Key Lime Pie / Tart

I have successfully been making a version of this pie since I was ten years old, it has been a favorite in my family for as long as I can remember. When I first started making it I used a pre-made graham cracker crust, but then later discovered how simple graham crusts were to make so I made my own. The pie can be made in a pie or tart pan which makes for a nice presentation when serving it whole. For the restaurant, presentation can be a little trickier since I serve individual pieces so I double the recipe and make it in a springform pan, this makes nice tall pieces which are then individually garnished with lime slices and berries.

The pie is best made a day ahead so it can properly chill and set in the refrigerator. If you are pressed for time though, (which I always seem to be) place it in the freezer to speed up the cooling process. For the crust I use either gingersnaps or graham crackers, they both make a nice crust. I have found Eagle brand condensed milk to be the thickest, some of the other brands can sometimes have a runny consistency and are not as rich. When I was little I could eat it straight out the can with a spoon, I refrain from that little habit these days, but needless to say I like condensed milk a lot!

A note on the key lime juice- I only use Nell and Joe's brand key lime juice, it's available at most major supermarkets and is superior to all the other brands I have tried. When key limes are available, I use freshly squeezed juice. I roll and press the limes on the kitchen counter with the palm of my hand before juicing them to make the juicing process a little easier.

Key Lime Pie

2 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar

2 - 14oz. cans condensed milk
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup key lime juice
1 teaspoon key lime zest
berries and key lime slices for garnishing

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla or 1 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 F

1. In a large bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar. Press cookie mixture into a 9 inch pie or tart pan. Pressing firmly all along the sides and making about a 1/4 inch thick crust. Place pie on a sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

2. In a large bowl whisk together condensed milk, egg yolks, key lime juice and zest until smooth and combined. Pour into pie crust and bake an additional 20 minutes. Remove pie from the oven and refrigerate until completely cooled. (up to 3 days)

3. Once the pie has completely cooled, whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Spread the whipped cream over the pie and garnish with key lime slices and fresh berries. Refrigerate pie until ready to serve.

Blackberry Hand Pies

There just has not been enough dessert around here lately! Which also means I have not had enough dessert- life gets crazy sometimes. We all know what a priority sweet stuff is to me so today we are back on track with these little blackberry hand pies. I know it's not quite summer yet- actually it even isn't quite spring yet, but in 80 degree weather blackberries seem quite seasonal. A friend gave me a basket of berries and I knew exactly what I would do with them as soon as I tasted one. The recipe was inspired by one I had spied in an old Gourmet magazine, I remember thinking what a great idea the addition of grated apple was. The pastry recipe is a good one- it allows for re-rolling of the dough, it is one of the flakiest pie doughs I've had. Let the dough rest a little while before the second roll so it wont be too elastic and want to shrink back. Allow the filling to cool well before assembling the hand pies, this will keep the butter in the pastry from melting before they go in the oven. Parchment paper is a must-have for this recipe, the filling sometimes runs out of the pies making a big sticky mess. The recipe yields 8 hand pies and can be easily doubled.



Blackberry Hand Pies

1 cup fresh blackberries (1/2 pint)
1/2 cup grated apple
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
milk for brushing tops
additional sugar for sprinkling tops

1. In a medium heavy saucepan over medium heat cook blackberries, apple, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon. Stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat oven to 375

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Hand Pie Pastry Dough

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoon unsalted butter, cold, cut in small cubes
2 tablespoons shortening
pinch salt
3-4 tablespoons ice water

1. In food processor or by hand, blend flour, butter, shortening and salt until the mixture resembles a coarse meal and has some pea sized pieces of butter left in it.

2. While pulsing add water a little at a time until dough comes together when pinched in your hand. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 1 day.

Assembling Hand Pies:

1. Roll chilled pastry out on a lightly floured surface into a 1/8 inch thick rectangle. Cut 5 inch squares or circles with pastry wheel. Place the circle in your hand and fill with about a mounded tablespoon of filling. Seal shut pressing the edges well with your fingers. Fold edges over in a decorative shape or seal with the tines of a fork. Re-roll dough scraps to make up to eight circles or squares, allowing it to rest about 10 minutes between rolling.

2. Place hand pie on parchment lined cookie sheet. When all the pies are on the cookie sheet brush with a little milk and generously sprinkle with sugar.

3. bake about 20-25 minutes until golden brown, rotating cookie sheet half way through baking. Store at room temperature.

Daring Bakers Lemon Meringue Pie and Tart

This month the Daring Bakers challenge was Lemon Meringue Pie. The recipe was provided by Jen, from Canadian Baker. After reading all the reviews on the Daring Bakers website, I was a little apprehensive- it seemed like a lot of people had trouble with this recipe. Much to my surprise, I made the pie and tarts without any trouble whatsoever, I found the recipe to be good and well writen. The only part that sort of stumped me a little was the fact that the lemon juice is added to the filling once you remove it from the heat. I have never made lemon meringue pie filling in that manner before. I don't really understand the reasoning behind it, but nevertheless it still set up very nicely. Most people who had trouble with the recipe the filling is where they ran into trouble, for some it did not set. I used the blowtorch to brown the tarts and the broiler to brown the pie, I liked the way the torch browns a little better.

The filling set up well, and had a nice mix of sweet and tartness to it, but the recipe I normally use has a little cream and more butter which gives it a little bit more of a silkier feeling. The pie shell worked just fine, as of this morning it still has some crunch to it and isn't soggy at all- which for this type of pie is a very good thing. The meringue I whipped by hand in a copper bowl, it turned out smooth and shiny. I wanted to drizzle a little raspberry sauce on the plate, but ran out of time. Maybe next time.



Lemon Meringue Pie
Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie ( I made a 9" pie and 2 tarts)

For the Crust:3/4 cup (180 mL) cold butter; cut into ½-inch pieces
2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (60 mL) granulated sugar
1/4 tsp (1.2 mL) salt
1/3 cup (80 mL) ice water

For the Filling:
2 cups (475 mL) water
1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (120 mL) cornstarch
5 egg yolks, beaten
1/4 cup (60 mL) butter
3/4 cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

For the Meringue:
5 egg whites, room temperature
1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar
1/4 tsp (1.2 mL) salt
1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
3/4 cup (180 mL) granulated sugar

To Make the Crust:Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt.Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together. Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.

Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of 1/8 inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about 1/2 inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.



To Make the Filling:
Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated. Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.

To Make the Meringue:
Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.

Crostata della Nonna / Italian Jam Crostata

This is my grandmother's crostata, it's beautiful, tasty and most of all- very easy to make. I had some friends over for dinner and since my menu was of the Italian inclination, it gave me the perfect opportunity to make it, (not that I really needed an excuse). It was sort of a last minute affair so we made a simple one dish meal of Pasta Pepperonata with Italian Sausage, a beautiful arugula and Cannellinni bean salad and for dessert I served the raspberry crostata. This was an easy and very satisfying meal which did not require a whole lot of work. I wish I would have had time to photograph everything, but eating and enjoying the food sort of got in the way! The crostata, I had prepared the day before, so it made it to the blog.

You may use any kind of jam or preserves you like, I have used apricot, strawberry and pineapple before- they all taste really yummy. I also really like that the ingredients are simple are most likely to be in my pantry at any given time. The dough for the crostata is sort of between a cake and a pie dough. The directions may sound a little odd, but this was my grandmother's recipe and I'm not going to change it. The only difference in the preparation from hers and mine is that I use a pastry blender and she used a fork. The measurements for the flour are in grams because that is how she gave them to me, when I make it again I will measure in cups after weighing and update the recipe.

Italian Jam Crostata

300 grams all purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
150 grams cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 eggs
zest of one lemon
pinch of salt
4 tablespoons of your favorite jam or preserves

Preheat oven to 400 F

1.Butter a 9" springform pan and set aside.

2. Place flour in a large mixing bowl, make a well in the center and add the eggs. With a pastry blender or fork, start incorporating the eggs into the flour. Add the butter and work into the dough for a couple of minutes. (the dough will be in clumps).

3. Add the sugar, lemon zest, baking powder and a pinch of salt. Continue to work the dough with the fork or pastry blender until is it very crumbly. At this point I start working the dough with my hands until it starts coming together, I do this is the bowl to avoid kneading it on the counter and incorporating too much flour. Once the dough comes together it will be a little sticky.

4. On a lightly floured surface knead the dough a couple of times, then make a ball and cut off one third of it with a knife. (for the lattice)

5. Roll out the larger ball of dough into about a nine inch circle and press into the springform pan. Making sure the dough is evenly distributed in the pan. Prick the dough with a fork, then add the preserves spreading evenly.



6. Make little balls out of the reserved dough and roll each one into a strip- these do not need to be all even and perfect. Place the strips over the jam, pressing lightly at the edges to adhere them to the crust.

7. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the top is lightly golden. You may serve it warm with some whipped cream or ice cream, or by itself at room temperature. The crostata will keep covered at room temperature for 1 week. (mine never lasts that long!)

Apple Mince Meat Pie

I made Apple mince meat pie for Thanksgiving, it was my intention to post before Thursday, but life got really busy. Between cooking Thanksgiving meals for take-out at the restaurant and hosting Thanksgiving at home, taking photos of everything I baked didn't happen. Which also explains why there isn't a photo of the whole pie...just the last piece, (and yes, I know it's not the best photo- but I didn't have much to work with).

For the longest time I did not understand mince meat pie- a dessert involving meat? Was it even a dessert to begin with? Needless to say the thought of eating one- much less making one never even crossed my mind. But, then I found this recipe- and wow! I love apple mince meat pie! I had it for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and I've been hooked ever since.

I searched for the origin of mince meat pie...I really needed to understand the meat portion of it and this is what I found: origin of mince meat pie. The recipe used to include liver and all sorts of other meats--I sure like my Food Network version better! I did not alter this recipe one bit and yes, that was hard for me, but it really is perfect as it is. The recipe came from a pie contest episode and can I tell you, that baker sure knew what she was doing!

Notes: I think the recipe must have originally yielded more than one pie.  Some of the measurements given, 1/8 teaspoon and 1/4 tablespoon are not very common measurements. The pastry also makes an extra pie crust, (which by the way, is the the best pie crust I have ever had--really!) so I just use it to make another pie involving only one crust. The good thing is that if you want to make the pie in quantity, I'm sure it can be easily increased- for 3 pies, double pastry and triple filling.

Pie Crust:

1 cup pastry flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter flavored shortening, chilled
1/3 cup ice cold water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 egg, beaten

Apple Filling:

4 cups apples (Rome or Jonathan), peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon tapioca
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 tablespoon heavy cream
1 (27-ounce) jar mincemeat (recommended: None Such Classic or Original)
1 egg white, slightly beaten
1 tablespoon sugar Pastry cut-outs or dollops of whipped topping

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

For the pie crusts:

In a large bowl, combine the flours, salt, sugar and baking powder. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles cornmeal. In small bowl, mix water and vinegar with the beaten egg. Add the liquid mixture 1 tablespoon at a time to the flour mixture, tossing with a fork to form a soft dough. Shape into 3 disks. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator. Use 2 disks when making this pie. Freeze remaining dough for later use. Roll out 1 disk and place into a 9-inch pie dish for bottom crust.

For the apple filling:

Combine the apples, butter and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat and cook for about 8 minutes. Cool slightly.

In a medium bowl combine the sugar, tapioca, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add slightly cooled apples and mix well. Stir in vanilla and cream. Place apple mixture into bottom of pie crust, spreading evenly.

Spread the mincemeat on top of apple filling. Roll out another dough disk and adjust over the filling. Flute edge and vent top. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and bake for 30to 35 minutes longer, or until golden. Garnish, as desired, with baked pastry cut outs or whipped topping.

Pecan pie / Tart

This year has just flown by, it seems like every year goes by faster than the one before. The holidays are usually an extremely busy time for me and I don't expect this year to be any different. In order for me to make it through the next month and a half without completely freaking out, I just have to be super organized. So today when I was entering into my daily planner all the events for December I realized Thanksgiving is in 9 days!!

But, while it is busy and wild, I am not complaining- catering is the part of my job which I like best. I also like the way the atmosphere at the restaurant changes right around Thanksgiving, all of a sudden things just seem much more happy and festive. I think today was the day most other people figured out the holidays are near because my party load just about doubled! The phone rang off the hook this morning with Thanksgiving orders and I can certainly say that at least for me, the Holidays have arrived.

This pecan tart is on the restaurant's Thanksgiving menu. I serve it with a Bourbon spiked whipped cream and it's delicious- specially at this time of the year. The recipe makes 2 pies, but you can easily cut in in half and make just one. The dough I use I found in a Martha Stewart cookbook, I did not change a thing- it's very easy to work with as long as the ingredients are cold.

I used a tart shell for this one, but you can use 2- 9" pie pans if you prefer. The reason I use a tart shell is because I like just the right ratio of filling to pecans- I think sometimes pies have too much filling (they're deeper) which can make the pie cloyingly sweet. The recipe will yield either 2- 10" tart pans or 2- 9" pies. If you use pie pans, watch them carefully when cooking so the edges do not brown too much, putting a piece of aluminum foil around the edges half way through cooking should keep that from happening. Toasting the pecans and browning the butter make a big difference in this pie...don't skip those steps- it intensifies their flavor and cuts down the sweetness of the pie. I add orange zest to the pie because I can't help but change things up, but if you want a more traditional tasting pie you may leave it out.



Pecan Tart / Pie

3 cups light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
8 eggs plus 4 egg yolks
1/4 lb. unsalted butter (1 stick)
3 cups pecan halves (toasted in a skillet until golden and fragrant)
1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)

Pate Sucree

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter cit into 1" pieces
4 tablespoons cold water
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

Making the Crust:

1. In the bowl of a food processor add flour, sugar and salt. Add butter and process approximately for 10 seconds or until mixture resembles a coarse meal.

2. With the processor running, add water drop by drop, then add egg yolks. Process until the dough holds together without being wet or sticky; about 30 seconds. At this point test the dough by pinching a small amount to see if it holds together, if it's too crumbly add a bit more water.

3. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll out dough into tart shells or pie pan.

Making the filling:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together corn syrup, sugars, vanilla,orange zest and eggs.

3. Melt butter in a skillet until lightly brown and has a nutty aroma. Add browned butter to filling mixture and mix well.

4. Place pecans in tart shells or pie pans. Ladle filling over pecans. Place tart shells on a cookie sheet and bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Let cool to room temperature and serve.