Key Lime Pie

Memorial Day was Monday, but it was just another day off for me. To celebrate, I decided to listen to Rihanna's Talk That Talk while making a key lime pie. It seemed like a good plan. 

Excuse to show off my manicure

Key lime is an inexpensive pie - perfect for a girl on a budget. It takes about 25 key limes and a lot of work to get 1 cup of juice. While I was busy working my noodle arms juicing limes, the creatures were busy doing this:

I forgot to take a picture of the filling before  pouring it into the crusts.  (Food blogger fail). I was distracted because I was attempting to "whisk" together the sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, and juice in too small a bowl. This also resulted in the filling not being mixed quite enough; consequently, there were a few yolky spots.  

My brother thinks meringue ruins a key lime pie, but I like it. I made a soft meringue - I think it was a bit too soft. Last time, I made it too stiff, and it became quite sticky the next day. The softer meringue was not sticky, but I think it could have been a bit fluffier. 

I have devilish plans for the meringue-free pie that will be revealed in another post.  

Notice the dot on the left?  I felt the need to touch the pie, thereby marring it for pictures.  (Another food blogger fail). I couldn't resist seeing if the meringue was too soft.

Notice the yolky spots?  Not quite right.

Despite the little failures, this pie was delicious.  It was the perfect combination of light & airy with sweet & rich and delightful with a cup of coffee.  

Key Lime Pie 

Filling:

One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks 

1/2 cup fresh key lime juice 

Meringue:*

3 egg whites

3/4 cup of superfine baker's sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*Note that in the pictures above, I doubled this recipe but used all the meringue on one pie, hence the nice, thick layer of meringue. I usually make 2 pies, one with extra meringue and one with none.

Crust: 1 premade graham cracker crust (I'm a cheater, but it's not worth the effort to make this).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Whisk the first three ingredients together (in an adequately sized bowl) until well blended.  

Beat egg whites on medium-high speed, gradually adding sugar until it forms soft peaks. Add vanilla during the last few seconds.  

Fill crust with filling, top with meringue and bake on the middle rack for 15 minutes.  

There is no need to cover the pie.  

Goodies!

It is completely premature to write a post about pie-related goodies, but I have to dedicate a post to my friend Jay. Today marks a week that he has been in the hospital recovering from injuries sustained in a car accident (or perhaps "bike accident" is a more accurate, as he was hit by a car whilst riding a bike). 

Jay doesn't get a post just because he's injured or merely because I like him (sorry, Jay) - he gets a post because he gave me a delightful gift:

Look at all these beautiful things!  I'm going to make mini blueberry pies in those red dishes on Fourth of July.  

I had the somewhat embarrassing experience of having opened this gift at the hospital, from someone who has a chest tube suctioning blood out of his lung.  Poor guy.  And to think, I almost missed out on this little Williams-Sonoma fantasy because I was in a snit that Jay inadvertently insulted me. I almost forgot about the most important thing in life - free stuff!

Thanks Jay!

Starting with Sour Cherry

I wanted to start this blog with apple pie, my most practiced recipe. However, I do not have any appetizing pictures of an apple pie right now, so my first post is sour cherry pie. This is a fitting first recipe because cherry pie was my favorite dessert growing up (narrowly beating out ice cream cake...mmmmm).  

On Monday, a generous friend and former co-worker gave me 14 cups of beautiful sour cherries that he picked at his farm. This gave me an excuse to buy a cherry pitter - a seemingly frivolous expense for an unemployed person - but it was worth it.

This was by far the most time-consuming pie I've ever made. A friend and I spent two hours pitting the cherries, a hypnotically repetitive task that allowed us to enjoy good conversation and music (Dreamboat Annie, Astral Weeks).  

14 cups of cherries made three shallow pies and would have easily filled two deep dish pie pans. The recipe below is for one pie.

I'm still figuring out how to take beautiful pictures. Perhaps I should start by being a less messy baker. But the mess is half the fun!

The pies were almost perfect (save the one cherry pit I let slip through the cracks). They were tart and slightly sweet. The cherries were soft but not mushy, and the filling set up properly so it didn't run when I cut a slice. My mom said it was the best pie she's ever had, which is my favorite compliment. It was so yummy, I forgot to take a picture of a piece a la mode!  

The only downside is that these cherries ripen once a year, so I won't be able to make this again until next year!

Sour Cherry Pie (adapted from the Fresh Cherry Pie Recipe in the Joy of Cooking):

Crust (makes 3 single crusts):

2 cups flour

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup vegetable shortening

1 egg

Add salt and baking powder to flour, mix

Cut in shortening until mixture resembles cornmeal or a course meal (I find using my fingers is easier than a pastry cutter or a fork, and it's much more fun!)

Break egg into measuring cup and add cold water until it reaches 1/2 a cup, mix

Add egg and water mixture to flour mixture and mix until it holds together

Chill (best overnight)

Filling:
5 cups pitted sour cherries
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca 
2 tablespoons water 
1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons salted butter (that's right - I use salted butter!)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  

Combine the first four ingredients in a mixing bowl. Let stand for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, line a pie pan with pie dough (1/3 of the dough should cover a regular pie pan; 1/2 of it will cover a deep dish pan). Pour the filling mixture into the bottom crust and dot with butter. Cover with a pricked or lattice crust. Brush with an egg white and sprinkle with two teaspoons of sugar. Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil to avoid burning.  

Bake 30 minutes at 425 degrees. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 30 minutes, until the filling is bubbling around the edges. Let stand 1 hour before digging in.  

And So It Begins...

I have been talking about starting this blog for about a year now, and because I've made four pies in as many weeks, I think now is the time to do it. Not to mention that I have been unemployed for almost a month (my law firm having been woefully mismanaged, resulting in its insolvency and my sudden, unexpected return to the job market).  

I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm Julia. This is me: 

I typically look less cheerful and wear glasses, so here is a picture of me pretending to be a hipster:

(After I took this I drank a PBR and misused the word "irony.")

I'm 27, a lawyer, a big nerd, and an unabashed pie lover. When I'm not talking about food, I am busy spoiling these creatures:

This is my blogger doppelganger: http://www.filing-jointly.com/. See her blog for love of P&P and Colin Firth, membership on the Science Olympiad team and general high school nerdiness, crazy ridiculous long arms, and a tendency to do embarrassing things (I am not, however, married and will probably refrain from including my dating misadventures on this blog).

I have had a running list of blog names for about nine months now, with many clever contributions from family members, particularly my brother. But the idea for "The Zen of Pie" struck me suddenly this weekend while I was at my friend's wedding. I was involved in yet another conversation about apple pie (my worldview having narrowed recently to worrying about unemployment and thinking about pie) when another bridesmaid mentioned that she simply had to make an apple pie recently in order to relax. To her, peeling the apples is therapeutic.  I, too, find peeling apples therapeutic - the way I imagine meditation would help me relax if I could do it without dozing off. This is why I love to bake pie - the process - the beauty in each step that leads to a sweet reward.  

And so it begins...The Zen of Pie.