jennifer, Author at Hopeful Homemaker

Vanilla Pie

March 5, 2011 jennifer Desserts

My husband and my Dad both love the flavor of vanilla. My Dad has loved it as long as I can remember; my husband has acquired a preference for it in the past year or so. When I saw a recipe for vanilla pie, I had to try it. I tried it for National Pie Day, actually.

You’ll need pastry for one 9 inch pie crust.

For the filling:

1/2 cup white sugar 2 Tb. flour 1 egg, well beaten 1 cup maple syrup 1 cup water 1 tsp. vanilla For the topping:

3/4 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup butter 3/4 cup flour 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. baking powder Place all ingredients for the filling in a heavy sauce pan and cook over medium heat until thick. Whisk every minute or so. (The recipe said about 5 minutes but mine took longer than that). Set aside to cool.

Combine ingredients for the topping in a bowl and cut with pastry blender or knives to make pea-sized crumbs.

Place pie crust in pie pan. When filling is cooled, pour into pie shell. Top with crumb mixture.

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until nicely browned.

Our conclusion was that this pie tastes a lot like pecan pie but without the nuts. My husband like it a lot, especially because he dislikes pecans. It was a hit with the entire family and will definitely go on our list of delicious pies.

This pie tastes great served warm or cold, and of course it’s even better with some good vanilla ice cream.

Recipe from Sweetapolita .

Pecan Praline French Toast

March 4, 2011 jennifer Breakfast

Mmmmm. I saw this recipe in Southern Living magazine and had to try it.

You know how much I love make-ahead breakfasts. This one was prepped in about 5 minutes. Even better than that was my family’s response: delicious.

Ingredients:

1 loaf french bread 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup butter, melted 2 Tb. maple syrup 3/4 cup chopped pecans 4 large eggs 1 cup milk 2 Tb. granulated sugar 1 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 tsp. vanilla extract Put it together:

Cut ten (1 inch thick) slices of bread. Stir together brown sugar, melted butter and maple syrup. Pour into a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle pecans over brown sugar mixture.

Whisk together eggs, milk, granulated sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. Arrange bread slices over pecans, then pour egg mixture over bread. Cover and refrigerate for 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

My kids liked to drizzle a bit of the brown sugar sauce from the bottom of the pan on top of their french toast. You could add whipped cream to this dish as well, but we tried it as is and liked it a lot. One of my boys commented that it was more dessert than breakfast, and that he’d eat it with ice cream. It is very sweet, but I don’t mind occasionally serving a pan of this alongside the massive amounts of eggs I have to cook to feed my little crowd. And because there are so many of us, we all ate just one piece. Perfect.

The weekend is here. This dish would be a fun surprise to greet your family with on Saturday morning. I hope you like it as much as we did!