Yesterday, I took a break from the many other things eating my lunch this week to devote a day to pies. I love to bake pies. I love to eat pies. I love everything about pie. I love pie crust–regular, chocolate, graham cracker, any kind of pie crust. I love pie. Any kind of pie. Fruit, custard, cream. Just give me a pie, okay?

My cousin is having his annual party tomorrow. Today is pretty much consumed with graduation practice, the kids packing, and graduation, so I made the four pies I promised Georgia yesterday.

Pies lined up on my kitchen counter.

Georgia used to make her own pies, but now I make them for her. Her tradition is to make cornmeal and pinto bean pies for their party, so in homage Georgia, I made one cornmeal pie and one pinto bean pie. I also made a buttermilk pie–with my own homemade buttermilk! I still think that’s awesome to use all my own dairy products, so I must still be a new farmer. It shows, doesn’t it? The starry eyes. I can’t help it.

I also made my take on a sour cream raisin pie. I didn’t have any sour cream made, but I had cream cheese and whipped cream, so I remade this classic with what I had on hand.

You can find all the recipes at the links:
Georgia’s Cornmeal Pie
Georgia’s Pinto Bean Pie
Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pie
Raisin Cream Pie

The Raisin Cream Pie requires a baked pie crust. Here are a couple tips on pre-baking pie crusts to keep them from shrinking. It has to do with patience. After you roll your pie dough out, let it rest for at least five minutes before placing in the pie plate. Once you place it in the pie plate, prick dough, and let it rest again, this time in the fridge, before baking. This allows the gluten to “rest” after you’ve worked with the dough and lessens shrinkage. While pre-baking, line the pie crust with parchment paper or lightly greased aluminum foil and use pie weights. (I use dry beans.)

To pre-bake a pie crust, bake at 450-degrees for about 10 minutes–on the lower rack. This helps make sure the crust is baked well. (I bake most pies on the bottom rack, no matter what. Prevents a soggy crust plus keeps the edges from over-browning.) Take the pie weights out about halfway through pre-baking. Try it!

Perfect pre-baked pie crust. (No shrink!)

I don’t use my “pie weight beans” for cooking beans, by the way. I save them separately and re-use them over and over as pie weight beans.

Raisin Cream Pie.

I haven’t gotten a chance to taste this completed pie yet, but I saved out a spoonful of the boiled mixture from pouring into the baked pie shell and I’m pretty sure this is about to become my new favorite pie.

So, I made all those pies and you know what? I didn’t get to take a bite of a single one of them! You know what I’m eating at that party? ALL I’m eating at that party?

PIE!!!!