My triple berry oatmeal cookie pie, that's what!
If you're looking for a thoroughly tested, tried and true recipe, well - this isn't it! Nope, this is a pie thrown together from ingredients on hand that I knew would taste good together. Sometimes... baking isn't a science (but only sometimes).
As I grew more interested in food when I was a teenager my Mom and I would play this little game of, "what's in this?" By carefully tasting and savoring our food we would decipher the herbs and spices used by restaurants. We would test each other at home depending on who made dinner (I loved it when I could stump my Mom, who has an amazing palate). Mom taught me about classic flavor profiles and the marriage between food and finesse. Years later during culinary school we had an exam that consisted of correctly identifying over 100 herbs, spices and sauces simply by smell and appearance. I finished the exam in about eight minutes.
That's how I tend to cook at home when I'm not working on a recipe. I look and see what we have and mentally complete the puzzle pieces into a cohesive dish. I'm not saying everything I make is fantastic - but 9 times out of 10 we eat some darn tasty meals. This pie is no different. If I were going to give you a recipe it would read:
leftover oatmeal cookie dough
blueberries
blackberries
raspberries
lemon
sugar
cinnamon
cornstarch
butter
Bake at 350º F until done.
I baked the oatmeal cookie dough in the morning and in the evening I ground it in the food processor with enough butter to form a sticky crust. I pressed that into a pie dish. Washed the berries and tossed them with the juice and zest of one lemon, sugar and cinnamon to taste, and cornstarch to eyeball. Baked the whole thing until I felt it was done (50 minutes) and let it cool completely.
Sometimes as cooks (and bloggers) we get caught up in doing everything perfectly. Sometimes novice cooks get caught up in the fear of failure. But sometimes just throwing it all together and hoping for the best is not only liberating, it's delicious.
This counts as oatmeal with berries for breakfast, right?
Enjoy!
I want to eat this for breakfast toooooo...
ReplyDeleteOh yes! It does count as breakfast. Sure would be a tasty afternoon treat or dessert after dinner too. Thanks for sharing this and giving hope to those who throw things together with what they have on hand.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly how I cook! It's so hard to remember that I *sometimes need to measure things because not everyone cooks this way. What a great pie, I love it! You must have an amazing palate to get through that test so quickly.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is a good breakfast food, but you need some dairy so add ice cream! Love, Bunny
ReplyDeleteLove this kind of success and I love the sweet mom daughter story. Looks amazing but obviously would expect nothing less out of you lady!
ReplyDeleteThis is lovely! I agree that we often get caught up in perfection and loose some of our creative spirit in the process. Thanks for the reminder that sometimes you just have to go with it!
ReplyDeleteYum!! This is my kind of pie, I LOVE the mixture of oats and berries. Also, that's pretty cool how you can place different tastes and textures together so easily :)
ReplyDeleteI love the color of the filling! I'm sure this would be great for breakfast! Can't go wrong with cookie dough and fresh fruit!
ReplyDeleteHoly smokes! You're a cooking super genius. When I throw stuff together it NEVER looks this good :)
ReplyDeleteBUZZED!
It looks yummy!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds wonderful. Great idea with grinding oatmeal cookies. I am going to do that for the next pie I throw together.
ReplyDeleteThis pie sounds delicious! Berry pies are my favorite and marrying them with a delicious oatmeal cookie crust is genious :)!
ReplyDeleteSweet story about your mom. We'll be having our breakfasts at your house from now on. :)
ReplyDeleteI love recipes like this that you just throw together with whatever you have. Sometimes those turn out to be the best! Great game with your mom...it definitely helped you I'm sure!
ReplyDeletewhat a great reminder that baking and cooking doesn't always need a recipe and a plan; it is so freeing to be able to whip something up on a whim just based on what you already know. i love this pie idea! oatmeal and fruit are so amazing together, and this makes me want to do some experimenting of my own. :)
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