TWD: Giving thanks for Pies

This Thanksgiving I made two pies:

1. Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, (Pumpkin and Pecan) from Dorrie Greenspan's book, Baking, from my Home to Yours. (Catch more interpretations of this pie from Tuesdays with Dorrie, the on-line cooking group, here!)

2. An ultimate caramel apple pie by Tyler Florence. I found a video of the pie on Hulu, and the recipe is here.

I should have known that the fancy food network pie wouldn't hold a candle to Dorrie's tried and true recipes! The Pumpkin Pecan Pie was a hit, warm and crunchy and with a hint of dark rum.

The Caramel Apple Pie, while it had delicious caramel made with red wine, and a robust, flaky crust made with egg yolk, turned out watery. Kind of like a tasty, apple-y pond.

But the crust was GREAT! The yolks made it rich and flavorful... using all butter made it flaky and light. Check out the recipe above for the link.

Here are some photos of my endeavors.

I would like to draw your attention to the technique I learned for rolling out the pie crust:

Use plenty of flour on the counter when rolling, then just wrap it around your rolling pin and unroll it onto the pie!

Be gentle, folks. This sure works better than the technique of folding it into quarters, though, especially if you're like me and your crust isn't always perfectly even.

The last photo- of that delicious red-wine caramel being poured over the apples- is my favorite.

The beautiful Caramel Apple Pie photos are courtesy of Diana, and you can check out more of her photos here at flickr!

This last photo, of the Pumpkin Pecan Pie, doesn't look like much. But that brown crust is crispy and chewy, and underneath the tasty pecans lies a creamy, rum-flavored pumpkin pie filling that is not too sweet.