Saturday, March 14, 2009

Happy 3.14 Day!

It's Pi Day! Last year, I celebrated by participating in a Pi Run. I would've done it again this year, but the weather's been finicky lately and today was drizzly and rainy. So instead I decided to bake a pie!

The day wasn't my only inspiration: tomorrow is my Mom's birthday and I wanted to make something sweet for her; also, I had a recipe for a pecan and walnut pie that I really wanted to try out. The recipe came from Katie Brown Celebrates, which I won from Bethany a few months ago.


Ingredients:
1 8oz. package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 (10-inch) deep-dish pie crust
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. Combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and salt in a bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and mix well. Spread this mixture into the pie crust. Combine remaining brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs with the syrup and nuts. Pour this mixture over the cream cheese layer. Bake 40-50 minutes.


This is the completed, but unbaked, pie. It's much prettier than the baked-and-cooled version, which puffed up and oozed over the sides. Good thing I had it on a baking sheet!

More Pi fun:
* a collection of pie recipes from Cake Spy
* pie songs
* Simple As 3.141592 t-shirt

How are you celebrating?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I forgot it was Pi Day! The funny thing is, I spent the entire day with my son at his Destination Imagination tournament ... the kids work on solving a long-term project with a creative solution. Pi Day is the kind of thing that would really appeal to this group, and no one mentioned it!

Ah, well! Your pie looks fantastic; I hope your mother has a great birthday celebration :) and, that's why I always put a baking sheet under my apple pie when it bakes ... it always overflows!