Inside the Gnomie Recipe Box: Take & Bake Pie Crust Edition!

Here are two recipes made by our fabulous Muddy's gnomies using our frozen Take & Bake pie crust, now available at our East Memphis shop!

HUGE thanks to East Memphis Shopkeeper Andrea for detailing her experience with our all-butter pie crust on her quiche baking journey, and Midtown gnomie Andrew for letting us be the perfect base to his family's (formerly secret) seasonal pie tradition!

Andrea's Mustard Greens, Kale, & Feta Quiche

My husband and I love making quiche and savory pies, but we haven’t had much luck with making pie crust.  I am not alone in this sentiment. Pie crust often is the Achilles heel of any pie endeavor. On more than one occasion, I have uttered, “if only Muddy’s sold pie crusts!” After two years of wishing for a better pie crust, I now can use Muddy’s Take & Bake pie crusts for my own pie creations!   One of the most rewarding aspects of Muddy’s homemade pie crusts is the crimping style. Having worked now for Muddy’s over two years, crimping is a baker’s signature, a design style that speaks to his or her craftsmanship and skill.  Each pie has its own signature much like your grandmother’s or great aunt’s famous holiday pies. Each quiche I now prepare starts with a homemade traditional flair of the baker who prepared it. I savor each bite all the more. Now that pie crusts are at my fingertips, my husband and I have made two quiches, one a week: a mustard greens, kale and feta quiche and a mustard greens, tomato, and smoked Gouda quiche. Each quiche baked beautifully brown and flaky. To get started, the instructions for baking Muddy’s Take & Bake pie crust are at www.muddysbakeshop.com/pages/fun.

Here’s a quiche recipe to get you dreaming about pie possibilities this season: 

Ingredients:
• 2 tbsp oil (we used avocado but choose your favorite cooking oil!)
• ½ large onion, diced
• 1 bunch greens (kale & mustard greens), chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 slices bacon (thick-cut), pan fried and crumbled
• 4 oz crumbled feta (feta in brine and then crumbled is cheese heaven!)
• 2oz shredded mozzarella (low moisture)
• 1 cup milk (whole or 2%)
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions: Partial Blind bake Muddy’s Take & Bake pie crust at 375° for 15 minutes. While that buttery pie crust is baking, sauté diced onions in oil until slightly soft and transparent. Add garlic and crushed pepper and sauté with onions for a minute more. Add chopped greens and vegetable broth to the onions. Sweat the greens for about 5 minutes or until wilted and soft. While the greens are sautéing, in a separate bowl, add eggs, milk, and smoked paprika and beat. Add salt and Pepper to your liking and the crumbled feta. You will not regret this! Once greens have cooked down, add the greens to the egg mixture. Remove pie crust from the oven and brush with egg wash. Pour the greens and egg mixture into Muddy’s Take & Bake pie crust. Bake at 350° for about 45 minutes and be prepared to want to eat at least two slices for brunch!

This is a pie that my family has always made while I was growing up.  Every single summer we would have this strawberry jello pie like AS SOON as we saw that strawberry season had begun! It is a very easy recipe too which I think adds to the fun of it, because not only does it taste amazing, it’s just like 5 steps! I’ve always had it with graham cracker crust, but I knew strawberry jello pie in a Muddy’s pie crust would be absolutely stellar.  Also, what a perfect last hurrah for the summer season!

The recipe is SUPER easy and goes as follows:

Ingredients:

• 1 Muddy’s Take and Bake Pie Crust
• 1 tbsp strawberry jello
• 1 cup hot water
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
• Cool whip

Instructions:

Follow the recipe for blind baking the Muddy’s pie crust. After that is done baking, let it cool while you mix the jello, hot water, cornstarch, and sugar in a saucepan and cook until thick over medium heat on the stove. Cut off the leafy ends of the strawberries and slice into fairly thick slices. Remove jello mixture from heat and allow to cool. Layer strawberries into pie crust, and pour the jello mixture over the strawberries. Refrigerate until ready to serve.  Dollop with cool whip and enjoy! 

Partial Blind baking is a new term and bit of a new experience for me.  The instructions call to lightly prick the bottom of the crust with a fork six times. We weren’t sure what “lightly” looked like, but Muddy’s pie crust while frozen is sturdy and soft. I could use the fork firmly. Once we pricked the bottom of the crust, we lined the pie with foil and emptied a bag of lentils into the pie crust. Are baking lentils different than regular cooking lentils?  They are not! We plan to keep and reuse the lentils again for the next quiche recipe.   After 15 minutes of initial baking, we removed the pie from the oven, lifted the foil with lentils, poured our greens/onions, and feta egg mixture into the pie crust. When we first removed the pie crust after only 15 minutes of baking, I was worried that the pie dough would fall apart as it was very soft to the touch; however, Muddy’s pie crust is very sturdy. We had nothing to worry about. I brushed with a bit of egg wash comprised of one egg yolk and a bit of milk. We followed the quiche recipe and voila, a deliciously scrumptious flaky quiche with a pie crust that will have you dreaming about new ways to fill that buttery goodness every single week. And I have started to dream. While summer is waning, pie season has arrived.