Chocolate Chili Chess Pie with Liquored Pie Dough

When Heather Earnhardt opened her cafe, The Wandering Goose, in Seattle, she added a little bit of Southern charm and comfort to the city. From her childhood in the South with her close-knit family comes this collection of traditional Southern favorites that makes use of all of the delicious food ingredients available here in the Pacific Northwest. Her specialty is her biscuits - both sweet and savory - as well as traditional Southern fare such as pickles, fried chicken, grits, cakes and this luscious Chocolate Chili Chess Pie with Liquored Pie Dough. This delicious recipe comes from Heather L. Earnhardt's Big Food Big Love: Down Home Southern Cooking Full of Heart of Seattle's Wandering Goose. From the Author: "Chocolate Pecan Pie is one of my favorites, but I wanted a spicy version without nuts. I love the balance of sweet and spicy heat. After your first bite, the chili spice lingers a few moments but is not too overpowering, and the hint of cinnamon adds a nice warmth. Serve this with a big dollop of Whipped Cream. This pie dough will most likely make more than you need, but keep it in the freezer so you can pop it out to defrost and within a few minutes have a homemade crust ready for a sweet or savory pie. You can use a food processor or a stand mixer. If using a stand mixer, just be sure not to over-mix the dough once you add the water or vodka. Use ice water if you don't have vodka, or half vodka and half water if you don't have a lot of vodka."

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Umami Apple Pie

An essential cookbook on our shelves is The Flavour Principle: Enticing Your Senses With Food And Drink. This cookbook, containing recipes from around the world, focuses on the fundamentals of flavor and suggests pairings to complement the unique tastes of each dish. One of our favorite recipes is this exceptional umami apple pie, which uses white cheddar in the crust for another delicious sweet & savory pairing.From the Author: "One issue I have with apple pies is that the apples are not soft and juicy enough. To avoid that, I use several different kinds of apples, some hard and some soft, and precook them for a few minutes to just soften."

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Sri Lankan Sweet Potato Pie

Our holiday motto? Don't skimp on the sweets! And add ambrosial spices whenever possible... As such, this incredible sweet potato pie is a must for our Thanksgiving menu because it does both. We adapted this recipe to feature our Sri Lankan Curry, which has none of the savory turmeric that we often expect in our curries, but is instead made up of a melange of warm, sweet spices. Each component is individually toasted before being mixed in perfect proportion, yielding an intensely dark and aromatic blend so intoxicating that most customers who give it a whiff can't leave without it. The sweet potatoes are a perfect canvas for the deep, toasted flavors of the spice, with just a pop of orange zest added for contrast. The crust is a dense, almost shortbread-like shell made with chopped pecans for a special crunch. This pie will please all who grace your autumn table!

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Chinese Five Spiced Apple-Carrot Pie

Tender carrots are surprisingly sweet when baked in a brown sugar syrup, especially when united with perfect Washington apples and plump little raisin gems. The fresh ginger is a classic pairing with the carrot, and is highlighted perfectly by the Star Anise in our Chinese Five Spice. The all-butter crust recipe I've included is a long-time standby of mine, and produces some of the flakiest and best pastry I've ever tasted. It will definitely be making an appearance at my Thanksgiving table this year!

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