Lime Chili Meringue Pie

In the search for other interesting pie flavors, I came up with this one.  I'm not a huge fan of key lime pie, but this spicy twist is really good.

Ingredients:
10 graham crackers
1/2 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons of melted butter
zest of 4 limes
1/2 cup of lime juice
4 eggs
1 14oz can of condensed milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
3/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 cup of sugar
3 tablespoons of water

Directions:
Pulse together graham crackers and sugar in a food processor.  Drizzle in melted butter.  Press into a pie plate.  Refrigerate.  Preheat oven to 300oF.  Bake crust for 10 minutes.  Whisk zest, juice, egg yolks (put the whites off to the side for now), condensed milk, and vanilla until fully combined.  Pour into crust.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Increase oven temperature to 400oF.  Whip the egg whites, cream of tartar, and cayenne pepper until frothy (but not yet at soft peak stage).  Bring the sugar and water to a boil without stirring.  Then let it come up to 240oF.  Gently pour the sugar down the side of the bowl while beating the egg whites at high speed.  Continue to whip until the meringue is room temperature and reaches stiff peak stage.  Spoon or pipe the meringue onto the lime filling.  Bake for 5-7 minutes to brown the meringue.  You could also use a butane torch for this step.  Cool to room temperature, then chill at least two hours before serving.

The combination of the buttery graham cracker crust, the thick tart custard, and the sweet and spicy meringue makes for a very well balanced pie.  It's not to sweet, or too tart.  However, the meringue is very spicy by itself, so don't go taking a big bite of just the meringue.  You will regret it as your soul slowly burns away.

Also, four limes won't give you a 1/2 cup of juice, so I supplemented what they gave me with bottled lime juice.  Otherwise, you may need up to 10 limes.

Piece out!
Justin

Blueberry Lemon Mascarpone Pie

I wanted to start working on pie recipes for the Lake County Fair, so I started with this one.  I think it is just as good as last year's Blue Hawaii that took home best pie.  This pie was also inspired by a tiramisù flavor at ZUM in Rome.

Ingredients:
18 lady fingers
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of melted butter
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup of sugar
8 oz of mascarpone
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon, divided
3/4 cup of water
2 tablespoons of King Arthur Flour's Pie Enhancer or cornstarch
1/3 cup of sugar
4 cups of fresh blueberries

Directions:
Pulse together ladyfingers and brown sugar in a food processor.  Drizzle in melted butter.  Press into a pie plate.  Refrigerate.  Preheat oven to 300oF.  Bake crust for 10 minutes.  Vigorously whisk yolks and sugar in a double boiler until it has tripled in size (5 to 8 minutes).  Remove the bowl from heat and stir in the mascarpone, lemon zest and the juice of half the lemon.  Dissolve the thickener in the water.  Add 1 cup of blueberries, sugar, and the juice of the other half of the lemon and bring to a boil.  Boil for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and use an immersion blender to breakdown the remaining blueberries.  Pour through a sieve onto the other three cups of blueberries.  Toss to cover the blueberries in the glaze.  Pour half the blueberries into the crust.  Cover with the mascarpone mixture.  Cover with remaining blueberries.  Chill.

This pie is amazing.  I loved it and I know you will too.  It is very balanced, neither too sweet nor too tart.  It was a home run on the first try.  I'm excited to see how this pie will do at the county fair.

Piece out!
Justin

Butterscotch Custard Pie

I asked my dad what kind of pie he wanted me to make for Father's Day and his response was "Butterscotch."  After looking at about 8 recipes, I settled on this one found in a pie recipe book recently found in my parent's basement.

Ingredients:
Single pie crust
4 eggs
18 oz of evaporated milk
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of sugar

Directions:
Beat eggs.  Add evaporated milk and brown sugar and stir until brown sugar dissolves.  Pour filling into a partially baked pie crust.  Bake for 1 hour at 350oF, or until the filling no longer jiggles when you move it.  You may want to cover the edges with foil to prevent over browning for the first 25 minutes. Cool on a rack.  Whip the heavy cream and sugar together and dollop or pipe onto the pie.  Chill.

I was very hesitant about this pie.  I was expecting a butterscotch puddingy flavor.  I was wrong.  This was delicious.  I would gladly make this again.

Piece out!
Justin

Pieramisù

On my trip to Italy, I went to a little place called ZUM everyday in Rome.  ZUM is a tiramisù café.  ZUM is amazing.  They have a tiramisù called Gusto ZUM, that has a layer of chocolate hazelnut spread in it.  I decided that would make a great pie.

Ingredients:
18 ladyfingers
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of melted butter
2 tablespoons of espresso powder
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of sugar
8 oz of mascarpone
3/4 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of chocolate hazelnut spread
cocoa powder

Directions:
Pulse together ladyfingers, brown sugar, and espresso powder in a food processor.  Drizzle in melted butter.  Press into a pie plate.  Refrigerate.  Preheat oven to 300oF.  Bake crust for 10 minutes.  Vigorously whisk yolks and sugar in a double boiler until it has tripled in size (5 to 8 minutes).  Remove the bowl from heat and stir in the mascarpone.  Whip the cream until it holds firm peaks.  Fold whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture.  Spread half the filling in the bottom of the crust and chill the other half.  Melt the chocolate hazelnut spread and pour over the filling in the crust.  Pipe the remaining chilled filling over the chocolate hazelnut layer.  Dust with cocoa powder.  Refrigerate overnight before serving.

This tasted amazing.  However, the chocolate hazelnut spread turned hard in the refrigerator.  Next time, I would dilute it with the other 1/4 cup of heavy cream (since you know I bought an 8 oz container).  I think that would solve that problem.  Also I did not chill my second half of the filling, so my piping looks like crap.  Chilling it would definitely help.  Also, this slice was cut after only 3 hours in the fridge.  The slices cut the next day looked much better and tasted much better.

Piece out!
Justin

Italian Wheat Easter Pie

My dear friend Patrick told me about this pie.  So I decided to try it out.  I was not disappointed.  My mom has even already requested this pie again for Easter next year.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of water
1/4 cup of Farro
3 eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
4 ounces of diced candied fruit
12 oz of ricotta
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
1/2 tablespoon of shortening
1/2 teaspoon of salt
double pie crust
powdered sugar

Directions: 
Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan. Pour in wheat and allow to boil 40 minutes. As wheat is cooking, beat eggs in a large bowl while gradually adding 1 cup sugar to eggs. Mix in fruit, ricotta, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and lemon rind.  When wheat is ready, drain in a colander and rinse with warm water. Place the cooked wheat in a small bowl, and mix in shortening and salt. Stir until shortening is melted, then stir wheat mixture into ricotta mixture.  Preheat oven to 375oF.  Line a 9 inch pie pan with pastry. Cut remaining pastry into strips for tops of pies. Spoon filling into pan. Cover with pastry strips to form lattice tops. Crimp edges.  Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, until crust is golden brown. Sprinkle pie with 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar and allow to cool at room temperature. Chill overnight before serving

I wanted to brush my crust with an egg wash.  If you are going to do this, I suggest you do the egg wash before you cut the strips.  Once you lay them down on the pie, it is almost impossible to brush it on without the strips sinking into the filling.  

It's definitely a different kind of pie than I usually make.  It is dense and almost cake like.   But that being said, it is really good and I highly suggest it.

Piece out!
Justin

Dolci Misti Pie

On a recent to trip to Italy, I ate a lot of great desserts.  Here is one of two pies inspired on that trip.  It is combination of everything that I loved that is not tiramisù.

Ingredients:
150g amaretti
1/3 cup of sugar
6 tablespoons of melted butter
1 can of dark sweet cherries (Amarena, if you can find them and you're a millionaire)
500g of ricotta
175g of sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 cup of pine nuts

Directions:
Process the amaretti and 1/3 cup of sugar in a food processor until it looks like coarse sand.  Drizzle in the melted butter.  Press into a pie plate.  Stick crust in refrigerator.  Preheat oven to 325oF.  Whisk ricotta, sugar, yolks, lemon zest and cinnamon together.  Remove crust from refrigerator and place drained cherries in a single layer on the bottom.  Pour the ricotta mixture over the top.  Sprinkle with pine nuts.  Bake for 1 hour.  Allow to cool.  Refrigerate.

This pie had all the flavors I was looking for.  It was amazing.  I wasn't thrilled with the crust, but I modified the recipe above to make it better. This pie just tastes like Italy.

Piece out!
Justin