Passing On the Traditions: Part II - Pies

Word to the wise: You don't need three regular-sized pies and two mini-pies to serve seven people a holiday meal. But mom's and/or Grandma's desire to keep everyone happy just may lead to excess pie baking.

Still, it was another opportunity to pass on some holiday traditions to Kinley and Brooke, who visited the week prior to Thanksgiving. Even though I'm slow getting these photos posted, it still gives me a chance to share some favorite family recipes while you may be getting ready for your family's Christmas gatherings.

I didn't take a lot of photos during the actual process. But in a previous blog post, I showed step-by-step directions for making a fruit pie - something that might be helpful if you, too, have beginning bakers who are interested in pie making. (Just click on the link to go to the photos and a recipe for blueberry pie, Randy favorite.)

I had mini pie tins in my cupboard, and I thought the girls would enjoy choosing what kind of pie they'd like to make. Kinley chose cherry.

 Brooke chose apple.

They also loved decorating the tops of their pies and two of the family-sized pies with leftover pie dough. We rolled out excess pie dough and then used cookie cutters to cut decorative shapes.

And they both helped me make the three big pies:

Pumpkin (click HERE for the recipe).

 

Pecan (click HERE for the recipe).

And cherry - see recipe below.

While Kinley was working on her mini pie, Brooke went into the living room and watched a YouTube video with Grandpa. Not having a nap for several days (and a whole lot of extra activities) caught up with her and she fell asleep on the job.

Even bringing in Lily the cat didn't wake her up.

I'm starting to feel like this during the mad rush to get all my baking done before Christmas!

Cherry Pie (9 inch)

From the Betty Crocker cookbook

Never-Fail Pie Crust (Click HERE for recipe. You will use 2 of the three crusts for this pie)
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 cans (16 oz. each) pitted red tart cherries, drained
1/4 tsp. almond extract
2 tbsp. butter

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare pastry as directed in recipe. Cut into three equal pieces. Roll bottom crust out on a pastry cloth. Fold into quarters and put into a pie plate.

For filling: Mix sugar and flour. Stir in cherries. Stir in almond extract. Turn fruit into pastry-lined pie plate. Dot with butter. Cover with top crust, which has been rolled out on a pastry cloth.  Seal and flute. Cut slits into top crust to allow steam to escape. Cover edges with pie shields. (I now have silicone ones, and I love them and recommend them!)

Bake until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through the slits in the crust, about 35 to 45 minutes.

Passing On the Traditions: Part I - Yeast Rolls

I am not a quilter. I'm not a proficient crafter like Marie, Randy's mom. I don't have my Mom's talent with the sewing machine.

But I do like to cook and bake. Kinley and Brooke came to visit the week before Thanksgiving. Kinley didn't have school all week, so it was Grandma-time day care at The County Line.

And it gave me a chance to share time in the kitchen with two curious bakers.

It's certainly not the girls' first exposure to the kitchen. Jill is a wonderful cook and baker, and from the time the girls were little, "helping" in the kitchen has been part of their lives. When Kinley and Brooke come to Grandma's house, they always want to help make the meals.

But this gave us a chance to work together on holiday traditions - yeast rolls and pies. (More on pies in the next blog post.)

I certainly wasn't baking bread at age 4 or 6. True confessions: I was a white-ribbon yeast bread baker as a Pratt County 4-Her back in the day. That's what happens when you only make bread before the county fair.

Jill & Holly's yeast bread adventures started with pretzels. Click HERE for the pretzel recipe they used.

But when Jill was in 4-H, she and her friend, Holly, got interested in yeast breads. And I learned right along with them.

Thanksgiving gave me the chance to bake yeast rolls with a new generation of little girls. We even used the same recipe that Jill and Holly made years ago. (Click here for that recipe and for step-by-step photos on making crescent rolls from a previous blog post.)

 

The girls helped me mix up the bread dough using the KitchenAid mixer that belonged to my late mother-in-law, their paternal great-grandma. Since I got to take it home after Marie's death 20+ years ago, I've told Randy that I will be immediately replacing it if this essential piece of kitchen equipment breaks down. It's just as vital to my kitchen as combine parts are during harvest.

I neglected to get photos of the girls kneading the dough. However, Jill says that Kinley had some tips to share about "how Grandma does it" when they were making pizza dough after their bread-baking adventures. (Sorry, Jill!)

They loved seeing how much the dough had risen after letting it rest for an hour. (Here's a better photo of the actual bread from my pre-Christmas bread baking session.)

They were ready to punch it down:

Look at those faces!

The next step was rolling out the dough. Since I knew we were going to be making bread dough and rolling out pie crusts, I borrowed a smaller roller pin from their house and bought an even smaller one. The medium-sized one and my full-sized rolling pin worked better than the small one for getting the dough even.

Rolling bread dough requires a great deal of concentration (and holding your mouth just right ... she gets that from me)!

They were troopers. We made two recipes of dough - one white and one whole wheat - and they rolled out every bit of the dough.

We used a pizza cutter to separate the dough circles into eight equal parts. That's even hard for me!

Then we rolled each section into a crescent shape.

I told the girls to try and press the end underneath the roll. That probably led to a little more "squeezing" than "shaping" on Brooke's behalf, but we got the job done. And, again, they kept with it the whole time.

Even though their Mommy said they didn't particularly like yeast rolls, they definitely ate their share when they came out of the oven.

And the rest of the family enjoyed them with our Thanksgiving meal, too.

This past weekend, I completed the process again to make rolls for the Moore family Christmas Eve gathering. I made five recipes, using part for crescent rolls. I also made cinnamon rolls for the freezer as a gift for my parents' Christmas, and I used a portion of the dough for hamburger and cheese-stuffed sandwich pockets.

I was ready to be done. I could have used those two extra helpers, don't you think?

How Sweet It Is!

Here's the Christmas-card-worthy version of gingerbread house building. 

And here's how it was behind the scenes! (Don't worry. No one but Brooke ate her gingerbread house!)

OK.The girls' houses looked a bit different from the version on the perfectly-appointed Wilton kit photo.

But that's what made them special, don't you think? Perfection is overrated (or so I hear).

Before the girls visited in November, Grandpa and I perused the gingerbread house aisle. Since both girls love animals, we decided on Wilton's gingerbread dog house.

Their love of dogs was just one factor in the decision. The others were:

• It appeared there were fewer pieces, a positive for the first gingerbread house building project for the girls AND for us. Architects we are not!
• Each kit was around $5 - an economical price sure to yield a fun activity for part of an afternoon (or part of two afternoons, as it turned out.)
• I knew that even though the kit came with only two colors of icing and the candy was limited to a sugar puppy and dog bones, I could pull out my arsenal of sprinkles from the kitchen cupboard. I also had M & Ms, chocolate stars, several different colored chocolate discs and gummy bears on hand. (You could also use dry cereal or crackers for shingles, etc.)

We constructed our houses in two sessions. The first day was a building day. I have one big piece of advice for you grandmas out there: Have another set of adult hands during this part of the process. It took both Randy and me to apply the royal icing supplied in the kit to the different components and hold them together while they dried. (I thought I could do it myself, but I was sure glad to see Grandpa walk in the door at just the right time.) I don't have photos of that process. My hands were a little busy at the time.

We set the houses aside on plates and left them to dry overnight. The next day was the fun part for the girls. I asked them what color of icing they'd like me to make to go along with the red and white that came in the kit. Predictably, they chose purple and pink.

Then it was time to let their creativity shine. It takes a lot of concentration to provide the perfect decor for a home.

Just ask HGTV ... or Brooke.

Kinley is a typical first-born child who likes things done precisely, as you can tell from her neatly-arranged M & M shingles.

And when her little sister needed a little help to get it all done, Kinley was glad to pitch in.

Teamwork makes the dream work.

Wilton may not be calling to use our versions for their holiday marketing, but we sure had a good time being architects for the day! (Check out the frosting on Brooke's face!)

Kinley wanted photos of every side of her masterpiece, and she couldn't wait to take it home so Mommy and Daddy could see her creation.

I've been watching the Holiday Gingerbread competition on Food Network this month. I don't think we're ready for that. 

But, if you have grandchildren coming for Christmas and are looking for a fun project to do, we recommend a gingerbread kit. (Bonus: The kits may even be on sale right about now.)

Kinley and Brooke thought the houses tasted good, too. (I cannot vouch for that. And I don't think they ate any more after their first tasting when they "raised the roof.")