Cooking From Scratch: Key Lime Pie Part IV

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, the dramatic conclusion of my Key Lime Pie from scratch project. Hopefully you haven't fallen asleep and stopped following the process long ago.

I decided to use Nigella Lawson's recipe for the filling, as I have been successful with it in the past.

You will need:

5 Eggs

1/2 Cup plus 2 tbs Key Lime Juice

14oz of Condensed Milk

Separate your eggs so that you have five egg yolks in one bowl, and three egg whites in a second bowl (I saved the remaining two egg whites for later use in an omelet). Two of the eggs I used were from a friend who raises his own chickens. You can easily see the color difference in the photograph-the yolks were a deep orange.

Beat the egg yolks until thick.

Add the condensed milk (I used the condensed milk that I made from scratch in part I of this recipe)

Add the key lime juice.

In your second bowl, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gently fold them into the egg mixture in the first bowl.

Pour into the crust (see part III of this recipe) and bake at 325 degrees for 25min or until the filling is firm.

Behold, the finished product at long last! The farm raised eggs that I used gave the pie a very bright yellow color. Im happy to say that it was absolutely delicious; the perfect balance of tart, sweet, and bitter, and the crumbly, buttery crust nicely set off the creamy citrus filling. My dinner guests devoured almost the entire pie in one sitting...it wasn't pretty, Im not even sure what happened. One minute I was cutting the pie, and the next we were all slumped over in our chairs with happy yellow grins on our faces. Seems strange to put so much work into something that can disappear forever in just a moment. Its rather Buddhist actually....so uh yeah, eat your dessert, it will make you more spiritual

Cooking from Scratch: Key Lime Pie Part III

This has been a crazy week so I have been a bit behind in posting the remainder of the Key Lime Pie recipe, but here it is, part III- The Crust!

Most of the recipes I came across seemed to indicate that making graham cracker crust 'from scratch' required little more than crushing up some Nabisco Graham Crackers and mixing them with butter. Read the ingredient list on the back of the box, and you know instantly that this method couldn't take you further away from basic ingredients. Thus, I was delighted to come across a recipe on Mike's Table, that basically builds the crust from the ground up by producing a graham cracker dough.

http://mikes-table.themulligans.org/2008/06/18/graham-cracker-pie-crust/

You will need:

2 Sticks of butter (softened at room temp for about an hour)

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup Cane Sugar

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 Tsp Salt

Mike also suggests adding a 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, but since I would be using this crust for a citrus pie, I thought the flavor of the spice might clash and I left it out.

In a large bowl, mix the two flours and the salt

In another bowl, cream the butter with the two sugars. Once the ingredients are well mixed, stir in the honey. You can do this with an electric mixer, but I found it to be just as easy to use a spoon.

Mix 1/2 of the dry mixture into the butter/sugar and once that is fully incorporated, mix in the second 1/2. This will come together into a soft but slightly crumbly dough (just like your average cookie dough)

Form the dough into a disc, wrap it in plastic, and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour.

Mike's table describes an ingenious method of rolling out the dough and transporting it to the pie plate without it crumbling, but I was lazy and simply rolled it out, then pressed pieces of it into the pie plate. The result wasn't pretty or even, but I figured it wouldn't matter much in the end. Next time I think I'll try it Mike's way though, it seems more dignified.

This recipe makes enough dough for two pies so I used 1/2 for the pie plate and cut the other half into squares to make actual graham crackers.

Whether you are baking a crust or crackers, make sure you prick both all over with a fork, so that the steam from the butter doesn't make the dough buckle and crack. Bake at 325 for about 18min. I put the pie plate and cookie sheet with the crackers on it side by side in the oven and both turned out great.

No, this is not the graham cracker that you grew up with. It is more of a whole-wheat shortbread. Very crunchy, very buttery, and the honey gives it an extraordinary flavor. Its a lot of work but I cant imagine going back to those dried out slabs of cardboard at the grocery store after this. I wonder what smores would be like made with these? Maybe I'll have an answer for you on that this summer!

Cooking From Scratch: Key Lime Pie Part I

So I have this weird obsession with making as much of my food from scratch as possible, and by scratch I mean, trying to get as close to primary ingredients as sanity, time, and finances allow. Yes, I want to be green, yes I want to avoid processed foods for my own health, but its more than that. There’s something about transforming raw, base materials into a refined end product that satisfies my compulsive need for order. Its rather like being an alchemist or a shaman, and for me, making such a meal elevates cooking from a mundane task to something rather like a ritual act. In other words, crazy as it is, I find the hard work extremely fun. :-P

At the end of this week a group of my friends are coming over for a potluck dinner. The past couple sunny days and record high temperatures have left me craving the classic refreshing tastes of summer (yes, yes I know its rather premature) so I have decided to make a Key Lime Pie for the dinner. Normally I can throw one of these together in record time. In its simplest form, its just about the easiest pie to make. Premade graham cracker crust+ can of condensed milk+ sugar+ eggs+ bottled key lime juice. Mix, Pour, bake, voila.

But what if….you made your own condensed milk and graham crust from scratch and used the juice of actual fresh key limes? Very quickly, this simple dessert becomes a labor of love.

Today I decided to try my hand at the condensed milk. Condensed milk is cow’s milk from which much of the water has been removed and a large percentage of sugar added. This technique was originally used in pre-fridgeration days to extend milk’s shelf life, as the decreased water and high sugar content prevent microorganism growth. Now days it is used primarily for desserts: thai iced tea, candy, tres leche cake, and of course Key Lime Pie.

Most of the recipes that I found online called for a mixture of butter, dehydrated milk, boiling water, and sugar, but this seemed rather counter intuitive to me…why buy dry milk, which I have no other use for, just in order to add water BACK into it? Finally I found a recipe that basically calls for adding sugar and vanilla to milk and then slowly reducing it

Start with 4 Cups of Whole Milk, 2 Cups of Cane Sugar, and 1/2 of a Vanilla Bean

Pour the milk into a medium sized pot and stir in the sugar.

Cut the vanilla bean length-wise and scrape out the seeds with a knife.

Add the vanilla; seeds, pod, and all to the pot.

Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly until the sugar melts. Continue simmering for just over an hour, stirring occasionally so the milk doesn’t coagulate on the bottom of the pot. You don’t need to watch this constantly, but definitely keep somewhat of an eye on it, as it is prone to foaming over.

The milk will turn a rich caramel color and thicken noticeably until it coats the back of a spoon. Fish out the vanilla pod and let the condensed milk cool. You can now store this in the fridge for several weeks.

This is the first time I have tasted homemade condensed milk and it is surprisingly delicious; very similar to the store bought canned version but less cloyingly sweet and with more of a caramelized flavor. Most Key Lime Pie recipes call for a 14oz can of condensed milk, so I should have more than enough. Stay tuned for Part II