Pie Society

For the Pocketful of Chocolate girl, ending the year with a bang means ending the year with something delicious. And there's nothing better than a warm apple pie, hot out of the oven, topped with cream, and shared around the family table. This is my go-to, fail-safe, drool-inducing apple pie, with a secret ingredient in the crust: gruyere.


About four and a half years ago, ABC launched "Pushing Daisies." The show was set in a whimsical, fantastical world full of saturated colors, musical characters, and plenty of pie. Heaven, of course, for those of us who dream of pastries at night. The show was canceled, but I will never forget Charlotte Charles' genius creation: apple pie with gruyere in the crust and homeopathic mood inhancers in the filling. Sadly, I've opted out of the latter, but I guarantee that the gruyere is enough to lift your spirits. It makes for a particularly flaky, rich crust -- not too cheesy, but just savory enough to balance the sweetness of the apples. You can find the recipe at Rice and Spice.

I baked this pie for our Christmas dinner, topped with some homemade orange-flavored whipped cream (Alas, I had forgotten my electric mixer when I came home, which meant whisking the darn thing by hand until my arm nearly fell off). It was a hit, even with my toughest critic: my two-year-old cousin, Katherine. You can be sure that her big cousin is starting her culinary training early. She has already begun to develop an appreciation for Nutella -- a girl after my own heart.