Best Dessert Secrets

Are you curious about my most requested desserts? Well, the most popular ones are my signature vanilla cake for events and red velvet cake balls for casual occasions. But, there is one other dessert that stands above the others, especially in the summer, and that is... banana cream pie!

What makes this refreshing treat so amazing? I'm going to share the love and spill some of my secrets!

Your average banana cream pie is layered in a standard pastry pie shell. The buttery, flaky crust can be good, but I think my Nilla Wafer crumb crust elevates the banana cream pie to a new level.

It's like taking the best parts of a southern banana pudding and transforming them into a masterpiece. Don't forget the added bonus that a crumb crust is so much easier to make than a pastry crust! You never have to worry that your ingredients won't be cold enough or that you've over mixed the dough. Just mix, press, and bake.

The vanilla custard filling of a banana cream pie is pretty simple. I promise there is no need to cheat with a boxed pudding mix. Use a recipe that incorporates real ingredients like milk, sugar, and egg yolks, and you're on your way to a good pie. For that extra special touch, I use real vanilla beans scraped right out of the pod instead of vanilla extract. Speaking of vanilla beans, I buy them in bulk online and have used them to make my own vanilla extract, too. You should give it a try.

And by all means, please make your own fresh whipped cream! It really is worth the extra effort to get that light, fluffy, not too sweet topping to finish off your pie.

If you still think you're not cut out for cooking, I can always make this delicious pie for you. :)

Patriotic Blueberry Pie

Publix had an awesome sale on blueberries the week before July 4th.. they were $1.50/pint, plus they had a $1.50/off one pack coupon online, so I actually got one pack free. Anyway, I bought a bunch of them, and had to think of something to do with them... so, I decided on pie.

I'm not really a pie maker. Actually, I've only made a few, ever. I think I made a pumpkin one, banana cream, and frozen peanut butter chocolate before, and that's probably it. And I don't think any of those had a homemade pastry crust. Well, this one doesn't either. I did cheat and go the frozen ready made crust route, but someday, when I have counter space, I'll try out a real one.

I looked around at many recipes online, and this is probably the closest to what I actually did: Allrecipes Blueberry Pie

The stars weren't my idea either, I saw that from a different recipe, although I did use 3 different size stars instead of all uniform.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

4 cups fresh blueberries

3-4 tablespoons cornstarch

a little water to mix the cornstarch with

3/4 cup sugar

Dash salt

1 squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Pie crust, ready and chilled

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375 degrees

- Mix cornstarch with water, then add sugar, salt, cinnamon, and the blueberries to a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the sauce begins to thicken. Let cool while you work with the crust.

- Line pie dish with one pie crust. If you're going to do any design with the top, keep the bottom crust in the fridge, and cut out your designs from the top crust. You can use cookie cutters for shapes (I used a 3 pack of different sized star shaped fondant cutters), a knife to cut stripes, etc.

- Pour berry mixture into the crust and lay out your top crust (if not using a design, cut a few slits for steam vents). Crimp and flute edges if desired.

- Bake pie for 30-45 minutes, or until crust is golden

brown. Store bought thinner pie crusts take the lower amount of time and may need foil tented around it to keep from burning. If your crust is thick, you probably don't need to precook the filling, just bake the pie longer.

- Let pie sit a few hours before cutting.

Notes: Initially I used a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg as well, because many recipes did that, but I left it out of this recipe because I think it would be better without it. You can also do an egg wash on the crust, but I was too lazy.

This pie was amazing heated up and topped with Blue Bell white chocolate almond ice cream. It was also pretty good cold.