Key Lime Pie... An Addiction Story

The original recipe for Key Lime Pie can be found on FoodNetwork.com at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/key-lime-pie-recipe1.html courtesy of Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant.

I love Florida, it's my favorite place on this planet. I also love pie, it is by far my preferred dessert above all else. The first time I tried Key Lime Pie was in Florida (fitting), and since then I have been hooked on this cool, creamy, tart lovely. I love how it's so contradictory to itself, yet it works. Sweet versus tart, the lime screams refreshing while the texture screams decadence and luxury, then the graham cracker grounds everything and makes you think "homey".

Sadly many people have had a tenuous relationship with this treat. Often when you talk to people about Key Lime Pie they constantly talk about the large swing of awesomeness versus suckatude they've experienced. Frustratingly this is caused by the usual suspects in food, odd preservatives, fake flavoring, and fake coloring easily ruin something that is supposed to be simple and balanced. If you've had a bad experience with Key Lime Pie I ask you to remember one thing, any food can be ruined by such things... give it one more try.

For this recipe you will need:

Ingredients:

For the Crust:
1/3 of a pound of graham crackers
5 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
1/3 cup of sugar

For the Filling:
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons key lime zest (1 teaspoon key lime zest)(will discuss later)
1 14 ounce can of sweetened  condensed milk
2/3 cup of fresh squeezed key lime juice

For the Whipped Cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream (chilled)
2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar (powdered sugar)
(1/2 tablespoon or more vanilla extract)(will discuss later)

Equipment:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
Food Processor (optional but recommended)
Disposable (preferred) or Reusable Pie Tin
Hand Juicer or Squeeze Juicer (preferred)

Before you begin pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.

I want to get something clear before we go too far in to this process; Key Lime Pie is NOT supposed to be green. I said it. It's true. Deal with it. If you see Key Lime Pie that is actually green, I would steer clear of said product. Now we may begin.

Step one is the crust, being as it's hard to have a pie without it.

Begin by setting up your food processor, and putting your graham crackers in whole. Your going to pulse the crackers about 10-12 times until they are broken up pretty well. My food processor only has "pulse" and "on" as options, so go ahead and give your graham crackers a spin until they are a uniform consistency. Be careful not to OVER process them though, we are not trying to make a 'graham flour'.

Should you not own a food processor fear not, for you are not screwed! You can process your graham crackers by getting a gallon size Ziploc bag, and crushing them with a rolling pin until you are satisfied with the consistency. The reason I use a food processor? Pure, laziness.

(picture above is after pulsing, you want them more consistent and smaller for end product)

When your graham crackers are the proper consistency you may now add your melted butter and sugar. I would recommend if your using the food processor that you pulse the ingredients together before you take them for the final spin. Also you may need to manually mix the ingredients slightly from time to time with a spatula. Once combined go ahead and let the processor mix it for another minute or so, and you'll be ready to poor your mixture in to your pie pan.

If your not using a food processor, simply poor your crackers, sugar, and butter in to a bowl and mix with a spatula or spoon until everything is combined well. Once combined, go ahead and poor the mixture in to a pie pan as stated above.

OK so I'll admit this is the first time making a scratch made graham cracker crust actually turned out well for me. Starting from the middle start to press down the graham cracker, and make sure when you start to spread out you concentrate on getting the graham cracker in to the corners well. Think more 'squish' as opposed to 'spread' as you do this. Take your time, don't force it, keep squishing, and you'll get to the end product desired.

Now it's time to put your pie crust in the oven. Make sure you put it in the middle rack of your oven, do not put it too high or too low. Set your timer for 8 minutes, and when it goes off take out the crust and put it to the side to cool.

Now we get to work on the 'meat' of the pie, the filling! As with many things in life this is much simpler than it appears, but if you're not careful you can make a serious mess of things.

Start by doing all the foot work prior to trying to mix things. I tend to try and get things that are a pain the butt out of the way first, so I started by separating my eggs. If you want a tutorial on separating eggs, please refer to my Creme Brulee post. There is a video that will guide you step by step.

Next you can zest your Key Limes. Above I mentioned I would talk about the amount of zest that goes with the recipe. When I made this, I stuck to the recipe, and found the Pie was kung pow tart. Yes yes I know it's supposed to be tart I don't need to hear the lecture, but it's also supposed to be somewhat balanced. I actually had to use more whipped cream after all the pictures had been taken, so if you LOVE LOVE LOVE tart Lime flavor, proceed with two teaspoons, for me, I'm going to cut it in half next time. Also remember when you zest try not to zest so much from one spot your putting pith (the white stuff under the green) in with your zest.

Next you can juice the Key Limes you just zested. If you're using a hand squeezer like I do, make sure you cut off the tip of the Key Limes, and aim the hole downward through the juicing hole. That way you wont have a potential Key Lime bomb every time you squeeze. When you have the amount of juice you need, you can poor the juice back through the juicer in to a container so you can get any seeds out while keeping the genuine pulp in with the juice.

Now that all the ingredients have been prepped we can move on to mixing the filling. As stated before this is actually quite simple, but if you don't pay attention to detail you can make a real mess of things.

Start by setting up your stand mixer (use your wire whisk attachment), and gather your sweetened condensed milk, Key Lime juice, Key Lime Zest, and Eggs in reaching distance. If you're not using a stand mixer, make sure you have a hand mixer and a mix-safe bowl. Why am I using a stand mixer instead? Again, pure laziness, and more power.

Start by putting your Lime Zest and Egg Yolks in first. Start your mixer slow and quickly build up speed until you're basically at full power. The goal here is to mix until the eggs and zest start to turn into a lighter yellow color, and will almost double in size. This is going to take about 5 minutes. Once you've whipped your Eggs long enough go ahead and start to slowly poor your Condensed Milk in to the mixture (I'd recommend turning down the speed to about half way for this, just until the Condensed Milk has been poured). Turn your speed back up, and keep whipping the mixture for another 3 to 4 minutes (I went with four). Over the course of the whipping you'll see yet again the mixture will lighten slightly in color and expand in size. Turn your speed down by half again, and slowly pour in the Key Lime Juice into your proto-pie mix. DO NOT turn your speed up, and let the two liquids combine. Once the Key Lime Juice has been incorporated, stop. You do not want to over whip once the Juice is in.

Pour proto-pie filling in to your now cooled graham cracker crust, and again put your pie in to the middle rack of your oven. Set your timer for 10 minutes and DON'T STARE AT IT WHEN IT COOKS! Once you pull it out it will look barely cooked (perfect), and you can set it to the side and let it completely cool.

Once the pie has been out of the oven for a bit, and is cool to the touch on the underneath, put it in your fridge (Key Lime Pie is supposed to be cold after all). I'm not entirely sure how long it needs to be in there before completely chilled, personally I left it in over night.

The next day I decided to do a touch of decorating before I served this pie up. You can decorate this however you see fit, or not at all. If you want whipped cream but hate piping, just make the whipped cream and put a dollop on top, or on the side when you serve.

Using the same stand mixer with the same wire whisk attachment, put the aforementioned Whipping Cream, Confectioner's Sugar, and if you follow my recommendation the Vanilla Extract (the original recipe does not call for the Vanilla Extract, but it's a personal preference for me, otherwise you just taste sugar). Start your mixer on slow, let it work some air in to your proto-topping, then continually build speed until your are on high. Leave it on high until the topping basically doubles in size, and you can dip the whisk in and get something called "stiff peaks".

("Stiff Peaks" means you can take your whisk attachment off, dip it in the whipped cream, and when you bring up your whisk the Whipped Cream's point or "Peak" will only dip slightly if at all, not droop over. Be careful though, whip it too long and you'll make butter.)

I happen to own quite of a bit of piping equipment, and enjoy such things, so I decided to bust out a piping tip and decorate my Pie. I was out of piping bags so I simply grabbed a Ziploc bag and cut off a corner. You can pipe like this too, even without a piping tip if you wish. Pictured below is the final product.

If you wan the clean cut look you see above, freeze the pie for 20 minutes before you slice. This will make sure it keeps it's shape.

I love this recipe, and more importantly this Pie. The texture is bang on, it's delightfully tart, sweet, and the graham cracker crust absolutely rounds everything off perfectly. I for sure will make this again, probably a couple times, this summer alone. Make this for your friends and family and you'll impress for sure. Everyone will think this took hours upon hours to make, when in reality it only takes about a hour and a half. Eat well everyone!

(By the way, notice... no green except for the actual Lime)

Creme Brulee (Krem-BroolAy)

The original recipe for Creme Brulee can be found on FoodNetwork.com at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/creme-brulee-recipe/index.html courtesy of one of my food heroes Alton Brown.

Creme brulee is a dessert that most of us have heard of, fewer have tried, and fewer still have attempted at home. Why is this? Because it's at the top of the pantheon of French desserts. We've been lead to believe this is a highly complicated dessert that only the most skilled chefs could hope to conquer (like most of French cuisine). How would you feel if I told you creme brulee only requires four ingredients to cook it? Yes you need a couple skills maybe some cooks don't know, and yes you need a couple pieces of new equipment. BUT this dish is attainable to even a newer aspiring home cook. I will also tell you I've had creme brulee a few times at some seriously nice restaurants, and this was better. Does that mean I'm a great chef... NO. It means that sometimes things are just better when they're made at home. This was the first time I've ever made creme brulee, and I was ecstatic with how easy it really was to pull off. So pull out and put on your fancy pants, because tonight we are having creme brulee for dessert!

For this recipe you will need:

Ingredients:
1 quart heavy cream (carton may say heavy "whipping" cream)
1 vanilla bean
6 large egg yolks (no whites)
1 cup sugar

Equipment:
6 7-8oz ramekins
1 quart water
1-2 2" deep pans
Blow Torch

Before you begin set your oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium sauce pan pour in the entire quart of heavy cream. Set up your cutting board and get out your favorite knife. For this job I used my paring knife. Place the vanilla bean down on the board, and cut in half lengthwise. Take the back of your knife and scrape the vanilla bean's innards out. Put the vanilla innards in to the heavy cream, including the half of the bean that has been gutted, and repeat with the second half. Turn your flame on high, and heat until the cream starts to boil regardless of stirring. When the cream comes to a boil, fish out and discard the two vanilla bean halves, leaving the innards in the cream. Take the cream off the heat, and cover for 15 minutes.

Now that you're finished with the cream, get out your whisk and favorite whisking bowl. You need to separate the egg yolks from the whites. For this I actually cracked the eggs over a separate bowl, to ensure I didn't get any white in my whisking bowl. Once you've cracked all 6 eggs and have all 6 yolks in your whisking bowl, take 1/2 cup of sugar and pour that over your yolks. Whisk the yolks and sugar until your eggs become a pale yellow (this will take a little effort).

*Note: Most recipes will not tell you this, but let your eggs come up to room temperature. Most French recipes actually assume you will do this, because most French people do not keep their eggs in the fridge.

In case you don't know how, I've included an older video of me separating eggs.

While you're waiting for the 15 minutes to expire for your cream, set up your ramekins in your 2" deep pans. You need to pour hot water (doesn't have to be boiling) in the pans, NOT IN THE RAMEKINS, about half way up the side of the ramekins. After you've done this be careful, these pans will be awkward to lift in to the oven.

Once your timer has gone off, and you've set up your ramekins, you need to temper your eggs with the cream. It is crucial you do this properly, because if you don't you'll end up with scrambled eggs in cream... yuck.

Set up your bowl on a non skid surface (a rubber glove, or oven mitt with silicone is perfect). Start to whisk your eggs, very fast. While you whisk, ladle a small amount of the cream (which is still very hot) in to your whisk (WHILE STILL WHISKING! DO NO STOP ONCE YOU'VE STARTED THIS PROCESS). Once that first ladle of cream has been completely worked in, do another. Then another. Keep doing this until the whole of the cream has been worked in to your eggs. If you've done as I've instructed, and whisked fast and never stopped, and added the ladles slowly, you should have perfectly combined the cream and eggs with no scrambling. Once you've combined your cream and eggs, ladle the mixture in to all 6 ramekins until you've used it all, and put the pans in the oven. Set your timer for 45 minutes.

Once the timer goes off take both pans out of the oven, and get the ramekins out as soon as you can, set them on a towel to cool off for a moment and dry. Once they've cooled off for about 10 minutes move them to the fridge, for a minimum of 2 hours.

After the creme brulee has had a chance to chill for a couple hours at least, you can get them ready to serve. Place one on the counter, and with a spoon lightly shake a layer over the entirety of the surface. Take your blow torch and work the flame over the entire surface of the creme brulee. I'll give you this warning, it'll seem to take forever. Then out of no where it will melt down, and even get scorched if your not careful (yes, it happened to me). Let the creme brulee cool off for about 5 minutes, and serve!

Yes as you probably figured, this week's video is the blow torch portion of this. Yes as you probably figured, it was my favorite part!

Creme brulee is fun to make, and excellent to eat! This turned out perfectly, which shocked me because this was the first time I have ever even attempted this dish. You guys are gonna love this, I know my little corner of the world did! Eat well everyone!