Thanksgiving Pie Picks from Saturday Nights In and Skinny Cook Problems

A few weeks ago, we became Twitter friends with an adorable couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma who also happen to write a newlywed cooking blog. Oh, the internet :) Excited to share this in common, we decided to collaborate on an upcoming post and thought that one about Thanksgiving pies, in particular, would be perfect. We each set out on a search to find and bake two unique pie recipes - theirs with a Southern twist and ours with a New York twist. While we know it's the week before the holiday and your menu is probably all set and ready to go, take a peek at these four pies for some last minute inspiration. They range in difficulty from easy to advanced, but you won't be able to tell which is which! They all turned out molto delicioso! The two recipes we chose are below with notes and you can find the two that Skinny Cook Problem's chose here: http://skinnycookproblems.wordpress.com/

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Newlywed Note

Maple Pumpkin Brulee Pie:

We're huge pumpkin pie lovers, but after years of making the same one, we really wanted to find a recipe with an edge - enter this one. We loved the maple syrup addition and the fact that it had the word 'brulee' in it :) This is definitely a fancy recipe and calls for fancy ingredients. Feel free to substitute some of them, including tools - a.k.a. we used a broiler instead of a blowtorch (I mean, really- who has one of those lying around)? We used this basic, homemade crust recipe for both of our pies. It was simple and managebale as far as pie crusts go - just make sure you cover the crust in tin foil before broiling so it doesn't burn. Overall, this recipe was relatively easy and impressive!

Sugared Cranberry & Vanilla Pudding Pie:

We chose this recipe mainly because it looked gorgeous. But note - we replaced the lemon curd with vanilla pudding to ease up with process and because neither of us are big lemon pie lovers. The best part of this pie, hands down, is the sugared cranberry topping. It literally looks and tastes like Christmas. And the cool thing is, once you've drained the cranberries, the liquid you're left with makes for a great simple syrup. A perfect excuse for a signature holiday cocktail!