Coffee and Pie Chat January edition

Hey y'all! I have some exciting news! I've linked up with Daenel over at Living Outside the Stacks for a brand new pie along of sorts. I'm really interested in making pies and starting to learn more about baking seasonally so we came up with this fantastic idea--bake a seasonal pie monthly. And then let's chat. About anything and everything! So here's how it will work. Each month on the second Monday of the month, Daenel and I will post a pie recipe to our respective blogs and then we will take the week to bake the pie and snap some photos. And then post those pics on your blog or your social media. Then link back to our blogs. Then we'll all grab a cup of coffee and chat. Simple, right?

For January, we chose a very simple, very yummy Maple Orange Walnut Pie from Ashley English of Small Measure fame. The recipe can be found in her book A Year of Pies and so, without further ado--another pie recipe for you!

Use your favorite pie crust recipe. If you are new to pie crusts, you can see my post here for my favorite recipe. Or you can use the one from the recipe published in Ashley's book:

You will only need half a recipe for the pie crust, so you can either cut the recipe in half or make a full portion and freeze half the dough. Or make a second pie!

Pie Crust from A Year of Pies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
3/4 cup ice water

Mix the flour and salt together in a medium large bowl

Using a pastry blender or two forks, incorporate the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal (you should still have some rather large bits of butter when you are done).

Slowly drizzle in the ice water. Stir with a large spoon until the dough begins to clump.

Transfer the dough onto a floured work surface and, using your hands, fold it into itself until all of the flour is incorporated into the fats. The dough should come together easily but should not feel overly sticky.

Divide the dough in half, shape into two balls, and pat each ball into a 1/2-inch thick disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Proceed according to the pie recipe instructions.

For the Filling:
3 large eggs
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup maple syrup
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 1/3 cups walnuts, chopped
whipped cream, for serving (optional)

preheat the oven to 375F oven

Prepare the crust:
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface and fit it into a 9-inch pie pan. Trim the crust overhang to 1 inch and crimp the edges decoratively. Place in the refrigerator

Prepare the filling:
Beat together eggs, brown sugar, flour, maple syrup, butter, salt, orange zest, and orange extract in a medium sized bowl.

Stir in the chopped nuts.

Assemble the Pie:
Pour the filling mixture into the chilled crust. Set the pie pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the pie comes out clean.

Cool completely before serving.

And that's it. It is so easy. Don't feel like tackling a homemade pie crust? Buy one! But I do urge you to make a crust at some point. It's really easy and fun. And the possibilities are endless.

And I didn't use orange extract. I just started making my own extracts and they are not ready yet so I just used almond extract. So feel free to experiment. I do believe this is my new favorite pie. It might replace pecan pie. Nah! The Mister won't ever give up pecan pie!

I hope you all will join us in this new coffee and pie chat venture. I'm really excited to see what you all come up with!! Until next Monday then friends!

PS This post contains affiliate links