Recipes By Erin Jeanne Mcdowell

78 recipes found

Perfect Pie Crust
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Perfect Pie Crust

This classic dough contains no special ingredients, just flour, salt, butter and water, but it works like a dream. The recipe makes a single crust for a 9-inch pie; simply double it to make a double-crust pie. (If you make it by hand, you can even triple or quadruple the recipe.) If you’d prefer to use a food processor, you can, and it’s a good idea if you have warm hands. To do so, pulse the butter into the flour mixture a few times, until the butter is the size of walnut halves or peas, then transfer the mixture to a medium bowl and proceed with adding the water. (Adding the water in the food processor often leads to hydration problems and overmixing, which is why you should do that part by hand no matter what.) The dough keeps in the refrigerator for up to 2 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months (thaw it overnight in the refrigerator before rolling it out).

30m1 single crust for a 9-inch pie
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bundt Cake
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Chocolate-Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

This cake version of a peanut butter cup boasts moist devil’s food cake wrapped around a soft, peanut buttery cake core. The peanut butter cake batter will stay nicely centered if you enlist the help of a resealable plastic bag or pastry bag to pipe it into a ring in the middle of the batter, but you don’t need to be so exacting. If that feels too fancy, spooning it in will yield equally delicious results. The cake is nicely sweet on its own, but take it over the top by adding peanut butter and chocolate glazes. Keep the glazes thin so that they’re fluid enough not only to evenly coat the surface and run own the sides of the cake, but also so they combine and marble together to make Instagram-worthy swirls.

2h 30mOne 10-inch cake
Pumpkin Skillet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
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Pumpkin Skillet Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Fall in simple skillet cake form, this easy pumpkin cake that can be made in one bowl. The frosting is fluffier and comes together more quickly with the help of an electric mixer, but it can be mixed by hand in a pinch. It's also great without a drop of frosting.

40m8 to 10 servings
Cranberry Herringbone Pie
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Cranberry Herringbone Pie

This pie is both sweet and slightly tart, with deep flavors of citrus and warm spices to complement the cranberries, and a showstopper of a lattice on top. The process for weaving the herringbone pattern looks quite long below, but if you follow the instructions and watch the video here (or check out this photo album), you’ll get the hang of it quickly — and you’ll have a seriously impressive end result. The filling, which comes together easily, can be made up to 2 days ahead, but the pie is best served the day it is baked.

2h8 to 10 servings
Citrus Custard Pie
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Citrus Custard Pie

This citrus custard in this pie is undeniably creamy, but it’s made more luxurious with a layer of whipped cream on top. It’s finished with raw strips of citrus zest — you can candy them in simple syrup, if you like, though it’s not necessary — which create an exuberant design to finish the pie. It can be baked a day ahead, but the raw citrus zest will begin to curl within an hour or two, so it’s best to apply it just before serving.

2h8 to 10 servings
Berry Apple-Butter Pie
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Berry Apple-Butter Pie

The deliciously tart apple butter filling in this pie has a deep rosy color, bolstered by raspberries and blackberries. Apples with darker red skins will produce a filling that contrasts beautifully with the decorative golden brown crust: We opted to top the pie with triangle cutouts, but you could use any shape, or even substitute a woven lattice. You can make the apple butter up to 5 days ahead and refrigerate it in an airtight container, but the pie itself is best the day it is made. Store leftovers at room temperature, tightly covered with plastic wrap.

2h8 to 10 servings