Archive Hot

Key Lime Pie

I made a Lemon Meringue Pie the other week and it came out so good that my husband wanted another one. I wanted to post something on the blog so I suggested it's sister a Key Lime Pie!

Key Lime Pie is an American Dessert from the Florida Keys. I didn't make mine with condensed milk (which is typical in this kind of pie) since I needed a dairy free pie. I topped mine with meringue whereas whipped cream is often put on top of Key Lime Pies.

I didn't use real Key Limes as they didn't have those at Waitrose and as egg yolks turn the filling yellow I added some green food coloring (which apparently is frowned upon but I don't care! A little food coloring never hurt anyone). Traditional Key Lime Pie is yellow inside.

I was really happy with myself this time. I got my meringue to have a cool looking textured top. I think using the plastic bowl was the source of the problem. I used a glass bowl this time and room temperature eggs and it came out perfect.

I had a frozen key lime pie coated in chocolate from Blond Giraffe (I just saw on their web site that they've sadly gone out of business) when I went to Key West in 2007!

It was an interesting place and I have never been so hot in my life. It was so humid I felt like the air was so thick it was like I needed to swim through it!

Key Lime Pie

adapted from Southern Food

Ingredients

1 baked 9 inch pie crust (I used a graham cracker crust shell already made)

3 eggs at room temperature, separated

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbs cornstarch/cornflour

2 cups water

zest and juice of 4 limes

1 tbs butter

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

5 tbs sugar

green food coloring is optional

1. Preheat oven to 425 F/220 C. In a saucepan over medium heat mix the flour, cornflour, sugar, water and salt. Stir continuously until thickened.

2. Take a large spoonful of the mixture and mix in the bowl with the egg yolks. Pour that mixture back into the saucepan and stir to combine. Stir on low heat for 2 more minutes.

Loving my new pink knife!

3. Stir in the butter, lime zest and juice and food coloring if using. Let cool slightly and then pour into your pie case.

4. Make the meringue by whipping the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add in the cream of tartar and the 5 tablespoons of sugar gradually until mixture is stiff and glossy. Add the meringue on top of the filling once it has cooled and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes until top is golden brown. Best served chilled.

· fruit, pie

Lemon Meringue Pie

I love cake and my husband loves pie. I'm occasionally nice and take a break from cupcakes and make him something he likes! This is the first time I used my Gregg's Favourite Puddings book. I really like this book. I think it will encourage me to branch out a little and make something I wouldn't normally (lots of British desserts I've never made or eaten before). I think after 8 years I should try more British desserts.

The pie came out amazing. It has a perfect ratio of pie filling to meringue. I even made the pie crust from scratch this time! I need more practice on my meringues though. I couldn't get it to have nice textured peaks on the top.

Lemon Meringue Pie
adapted from Gregg's Favorite Puddings

Ingredients

Crust

300g plain flour

150g chilled butter, diced into cubes

50g caster sugar

75g ground hazelnuts (I used ground almonds since you can buy them already ground)

1 egg yolk, beaten

2-3 tablespoons cold water

Filling

6 tbs cornflour

350ml water

zest and juice of 2 lemons (if they're hard roll on top of the counters with your hands to loosen the juice)

3 egg yolks

Meringue

3 egg whites

125g caster sugar

1. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Add the butter and with your (clean) hands rub the mixture between your finger tips until it's crumbly. Stir in the ground nuts and sugar.

2. Add the egg yolk and a few tablespoons cold water until it has a firm doughy consistency (I needed 4 tablespoons of water).

3. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface and kneed a few times. Roll out and line your pie dish. Chill the crust for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 200 C. Cover in tin foil and place baking beans (or rice) on top and bake for 15 minutes. Remove tin foil and beans and bake for another 5 minutes.
-

4. To make the filling stir the cornflour, water, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice together in a saucepan. Stir continuously over a medium low heat until thickened (this should happen just as it starts to boil). Remove from heat to cool for a few minutes.

5. Beat in the 2 egg yolks and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Return the pan to a low heat and cook for a few minutes longer. Mixture should thicken more. Let cool for a few minutes before spooning into the pie crust.

6. To make the meringue beat the egg whites in a large clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Beat in one tablespoon of the sugar, then fold in the rest of the mixture with a spoon.

7. Spoon the meringue on top of the lemon pie filling and bake for 10 minutes until brown on top.

Enjoy! It tastes really good chilled.

· fruit, pie

Apple Crumble

I was going to make this for Christmas day dessert but in the end I'd already made so much food that I decided it would be best to wait a few days to make it. I'm glad I did because we were able to enjoy it.

I'm not sure I would call this a traditional crumble. I've made a few in the past and the top always came out soggy. So I threw in what I thought were the best parts. The top made a nice sweet, crunchy crust. You could make substitutions and throw in your favorite nut or raisins instead.

Ingredients

For the base

300g shortcrust pastry

4 large Bramley apples

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

pinch of salt

2 tbs butter

3 tbs toasted almonds

For the topping

6 tbs flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (or raisins)

2 tbs ground almonds

2 tbs melted butter

1 tsp cinnamon (to sprinkle on top)

1. Preheat the oven to 424 F/ 220 C. Line a pie dish with the pastry and trim the edges. Peel, core and chop the apples.

2. In a large bowl mix the apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, almonds and salt. Spoon the mixture into the pie shell. Cut the 2 tablespoons of butter into cubes and scatter over top of the apples.

3. To make the crumble topping mix the brown sugar, flour, ground almonds, chocolate chips together in a small bowl. Pour the melted butter over top and gently mix together. Spoon over top of the apples. Sprinkle the cinnamon on top.

4. Cover the top with tin foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the tin foil and bake for 15 more minutes. Cool before slicing and serving.

· fruit, pie

Frangipane Apple Tart

I gave my husband any choice of what I would make for his birthday dessert. He debated back and forth for days between chocolate cake and a fruit based dessert and eventually the fruit won and he settled on this Frangipane Apple Tart.

I'm much better with cupcakes than with pastry dough and apparently being European makes you an expert as my husband took over rolling the dough and giving me pointers. To be fair my first attempt was way too thick and went in the bin.

I didn't make my own dough specifically for this reason. To spend all that time rolling, chilling and waiting to have it go in the bin wouldn't be very nice. Once I feel more confident I'll start making my own.

Frangipane Apple Tart

adapted from Bramley Apples

Ingredients

500g Sweet Shortcrust pastry

100g unsalted butter at room temperature

100g caster sugar

1 egg

1tbs plain flour

100g ground almonds

1/2 tsp almond extract

4-5 apples (I used Jazz)

lemon juice

vanilla sugar (optional)

1.Preheat the oven to 180 C and peel, core and slice the apples. Place the apples in a bowl of cold water with a few splashes of lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.

2. On a lightly floured surface roll out the pastry dough and line a fluted tart tin or pie dish. Prick all over with a fork and chill for 10 minutes (I also sprinkled the base with some vanilla sugar).

3. Blind bake for 10 minutes covered with parchment paper and baking beans (or rice) and 5 minutes without paper.

4. Remove from the oven to cool and make the frangipane by creaming the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and almond extract. Fold in the ground almonds and flour.

5. Spread the frangipane evenly over the pastry base and arrange the apple slices on top (remember to drain the apples a few minutes before you do this). Sprinkle a few teaspoons of vanilla sugar on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden on top.

6. This step is optional: I made a sugar syrup to spread over top. I put it on before baking but you could also put it on top after baking. Mix 3 tablespoons of vanilla sugar with 2 tablespoons of water in simmer in a pan for 2 minutes until thick. Using a pastry brush spread over top the apples.

· fruit, pie

Mini Pumpkin Pies

I made these using the little bit of leftover pumpkin pie filling that I had since I couldn't bear to throw it away! You could also make several of these instead of one large pie. I wish I'd had a little bit of whipped cream. They would have looked really cute with a drop in the middle.

These were great. The pie popped right out after it had cooled

I threw about 10 leftover ginger nut biscuits in the food processor and then mixed in a bowl with a few tablespoons of melted butter and then pressed into the mini fluted tart tins.

I baked it in the oven for 10 minutes and then put the pie filling in and baked it again, but I don't think it's necessary as the edges became too crisp! I think blind baking would be good idea if you wanted to fill the crust with fruit and custard (or other filling that doesn't need baking) and then chill in the refrigerator.

So press the crumbs tightly and evenly into to tin (covering the sides too) and fill with leftover pie filling and bake for 15-20 minutes at 425 F/220 C.

Let cool for 30 minutes before removing from tin. Gently run a knife along the sides to help release the shell.

Happy Thanksgiving and remember there's always room for pie!

· Halloween, pie, pumpkin, thanksgiving

Pumpkin Pie with Crunchy Pecan Topping

I love Thanksgiving and it's such a bummer that I have to go to work each year. I would love to stay home and cook all day! Maybe I can stay home on our newly minted bank holiday, April 29th, and bake cupcakes in honor of the royal wedding.

I love Thanksgiving even more now. When I was studying to to be an accountant one sitting of the exams always fell on Thanksgiving. Between going to work all day, studying at night and on the weekends there was no time to bake pie. Now that I've been finished for some time I enjoy this time of year even more (really makes you appreciate your free time).

This is a basic Pumpkin Pie recipe but instead of evaporated milk I used vanilla soy milk to make it dairy free and it tastes exactly the same. I can only eat Pumpkin Pie with some kind of biscuit base. I think all the spices in the pie are complimented by the cinnamon in graham crackers or the ginger in ginger nut biscuits.

I love this topping (from Bakerella). It's so amazing. The chocolate chips and the pecans are just heavenly. I should have maybe put some aluminium foil over the top towards the end so the edges didn't get so crisp.

Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie
adapted from Sunset

Ingredients

Pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 can (15 oz) pureed pumpkin
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk
2 eggs

Crust
Graham Cracker shell purchased
or Ginger Nut biscuit base (300g ground biscuits mixed with 80g melted butter and pressed into a pie shell)

Topping
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs maple syrup

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F/ 220 C. In a large bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.

2. Add pumpkin, soy milk and eggs. Whisk until well blended. Pour into the pie shell. I had a little leftover so don't overfill your pie.

3. Mix all of the ingredients for the topping in a small bowl and set aside.

4. Bake the pie for 15 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 F/180 C and gently pour the topping mixture evenly over the top of the pie and bake for 45 more minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (place a piece of foil over top towards the end if getting crisp on top. (I meant to make mine a bit crisp...).

5. Set the pie to cool on a rack for at least 2 hours.

· holidays, pie, thanksgiving

Tennessee Food Round Up

This is a round up of all the weird, wacky and delicious things I ate and saw while I was in Tennessee (and the few interesting things in Aruba).

We had Full Service BBQ catered for our rehearsal dinner. The BBQ sauce was very good. Full Service operate out of a small old gas station!

It was a nice coincidence that my wedding photographers studio was a stones throw away from The Cupcakery and Cities Cupcakes.

It was in a posh looking strip mall

The cupcakes were good but they were a little simple for the price

I chose a Summer Crush

and a Pink Lemonade

I prefer Cities Cupcakes

I love their frosting shots! I had a Savannah (the smores one)

They have a lot of flavors but only bake a selection each day

Carmel was excellent

Miami (Lemon) was very good. I also had an Orlando but my sister ate it without taking a picture.

We got my wedding favors from Schakolad!

They have everything!

Alex tried a chocolate covered pretzel. My dad and I got some of their gelato. The one we went to did a $1 special of one item each day of the week. The day we went was a $1 for a scoop of gelato.

This isn't a good picture. We had a nice box of 3 chocolate truffles with a gold bow for our wedding favors.

There are a lot of chain restaurants where I was in Tennessee (the local places are all great BBQ joints) but I never get to go to these places so it was great! I did find a few gems though. I had this really great Monte Cristo sandwich at Cheddar's.

and Strawberry Lemonade

Not as exciting but very good Raspberry Swirl cake at Starbucks

Update: I forgot to add these 2 pictures from Sweet Celebrations. The roast beef sandwich with jus was so tasty.

They have a wide selection of desserts. This cupcake was really cute.

One of my favorite places we went was the Apple Barn in Pigeon Forge. They make pies, candy, wine, jams and pretty much sell every apple knick knack you can think of.