Self-Crusting Pumpkin Pie

The latest book to reach my hands from my Cook My Book group was The Los Angeles Times California Cookbook. Originally published in 1981, the book has a nostalgic feel, and the pumpkin pie recipe is no exception.

Based on the "Impossible" pies made famous by Bisquick, this pumpkin pie is a little lighter, creamier, and fluffier than the typical super-dense pumpkin pie.

I have a few cracks and wrinkles on top of the pie, so it wasn't the prettiest thing in the world - but let's face it, once it's sliced, no one will know - particularly if you serve it with whipped cream. And, your pie might be prettier, since I live at high altitude and baking results can be different from what you'd get closer to sea level.

While the recipe claimed that this pie made its own crust, don't be looking for something as thick as a typical crust. But, amazingly, it was enough crust to keep the slices of pie together. While I love flaky pastry crust, I thought this was a nice departure from the usual.

Impossible Pumpkin Pie
Adapted from The Los Angeles Times California Cookbook

1 1/3 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter, softened
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bisquick
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray a 9" pie pan with baking spray or oil. Or butter the pan.

Combine all of the pie ingredients in a blender an blend until well-mixed and smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted halfway between the edge and center of the pie comes out clean.

Remove the pie from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack until it's room temperature, then refrigerate until fully chilled.

Pi Day! 55 Pies and Pie-inspired recipes

Cheesecake is more pie than cake!

Today is Pi Day, the perfect combination of geekiness and foodieness. Perfect for me!

Not only is it Pi Day, but some folks are calling it the Pi Day of the Century, because when we tack the year onto the date, we get the first five digits of Pi.

If you go a step further, and your clock reads 9:26, then you've got two more digits. And that's the time I scheduled this to post.

Might as well add another 53 seconds, so we've got a really long string of numbers. Really long. I'm lucky I can remember 3.1415. But there it is, 3.141592653. Or, 3/14/15 9:26:53.

I was going to bake a pie, but them I figured it would be fun to recap the pie recipes I already published on this blog. I started off looking for basic sweet pies, then decided to add tarts as well. Tarts led to cheesecake - which is more pie than cake - and then I decided to add pie crust recipes as well.

While I was searching, I ran across a few recipes that were inspired by pie - both food and cocktail recipes. So I decided to add those. And savory pies, as well.

And then came the quiche. That's like pie, too.

At that point, I already had 55 recipes. Yikes, that a LOT OF PIE.

I considered adding pizza as well. I mean, I've got a lot of pretty pizza recipes, like this colorful pizza that features pretty purple potatoes.

I mean, some people call it pizza "pie," so it almost made sense to include the pizzas ... but I decided it was time to quit.

So, for this roundup, we'll call pizza a flatbread and leave it for another day. I hope you enjoy this stroll down Cookistry's memory lane of pie. It was fun for me to look back - and I'll be honest that some of the old photos and styling aren't my best. But the recipes are all good, I promise!

Fruit Pies and Tarts

Apple Cheesecake Custard Pie

Apple Crostata with Cinnamon Pastry

Apple Crumb Tart

Apple Crumb Pie

Apple Tart

Freaky Good Apple Tart

TSA Apple Tart

Blueberry Pie

Blueberry Pie

Mini Peach Pies

Pear and Apple Tart

Plum Jam Crostata

Rum Raspberry Tart

Stone Fruit Pie

Strawberry Cream Cheese Crumble Tart

Sweet and Creamy Pies and Tarts

Almond Butter Cream Cheese Tart

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Chocolate Hazelnut Tart

Key Lime Pie

Nightcap Tart

Pumpkin Cream Pie

Savory Pies and Tarts 

Beef and Potato Pie

Chicken and Turkey "Shepherd's" Pie

French Onion Quiche

Mini Cheddar Quiche Bites

Ricotta Tart

Savory Cream Cheese Bites

Savory Tomato and Zucchini Pie

Tuna Pot Pie

Vegetable Tart

Cheesecakes

Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake

Cheesecake from A Well Seasoned Kitchen

Mini Cheesecake Bites

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecake

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Muffin-Cup Cheesecakes

Paul Brezinki's Cheesecake

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

Pressure Cooker Cheesecake

Slow Cooker Cheesecake

Snickers-Inspired Cheesecake

Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Pie Crusts

Chocolate Cookies for Crumb Crust

Pie Crust (several recipes)

Ratio Pie Crust

Sweet Pastry Dough

Food Inspired by Pie

An Ode to Boston Cream Pie

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls

Apple Pie Oatmeal

Blueberry Cake-Pie Cheesecake Bars

Peach and Apricot Crisps

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

Pie-Flavored Cocktails

Apple Pie a la Mode

Apple Pie in a Glass

Tart Cherry Pie Liqueur

Got Pie? Feel free to leave links to your creations in the comments!

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Let's be honest. I don't buy a lot of cookbooks these days. I get a lot of books for review, and there are only so many hours in a day and only so many burners on the stove and only so many feet of floor space where I can pile unread books.

So I don't need to buy a whole lot of books.

However, I did buy The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook by Cheryl Day and Griffith Day. Well, technically I guess I didn't buy it since I used a gift card and not money that I earned, but the book didn't come from the publisher or PR people. And I could have used that gift card to buy a vat of lard or something.

Anyway, I like the idea of classic, old-time recipes, and this book certainly seemed to fit that category. In no time at all, I had bookmarked cinnamon-sugar-doughnut muffins, baked eggs, cinnamon - sour cream coffee cake, buttermilk chess pie, butter mints, and rustic cheddar pecan rounds ... just for starters.

I picked Buttermilk Chess Pie for my first try. For one thing, I had buttermilk on hand that I bought for a different recipe. For another, I'd heard of chess pie, but I'd never made one. It sounded like it was about time to make one.

I used my own pie crust rather than one in the book, but otherwise I followed the directions.

Except ... oops! I overcooked the pie. Not the fault of the recipe, but the fault of my inattention. Although it was obviously overcooked, it was still pretty darned tasty, which is a credit to the recipe. It was sweet, tart, creamy, and lemony. It wasn't as sort of smooth as it should have been, but I caught it before it was curdled and ruined.

Buttermilk Chess Pie
Adapted from The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook bu Cheryl Day and Griffith Day

Oops. A little over-baked. but still good.

1 pie crust, unbaked
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 tablespoons room temperature butter
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal
Pin of salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Have the pie crust (home made or store bought) ready in a pie plate. Let it rest in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Have a rack in the lower third of your oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or you can use a hand mixer) cream the sugar and butter until light in color. I never got it to "cream" at all - the sugar remained fluffy and sandy. But I continued, anyway.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the flour, cornmeal and salt and beat until well combined.

Add the buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Mix until combined.

Prick the bottom of the crust with a fork, then pour the filling into the crust. Place the pie into the oven on that bottom rack and bake for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 325 degrees and bake for and additional 45 to 55 minutes, until the custard is golden brown and set around the edges but the center is still jiggly. It will firm up as it cools.

Let the pie cool at least 2 hours before slicing. Store in the refrigerator.

Apple Crumb Pie - Did I mention CHEDDAR in the crumb topping? #HolidayHosting #PieWeek

Do you love apple pie? Me too!

So when I got an offer to work with Anolon (again!), and the first item to work with was a nonstick pie pan ... well I knew I was going to make a pie. I thought about cherry but then decided on apple.

And then I decided on an apple crumb pie, since that's the first type of pie I ever made, from a recipe in one of my mother's cookbooks.

But of course, this one is completely different.

Well, it has apples. And crumbs. But it also has cheddar cheese. See the flecks of orange among the crumbs? And one more ingredient I can guarantee mom never had in her pantry. You'll have to check the recipe to see what that is!

Yeah, that's pretty good right there.

Now look at that interior.

Don't you just want to take a bite? Yes, you do! Here's a fork!

You'll find the entire recipe over on Anolon's website. It's waiting for you RIGHT HERE.

Oh, but that's not all! I have a MEGA-GIVEAWAY for you.

Over the course of six weeks, I'll be developing six different recipes specifically for the Anolon products. Or, actually, there are five more recipes after this one. But six total.

And I have ALL SIX Anolon items to give away. The same ones I got. And I'm giving all six to ONE PERSON. Isn't that AWESOME???

I'm pretty excited about this, because I LOVE Anolon products - I've already got some of their cookware, and I use it all the time, and I'm super-excited about the new stoneware and cast iron items.

And Anolon is having their own giveaways, so be sure to stalk them during this 6-week promotion!

The six items I am giving away are:

Anolon Advanced Pie Pan 

Anolon Vesta Stoneware 9x13” Baker in Paprika Red

Anolon Nouvelle Copper Hard Anodized 10” Covered Skillet 

Anolon Nouvelle Copper Stainless Steel 3Qt Covered Sauté 

Anolon Advanced Umber 3.5Qt Covered Chef’s Pan

Anolon Vesta Cast Iron 4Qt Oval Covered Casserole in Paprika Red 

Yes, ALL of that to ONE LUCKY WINNER!

The giveaway starts when this post goes live and will end on December 26 at midnight, mountain time. US winners only. The giveaway widget will post with each week's recipe, and I will add NEW ways to enter each week related to the week's new post, like new tweets and new pins. So make sure you come back every week and see what I've made, and ENTER TO WIN!

Want more Anolon in your life?

Like Anolon on Facebook

Follow Anolon on Twitter at @Anolon

Follow Anolon on Pinterest.

Follow Anolon on Instagram.

This post is sponsored by Anolon. They supplied products for my use as well as compensation for recipe creation. They are also providing the prizes for the contest winner. Although I was paid to create a recipe, all words and ideas are my own.

Pie Crust

That's it. Just crust.

In a food processor.

Ideally, everything should be as cold as possible. You can use mostly-frozen butter, if you like. Then, move fast. You want the butter to remain in itty-bitty pieces rather than mixing into the flour.

The larger the butter pieces, the larger and more layered the crust will be - like a puff pastry crust. But if the butter chunks are large, they also need to be very very flat.

I've made pie crust doughs where the butter was visible as dime-sized, super thin layers, and I've made crusts where the butter seemed to be nothing more than tiny flecks. And I've made pie crusts with liquid oil instead of a solid fat. It's all a matter of taste.

Pie Crust 1

6 ounces (a shy 1 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vodka
3 tablespoons very cold water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in the processor and pulse a few times to mix it up.

Cut the butter into a a bunch of chunks and add it to the food processor. Pulse a few times to break up and distribute the pieces.

Combine the vodka and water. With the processor running add this. When the dough starts clumping together, you're done. You can pulse a few times if you've got flour that's not quite incorporated, but this should should happen very quickly. You don't want to combine the butter with the dough - you want it to remain in itty-bitty pieces.

Transfer the dough to a plastic zip-top bag, flatten the dough (it chills faster) and refrigerate for at least an hour, but up to a few days.

Continue with whatever recipe you're making.

Pie Crust 2
Slightly larger crust, a little sweeter

2 cups (9 ounces) all purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup very cold water

Put the flour, sugar and salt in the processor and pulse a few times to mix it up.

Add the shortening and process until it disappears into the flour.

Cut the butter into a a bunch of chunks and add it to the food processor. Pulse a few times to break up and distribute the pieces. There shouldn't be any large chunks, but you've got a lot more processing about to happen, so it's fine if there are visible pieces.

Combine the vanilla and water. With the processor running add this. When the dough starts clumping together, you're done. You can pulse a few times if you've got flour that's not quite incorporated, but this should should happen very quickly. You don't want to combine the butter with the dough - you want it to remain in itty-bitty pieces.

Transfer the dough to a plastic zip-top bag, flatten the dough (it chills faster) and refrigerate for at least an hour, but up to a few days.

Continue with whatever recipe you're making.

Apple Cheesecake Custard Pie

I found a really interesting apple pie recipe in a community cookbook - it was an apple pie with what sounded sort of like a custard filling. Sort of.

To be honest, the "custard" part of the pie sounded like it might be a little too wet to set properly. But I figured I'd give it a try. What the heck...

The recipe instructions were a little untrustworthy, in other ways. For example, it said that the apples should be peeled and then pared. But ... that's the same thing.

I tried the recipe, despite all the clues that I shouldn't have, making my best attempts to interpret in between the lines. It sounded like it could have been good.

It was an unholy mess.

I started poking around online and didn't find anything close. There were some apple custard pies ... but none seemed like the correct version of the one in the community book. Many of them called for condensed milk or even sweetened condensed milk, where this one called for plain old milk. Maybe that was the issue.

I poked around a little more, and didn't find anything that was calling to me to make it.

So I decided to whip up my own custom version. The apples are cooked first, so they don't release too much moisture into the custard. And the custard itself is a little different - it's actually a bit of a cross between cheesecake and custard.

Here's a confession. I had no idea how the apples would behave. I had no idea if they were going to stay put at the bottom of the pan, or whether they'd float to the top. Well, they did float a little, but they actually distributed themselves nicely throughout the custard, so the resulting pie has layers of apples interspersed with a creamy custard-like filling.

I thought it was pretty interesting.

Speaking of pretty, it didn't cut as pretty as some pies I've made. But that's fine. The flavor made up for it.

Psssst! There's a link to a GIVEAWAY at the bottom of this post! Courtesy of Casabella.

Apple Cheesecake Custard Pie

1 recipe for a single pie crust

For the apples:
1 tablespoon butter
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
4 apples, cored, peeled, and sliced

For the cheesecake custard:
4 ounces cream cheese
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

For the topping:
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

If you're making your own crust, have it ready and chilling in the refrigerator.

To cook the apples:
Melt the butter in a saute pan. Add the salt, cinnamon, sugar, and apples. Cook until the apples are slightly softened, then turn up the heat and continue cooking until there's very little liquid left, and the liquid that is there has thickened.

Set aside to cool to room temperature. This can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until needed. You absolutely don't want to out it into the pie crust while it's warm - it should be room temperature or cooler.

To make the filling:
Use an electric mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to beat the cream cheese to soften it. Add the sugar and salt ad beat until combined. add the eggs, one at a time, beating until combined. Add the vanilla and milk and mix until combined.

Roll the pie crust to fit your pie plate, Fit it into the plate and flute the edges as desired.

Place the apples in the bottom of the pan, then add the filling mixture.

Cover the edges of the crust with pie shields to keep them from over-browning. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 325 degrees and bake another 40 minutes, or until the custard is mostly set, but it's still slightly jiggly in the center.

Note: check the browning of the crusts about 10 minutes before the pie is cooked. Removed the pie shields if you want more browning - how much it browns is going to depend in your crust recipe.

Remove the pie from the oven when it's done and let the pie plate cool on a rack until it reaches room temperature, then refrigerate until chilled.

To make the topping:
Combine the sour cream and powdered sugar. Spread over the top of the pie. Please note that I'm a huge fan of sour cream toppings ... so I might have gone just a tad overboard here. Half as much would cover the pie with a thin layer. Or, if you're a fan of sweet, then whipped cream might be more your style.

Serve.

Pumpkin Cream Pie (with a no-cook filling!)

There's a recipe for chilled, no-cook pumpkin pie that uses Cool Whip and pumpkin puree. I've been thinking about that recipe for a while. I like the idea, since it's a lot lighter than traditional pumpkin pie - which I think can be way too dense and filling, particularly after a big meal.

I love pumpkin cheesecake, but that's pretty darned rich. It can be a little fluffier and lighter on the tastebuds than traditional pumpkin pie, but it's still really really rich.

Then we have this cream pie.

Whipped cream is still cream - but it's got a lot of air. It adds a frothiness and fluffiness when it's mixed with pumpkin. But it also deflates pretty easily, which is probably why there's that Cool Whip recipe. Cool Whip doesn't deflate.

But ... although I'm fine with quite a number of prepared foods and snacky things, I just don't see the point in Cool Whip when it's so simple to whip cream - and it tastes so much better.

So, I was thinking about that recipe and thinking about how to stabilize whipped cream. Gelatin is one option, which is why I found some recipes for stabilized whipped cream that used marshmallows - it was the gelatin in the marshmallows that did the trick.

But I wanted something even easier. No cooking. Just mixing. Almost as easy as Cool Whip. So, how about instant pectin? I used it before to stabilize whipped cream that I used for a topping, but I wasn't sure what the result would be once I added pumpkin.

Turns out, it was just fine.

And then I decided to make a gingersnap and graham cracker crust for the no-bake filling. It's almost no-bake - just 10(ish) minutes in the oven to "set" the crust so it doesn't turn into crumbs when you cut it.

And then of course I made whipped cream for a garnish. Because that's how I roll.

This was the first run at this concept and I might tweak it a bit, but so far I'm pretty darned happy with the results. Feel free to taste and tweak the seasoning. This wasn't super-sweet, but that's how I like it.

This pie is best made a day ahead of serving, if you've got the patience to do that. The crust is a little bit crunchy at first, but after a day in the refrigerator, it loses the crunch but doesn't crumble when you cut it.

Pumpkin Cream Pie

For the crust:
24 gingersnaps

2 graham crackers
Pinch of salt
1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar

For the filling:
2 cups heavy cream or whipping cream
1 tablespoon instant pectin
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar
1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

For the whipped cream topping:
2 cups whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of sugar

To make the crust:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put all the crust ingredients in a food processor and process until you have wet crumbs - there shouldn't be any bits of butter, and the crumbs should be a consistent size. You can, in theory, over-process this until you have cookie butter, so don't walk away from it for too long. Just process to crumbs.

Dump the crumbs into a 9-inch pie pan and press the crumb mixture into the bottom and sides of the pan. At first, it will seem like a lot of crumbs, but it will compact a lot.

Bake the crust until it's just barely browned - about 10 minutes. Put the pan on a rack and let it cool completely.

To make the pie filling:

Put the whipped cream in a bowl and sprinkle the pectin on top. Add the vanilla extract and begin whipping. When the mixture starts to thicken, add the sugar and keep whipping until you have peaks. I did this by hand - it didn't take long - but you can use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer if you prefer.

Combine the pumpkin puree, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves in a small bowl. Mix well, then add this in several additions to the whipped cream mixture until it's well blended.

Use this to fill your prepared pie shell - this will fill a regular 9-inch shell with leftovers, if you fill it evenly - or you can mound it, if you prefer. But the leftovers make a nice mousse. I haven't measured it in a deep-dish pan, put it should be enough to fill that.

To make the whipped cream for garnish:

Remember how I said that I don't mind whipping cream? Well, in this case, I used my nitrous cream whipper, because I wanted to be able to keep the whipped cream on hand and use it for several different things I had planned during the week. So I used the whipper.

If you don't happen to have a nitrous cream whipper, just whip by hand or with an electric mixer. This makes a lot of whipped cream - more than you'll need for the pie. But it's the holidays - I'm sure you'll find something to do with the extra.

Just combine all the ingredients, whisk to make sure it's all blended, and pour it into the cream whipper. Charge with nitrous according to manufacturer's directions, and dispense as needed.

Gadgets: Chef's Choice PetitePie Maker

When the PetitePie Maker from Chef's Choice landed on my doorstep, the first thing my husband said was, "Pot pies?!?!" Well, I was thinking about apple, but ... yeah, I guess we could do pot pies.

First, let me say that generic pre-made pie crust is pretty awful. Subsequent batches with better quality dough tasted a heck of a lot better. (What was I thinking?)

The pie maker works like a waffle-maker, but with pie-shaped recesses designed to cook pastry dough. A cutting tool for making the correct-sized rounds is included, along with a "pusher" to help the bottom crust properly fit into the recess.

I have to say there's a bit of a learning curve involved with making pies in this gadget. One important consideration is the amount of filling. Since the top crust cooks from contact with the top plate of the pie maker, you need a large enough mound of filling - a generous half-cup - so the top crust is high enough to make contact. Too much filling, and you risk having it leak out.

Cooking time is based entirely upon the browning of the crust. The filling gets plenty hot during the baking process, but it's not in there long enough to actually cook. Cooking time, depending on the crust and filling, was about 8 minutes.

Speaking of hot, the filling, even when I started with refrigerator-cold ingredients - was screaming hot when it came out of the pie maker. So if you need to make two batches and want to serve hot pie, the first one should still be plenty warm by the time the second is done, or toss them into a warm oven if you need them to keep longer.

The one on the right isn't as pretty, but not awful.

I have to say that I had a few spectacular failures along with the successes, not necessarily the fault of the gadget. In my experimenting, I tried one filling that was too wet and not conducive to mounding - more like a chunky jam than a pie filling, and the filling boiled and leaked out of one of the pies and created a rather amazing mess. Meanwhile, since the pie filling didn't mound high enough on another pie, that one had a very pale top. On the plus side, the surfaces are nonstick, so cleanup wasn't nearly as bad as it looked.

I'm not going to stop making full-size pies, but I have to admit that the mini-pies have their advantages. Like portability. And portion size. I plan on making a whole army of turkey pot pies after the bird is done, and freezing them for easy lunches.

Blueberry Cake-Pie-Cheesecake Bars

I love a challenge, so when I found out that Lucky Leaf was holding a contest for recipes using their products, I jumped right in.

And promptly fell off.

If you're not familiar with the company, Lucky Leaf makes all kinds of canned fruit products, including pie fillings and some unusual canned fruits that you don't normally see - like canned tart cherries, apricot pie filling, and pineapple pie filling.

My first cake was a disaster. I think I know where it went wrong, and it had nothing to do with the lovely tart cherries I bought. The cake part of the recipe was out of whack.

So ... I moved on to blueberry pie filling. And I completely re-did the cake part of the recipe. And then I decided I needed something more than blueberries sitting on top of a cake. That would be just weird, right, just a layer of berries?

So I cobbled together a cheesecake-like topping and put a thin layer of that on top. It's really thin. I've seen frosting slathered on thicker. But that's what I was after. Thin layer of cake, layer of blueberry pie filling, and then a cheesecake-like topping.

I considered dolloping on the cheesecake stuff and the blueberry pie filling randomly, then doing swirls, but I decided to go with layers. Maybe next time it will be dollops and swirls. We'll see.

So, back to the contest. I was going to enter it, but with the first cake disaster and the need to buy more stuff, and the late-night baking, and the need to cool this completely before I cut it ... well, I missed the contest deadline completely.

But so what? It's good cake.

Sometimes my best recipes happen when other people ask me to make things. Or when I enter a contest. That's when I pull out all the creativity stops and I make things that I probably wouldn't make if it was just dinner.

Not only do I get more creative when I'm working on a contest entry, some of my most popular posts here weren't things I would have written about if someone else hadn't nudged me write them. We'll see how this one fares.

Blueberry Cake-Pie-Cheesecake Bars

For the cake:
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups (9 ounces) all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the pie filling:
1 21-ounce can blueberry pie filling

For the cheese topping:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 pan with baking spray.

To make the cake:
Combine all the cake ingredients in a large bowl. Yes, all at once. Beat until well combined. You don't need to beat the heck out of it, but just until it's combined and not lumpy-bumpy.

Pour the cake mixture into the pan and bake at 350 degrees until the cake bounces back when lightly pressed on top - about 25 minutes. It doesn't need to be browned on top, but it should be cooked through. A toothpick inserted in the center might be a little moist, but it shouldn't be batter-wet.

To make the cheese topping:
While the cake is baking, make the cheese topping. Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth, then add the sugar and beat well. Add the egg, creme fraiche (or sour cream) and lemon juice and beat until well combined and smooth. Set aside until the cake is ready.

When the cake is ready, remove it from the oven. Add the blueberry pie filling and even it out as much as possible. Dollop on the cheese topping and smooth the top.

Return the cake to the oven and bake at 350 degrees until the cheese mixture is just set. It can be a little jiggly, but it shouldn't be loose and sloshy.

Let the cake, in its pan, cool on a rack until room temperature, then refrigerate.

Serve cool, or at room temperature.