Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

Did you know you can make a delicious pumpkin pie WITHOUT evaporated or sweetened condensed milk?? 

I have always made my pumpkin pies using the traditional recipe found on the back of the Libby's Pumpkin can. And it is a definite winner. But, this past Sunday I had a pie crust, eggs, sugar, spices, vanilla, a can of pumpkin, and NO canned milk.  I did, however, have other forms of milk, among them: Sour Cream.

So I substituted sour cream for evaporated milk. I didn't do a straight substitution; because of the density of the sour cream, I used less of it.  

This pie cooked up beautifully, and my family scarfed it down with nothing but praise for its texture and flavor!  I LOVE when an experiment becomes a new recipe success! 

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

Makes one 9-inch pie

Ingredients

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat pumpkin and sour cream until smooth. Add sugar, spices, and vanilla, stirring well. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

3. Pour into pie crust.  Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 30-35 more minutes, until middle of pie is set (no longer liquid).

4. Cool completely before serving. Store in refrigerator. 

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Cinnamon Chip Banana Bread

This week was my son's last week of 8th grade football. As a mom, I am scared everyday when I send my kids out the door. They face so much in school. I love seeing them grow amid the challenges that come with early adolescence, but I do a fair amount of worrying, too.

You'd think that having a son in football would only add to the worries, but amazingly it didn't. Picking my sweaty (and smelly!) son up after 2 hours of practice every day was nothing but a positive experience.  When I asked how his day went, he'd reply, "Great!"  When I asked how football went, he'd say,"Fun!"  He'd then tell me about what he'd learned that day in class and on the field. I'd share with him some of my junior high and high school experiences that related.  And when we got home (after a snack), he'd get right on his homework. He has been managing his time so well because he has had to. 

At his football games, I never once heard a coach be anything but constructive and positive. His coaches would put their arms around the boys individually to offer advice. More than once, my son told us about specific praise from a coach for improvement in his playing skills. 

So for this last week of football, I wanted to do something special for his two main coaches. And, being from the South, I show pretty much any emotion (be it gratitude, grievance, or sympathy), with food. 

Since I had 7 bananas to use, I decided a loaf of cinnamon chip banana bread would be appropriate. 

I had just enough batter to make two large loaves (one for each of his coaches) and two tiny loaves (so my kids didn't feel jipped). 

We loved it, as I'm sure the coaches did. And you will, too!

Here's the recipe: 

Cinnamon Chip Banana Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:

7 ripe bananas, mashed

4 eggs

2 scant cups sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup sour cream

4 cups flour (I did half whole wheat, half white)

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1.5 cups cinnamon baking chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Prepare two loaf pans with cooking spray and flour.

2. Mix bananas, eggs, sugar, and oil well with an electric mixer. Stir in sour cream.

3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, soda, salt, and baking powder. Stir well into wet mixture. Stir in cinnamon chips.

4. Bake 50-60 minutes, until tops no longer look wet and return to shape when touched. 

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Strawberry Cream Pie

What did you bring to Easter dinner?  I made ham, my favorite rolls, deviled eggs, 

and Strawberry Cream Pie. 

I developed this recipe several years ago thanks to my dad. He LOVES strawberries. And he has a summer birthday, so he always asks for strawberry shortcake for his birthday cake.  One summer he tasted a blueberry cream pie I had made using a recipe from a Eugene, OR, Junior League cookbook as my base. My dad suggested that he would like it even more with strawberries.  So, a couple of weeks later I made him a Strawberry Cream Pie for his birthday. 

I love this recipe because it uses such basic ingredients. I will post a recipe for 1 pie. I doubled it to make 2 for Easter Dinner, so my pictures will show larger amounts. (Full recipe is at the end of the post, after the tutorial).

First you need to prepare your pie crusts. Store-bought pie crust works fine for this recipe, but I decided to homemake mine. I used a new recipe from Yesterfood.blogspot.com that uses half butter and half coconut oil. It was GREAT. You can find it here.

Here are the ingredients for the filling. It is truly "as easy as pie," since you just beat everything but the strawberries together, then fold them in.

Here are the topping ingredients. The blueberry cream pie that inspired this one called for chopped nuts on top. I like nuts, but I didn't really like the idea of a nut topping from the start for this pie.  I did the cereal topping the first time I made the pie, and we loved it!

 

First step: mix together all filling ingredients except strawberries.

Second step: fold in sliced strawberries.

Pour carefully into the pie shell and bake in 400° oven 25 minutes.

While pie is baking, prepare topping by crushing 1 heaping cup of cereal into one heaping half cup. I like to do this using the bottom of a glass in a bowl or measuring cup.

Mix crushed cereal with 2 tablespoons of softened butter and 3 tablespoons of flour.

Spread topping on the pie and return to the oven for 10 more minutes.

It won't look a lot different after baking, but the topping will be crisped up and a bit darker. (My photos didn't capture this well, so you'll have to trust me).

Strawberry Cream Pie

Filling:

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

3 cups sliced fresh strawberries

1 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

Topping: 

3 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons softened butter

1/2 cup (heaping) crushed Honey Bunches of Oats cereal (1 heaping cup before crushing)

Instructions: 

1. Preaheat oven to 400°.  Set aside pie crust

2. Beat well with electric mixer: sour cream, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, and egg.

3. Fold in strawberry slices.

4. Pour into pie crust and bake for 25 minutes.

5. Prepare topping while pie is baking: Mix all ingredients using a fork.

6. After pie has baked, spread topping on pie. Return to oven to bake for 10 more minutes.

7. Cool pie on counter at least 1 hour. Refrigerate uncovered until ready to eat. May be made 1 day in advance.

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