Some Almost Summer Baking

I made a few pies in the last week! Well, two pies and a galette. Galettes are so easy that anytime I make one I wonder why I bother with pie, but pie is impressive in a way that galettes aren’t.

I made two auction pies, a peanut butter pie with a layer of chocolate ganache and a coconut cream pie. I have made both enough at this point that I’m pretty comfortable with the process, and the PB pie is soooooo easy. Honestly, if you made this with a cookie crust, you could put the pie together in 30 minutes (and then it needs an hour chill time). If you want to try it, this is the recipe I use for the peanut butter filling. The recipe I linked to tops the pie with a raspberry meringue. I just do whipped cream. Although I have never had a slice of this pie because I have only made it for other people, I always have extra filling, so I can vouch for the filling. This is what I mean by pie being impressive:

That flaky crust and swooping whipped cream: yum, yum.

My second auction pie was a coconut cream. It looked great. Since I have started making pie, I inspect pies when I am at a restaurant that has a pie case and one conclusion I have come to is that many of these places are too stingy with their coconut topping. This is the only acceptable topping:

A Galette

A friend of mine came over for a weeknight dinner last week, and I wanted to bake something for her, so I made a strawberry galette. I’ve gotten in the habit of making galettes using this dough. This time I swapped out a third of the AP flour for whole wheat, so that gave it a bit of a nuttiness. I thought this was really good! And it came together in about an hour. Very easy, very good. It was a little leaky, but too juicy strawberries seems like a good problem to have.

A very successful baking week!

My Bonus No Bake Dessert

My dad and stepmom came over this afternoon to help us put together the BBQ they got us as a housewarming gift. They offered to help with assembly this morning and came over in the afternoon (with us having a commitment in between), so I didn’t have time to make a dessert. But I feel pretty strongly in serving dessert, so my super easy, stroke-of-genius-if-I-do-say-so-myself dessert:

If you need a quick dessert, highly recommend root beer floats!

Have a happy and restful Memorial Day weekend!