ½ to 1 hour. Roll dough out on a floured surface and place in pie pan.

For the filling: Preheat oven to 425°F. Cut pumpkin in half, and scrape out seeds and string membranes of pumpkin. Quarter pumpkin. In a double steamer, steam pumpkin until soft and skin peels off by touch (45 minutes to 1 hour). Mash with potato masher, then squeeze water out of mashed pumpkin through cheesecloth. Combine pumpkin, sugar, salt, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, and vanilla, and mix well. Add eggs and milk. Mix well. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and cover crust edge. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Let cool 3 hours before serving. Refrigerate.

WIN IT!

ONE winner will receive their own copy of America’s Best Pies.

HOW TO ENTER. (MANDATORY)

To enter leave a comment on this post telling me what your favorite pie is or one pie you’d like to learn how to make.

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THE SMALL PRINT.

The winner will be selected using the “And the winner is” plugin. US addresses only please, no PO Boxes. This contest will end on Wednesday 10/23/13 at 11:59 pm est. If you’ve entered any of my giveaways before then you know that only comments containing all of the requested information will be eligible for entry. The winner must contact me to confirm they wish to receive the prize within 24 hours of my email notifying them they’ve won. Good luck to everyone!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.