A Nutty Twist!

If you've been reading my blog you know that I gave up my "famous" Peanut Butter Pie recipe for my first blog post.  I was planning on making some pies for a good friend/co-worker who transferred to another store and was trying to come up with something delicious but not too time consuming.  Upon finding a chocolate pie crust and cashew butter in my cupboards, I had a crazy thought.  What if I turn my peanut butter pie into CASHEW BUTTER PIE?? Why the hell not?  All I did was substitute roasted cashew butter for the peanut butter in the original recipe and the results were fantastic!  Just be sure your cashew butter is room temperature when you mix up the filling.  The cashew flavor is a little more delicate than peanut butter, but the resulting pie was rich and creamy!  I decorated the top with a smooth layer of chocolate ganache and salted cashews, which provided a perfect compliment to the sweetness.  Who knew that just a slight change in the recipe would result in something so unique and delicious!

The salted cashews on top were perfection!

I had to get my orchid in the picture because I'm just so proud of it!

A Little Something Different

I'm always looking for something just a little different.  I had a bag of cranberries in the freezer, and some egg whites leftover from making pumpkin cream pie and I thought, dare I make cranberry meringue pie?  I Googled possible recipes and found there were quite a few.  I decided on my own version flavored with orange juice and spiked with a touch of Grand Marnier.   Of course I had to make delicious, fluffy Italian meringue to top off the sweet-tart fruit.  Success!  This pie is both rich and refreshing and absolutely perfect if you're looking for something a little different for your holiday table.


Cranberry Meringue Pie
1 9" pie crust, blind baked (I use Wholly Wholesome)
1 lb. fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
zest and juice of one orange
1 Tb. cornstarch
1 Tb. Grand Marnier


Combine  the cranberries, sugar, water, cornstarch, orange juice and zest in a small pot over medium high heat.  Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low.  Cook until thickened and reduced, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in the liqueur.  Scrape the filling to the cooked and cooled  pie crust.  Refrigerate until completely cooled.


Italian Meringue (from epicurious.com)
3 egg whites, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 Tb. corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
Place egg whites in a mixer bowl.   Whip the whites in mixer until soft peaks form.  Whip in the salt.  Stir sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Attach a candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat to medium-high and boil without stirring, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush, until thermometer registers 240°, 6-8 minutes. Remove pan from heat.  Slowly pour hot sugar syrup down side of bowl into whites and beat until meringue is firm and glossy. Continue beating until cool, about 4 minutes.  Spread the meringue over the top of the cooled pie, being sure to connect it to the edge of the crust.  Bake the pie in a 400 degree oven until nicely toasted to your liking, about7 to 10 minutes.

Pile on the meringue.  I said pile it on!

Make decorative swirls and peaks.

Brown the meringue in a hot oven.

Fluffy meringue pairs perfectly with tart cranberry.

Nom.

Key Lime

Key lime pie is the quintessential summer pie, if you ask me.  Not that I wouldn't enjoy it year round, of course!  But something about that tart, sunny flavor just says summer.  Plus, it's so easy to make, there's no excuse not to!

If you can find fresh key limes, that is really the best way to go.  But those suckers are tiny and don't have a lot of juice, so be prepared to buy about 30 to 40 limes and to spend some time squeezing!  The work can be made much easier with a hand held citrus squeezer because you can pop in a few lime halves at a time.  If you must use a bottled juice, I highly recommend Nellie & Joe's Famous Key Lime Juice.  I've found this at Safeway before.

I made this pie using a vanilla wafer crust just to mix things up a bit, but I usually use a graham cracker crust.  The pie filling is the same as my lemon pie and is a cinch to whip up.  Go make it now!  Go!  I mean it!

Key Lime Pie
I used a 9-inch deep dish pie pan

Crust
2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (or substitute graham)
1 cup butter, melted

Filling
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
4 eggs
1 cup key lime juice
1 Tb. key lime zest
pinch of salt

Combine the cookie crumbs and melted butter in a bowl until well mixed.  Press the crumbs firmly into the pie pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

For the filling, whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl until smooth.  Scrape the filling into the prepared crust.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 20 to 30 minutes until the filling is set and jiggles slightly when you shake the pan gently.  Cool on the counter for about 15 minutes and then transfer to the refrigerator and cool at least 6 hours or overnight.  Decorate with whipped cream and lime slices, if desired.

Key limes ready for squeezing.  A lot of squeezing.

The finished key lime pie.

A delicious slice of summer!

Lindsay's Lemon Pie

My dear friend Lindsay is a very talented writer, editor and graphic designer.  She's helped me in the past with a few projects so when I needed a logo designed for the blog of course I turned to her.  Lindsay knows I'm a woman who lives a modest lifestyle and when I told her I could only pay her in pie, she was more than understanding.  Because she works in a bakery and has access to a myriad of sweets, her initial request was for a savory beef pie of some variety.  But when the Denver weather finally decided it was time to warm up, a refreshing lemon pie with raspberries is what milady's heart desired!

There are a lot of recipes out there for lemon "icebox" pies  that are usually based on sweetened, condensed milk, aka nectar of the gods.  They usually call for adding egg yolks to the pie base, then whipping the whites to make a meringue topping.  In my opinion, this kind of creamy lemon pie just screams out for whipped cream so that's how I've always made it, as well its cousin the key lime pie, which we'll be seeing very soon.  But I don't like throwing out egg whites or letting them sit in the refrigerator until I decide I'm never going to use them, so I just put the whole egg into the pie.

This pie is perfectly sweet-tart and when topped with whipped cream and raspberries (or any berry of your choice) it's the perfect summer dessert.  And because it is so easy to make, you can quickly whip it up to take to any picnic or BBQ with friends.

Lemon Icebox Pie
I used a 9" deep-dish pie pan. If you don't have a deep-dish pan and want to make this recipe even faster, buy one of those large size "2 extra servings" pre-made graham cracker pie crusts.

CRUST
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

FILLING
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed is highly preferred
zest of one lemon
4 eggs
pinch of salt
Sweetened whipped cream and raspberries to decorate

Combine the butter and crumbs and mix well.

Press firmly into a pie pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes.  Set aside to cool.

Remove the zest from one lemon.  Squeeze one cup of lemon juice.  This is about 6 to 8 lemons, depending on their size and juiciness.

In a bowl combine the condensed milk, zest, juice, eggs and a pinch of salt.   Whisk together until  well combined and smooth.

Pour the filling into the pie crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 15 to 25 minutes.  The filling should be set and will jiggle slightly when you shake the pan.  Cool on the counter about 15 minutes then transfer to the refrigerator for at least 6 hours to cool completely.

Decorate the pie with whipped cream and raspberries, or any berry of your choice.  Or just whipped cream if you like.

Lovely Lindsay with her Lemon Pie!