Dad's Thanksgiving Key Lime Pie

Yep, this is my Dad's favorite pie.  Without fail, every year, two pies get made at each holiday get together. One so that Dad can have pie after dinner as well as an entire pie for him to take home for left-overs, which means there has to BE enough for leftovers...

Oh well, that's the best part of any holiday, right?  However, I am thinking that after my Dad's stalking of everyone who had a piece of "his" pie this year, we may need to consider making a third... Just saying.  Our family is big and Dad can lay down a guilt-inducing stare for those that decide to share his pie. And let's face it, we all want a piece of this pie!

This year, my family had a Thanksgiving Do-Over.  That is to say, we redid our family holiday tradition in December because some of us had to work and therefor we missed our holiday get together. Not to worry, we have no issues with having an unscheduled "real Thanksgiving" even if it falls off the normal holiday calendar. We enjoyed it immensely and it may even become a tradition if we ever need a fallback Turkey Day.

I had been considering this very post because when we go to make it, we always have to fake the recipe and it turns out right every time. Still, I figured that I would write it down today so we always have it at hand and also because my hungry brother just texted me. He needs a pie fix, poor dear. :) Big Sis can accommodate you, so here it is, Love. Let me know how it goes, ok?

Graham Cracker Crust Ingredients:

* 8 inch premade graham cracker pie crust

OR make your own, it's super easy:

* 2 packages of graham crackers or favorite cookie that makes sense with this pie
* 2 tbsp sugar
* 1 stick of melted butter or coconut oil

1. Put the crust ingredients in the food processor and process until the mixture looks like wet sand.
2. Dump the contents into a greased or buttered spring form pan or 8 inch pie pan.
3. Using a small glass, gently press the crumb mixture on the bottom and sides of the pan. Doesn't need to be perfect, Brother.

**Also, if you don't have a food processor, just put the sugar and graham crackers into a zip lock bag and beat the crap out of it with a rolling pin. Ok, just kidding, you don't need to kill it, just roll the pin back and forth over the crackers to make a crumb and it doesn't have to be a fine crumb either. Chunky is good here, too.  Put the crumbs in a bowl and work in the melted butter with a fork until it is crumbly as instructed above. Dump this into the pan and form the same way I mentioned.  The results will be just as good.

Key Lime Pie Filling
* 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1/2 cup lemon, key lime or rangpur lime juice (pink grapefruit might be awesome?!)
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
* 3 egg yolks, save egg whites for the meringue or make macarons :)
* 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar or 1 tbsp of corn starch (there is usually corn starch in powdered sugar and I have substituted this successfully before)

1. In medium bowl, combine milk, lemon juice, and zest; blend in egg yolks and powdered sugar.
2. Pour into ready made crust.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Meringue Topping (optional of course):
* 3 egg whites
* 1/4 teaspoon cream or tartar
* 1/4 cup sugar

1. Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks from.
2. Gradually beat in the sugar until stiff.Spread over filling; seal to edge of crust.
3. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until meringue is golden brown.

French Macarons - a Study in Shells

image courtesy of Laduree - famous famous famous

Ah, this has probably been the most difficult thing I have ever made... Having said that, it was the actual reason I decided it was worth learning how to do: it was difficult. I am a sucker for a challenge!  An elusive cooking technique that would take time to understand, let alone master?  More than I could resist.

The French can make boiling water look difficult.  To watch videos from Pierre Hermé made this seem an impossible feat.  I researched on the internet, surfed blog after blog, bought numerous Kindle books on the topic and finally just decided that it was all hype.  Nothing but fluff about fluff...

What I came to realize is that while the technique is veiled in mystery and all kinds of ideas that seem more like superstition to me than anything else, the actual process of making macarons is all science. And while it is only a handful of simple ingredients, everything about the recipe depends on your environment.  Sound at all familiar?  

There was one recipe my mother and grandmothers used to make that really did depend on the weather and that was meringue.  As it turns out, macarons are actually just meringues mixed with ground almonds. No big deal, right? Right. No big deal.  

Let's attempt to demystify and simplify this hyped up little treasure...  I saw a u tube video of the daftest ding dong of a girl make these her first try and it validated all I already suspected: the Frenchies are on crack (just kidding Frenchies, I love you!). These are not only easy to make but they are truly fun and terribly addictive, so beware. The only thing you will have to work hard at is to not devour them before you have finished making your first batch. Seriously. Powerfully attractive little buggers but worth every bit of effort.

For this lesson, a Study in Shells, we will focus on just the cookie part and once we have that mastered, we can talk about filling. Trouble is, I can't keep them in the house long enough to need a filling... :)

Ingredients:

• 165 g of powdered sugar
• 165 g of  whole almonds or almond flour
• 115 g egg whites (room temperature) beaten to stiff peaks
• 150 g organic granulated sugar mixed well with 
• 1/2 tsp cream of tarter and pinch of salt

Process:

Resting shells, not quite ready for baking... still too shiny.

1. Process almonds and powdered sugar and set aside. **Don't let it process too long or the heat from the motor can turn this into almond butter. Instead, pulse the almonds and sugar until it is as fine as you can get it. If you want to use a sifter to catch the larger bits, that is a good idea, if you care about that. I don't bother.
2. Mix granulated sugar, pinch of salt and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar in a small bowl and set aside.
3. In a stand mixer or mixing bowl, beat room temperature egg whites to medium peaks.
4. Slowly sprinkle in the sugar/salt/cream of tartar mixture and continue to beat until stiff and shiny peaks form.
5. Turn mixer to the lowest speed and slowly sprinkle in the almond/sugar mixture.  This is also a good time to add your food  coloring gel, if you are coloring your shells. We will get into flavoring agents in a later post. Right now, let's just work on getting some good shells.
6. Turn off mixer and fill your piping bag with batter.
7. Pipe rounds about the size of a quarter to start. You can go bigger or smaller but we need a frame of reference and I find this size to be about perfect for me.  You will see what I mean. On your last sheet, try a couple of different sizes to see what works best for you.
8. Pipe everything at once so skins form on the shells. 

Hint: The shells go from very shiny to very dull and don't stick to your fingers if set.

Baking:

Bake at 275-280 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes.  

This is my sweet spot for my particular oven. I have tried so many different temps and baking times and this was what 3 months of effort yielded for me. :) Try it first and alter it if you must. You may have no choice if your oven is at all finicky or unpredictable.

Lessons I had to learn because I was a non-believer:

1. To make almond "flour". I use whole almonds from Costco and don't worry one bit about the skins on the almonds. Makes not a bit of difference so save yourself some money and make your own "almond flour".  That's just another way of saying: finely ground almonds.
2. Egg whites should be at room temperature for best results.
3. To get properly formed "feet", you must let the shells rest for at least 10-15 minutes, maybe longer, if you have high humidity. The shells need to dry out a bit so they form a skin. This allows the shells to lift or rise properly during the baking.  If yours crack or look a tad volcanic, it is likely due to missing this minor, but important resting step.
4. Pipe them all at the same time. Sounds crazy but it is easier. I cut parchment paper to fit my pan and cut 4 or 5 more pieces the same size so I can line them all on the countertop or table and pipe them in one go.  They dry properly and your batter won't deflate in between pipings.  It's meringue, remember, so pipe it while it's fluffy.
5. Your oven is different than mine so temperature here is relative. Arggg.  I know. But here is the deal: Bake your first batch at 275 degrees. Then try 280 if those don't turn out the way you think they should. Suffer a cook's guilt and test one by eating one or twenty to see what the texture is like. Test again after they have cooled. My best macarons are done between 275-280 F.  I've tried starting low, rotating trays, turning it up high. Nonsense.  Unnecessary if you find the right temperature for your oven.
6. May sound like a pain, but bake only 1 sheet at a time, middle rack, until you get the hang of it. I can't seem to bake multiple sheets and still get good feet without a lot of fussing. I can't handle it so go one sheet at a time.
7. Parchment is actually better than silpats.  I love silpats but can't afford to buy 6 and parchment paper is divine. It can be reused until it can't... I know, they say it can't but it's another industry fib, like how some clothes can't be washed and have to be dry cleaned. Whatever.  Not only does it work fine for many batches of macarons but the shells leave marks which can help you learn to be consistent with your piping. Just pipe onto the same circles your first batch of macarons left behind.
8. Piping - do not get French fancy. Keep your piping bag and tip straight up and down and pipe directly then pull straight up. If you have a peak, just tap it down once the shells have rested.  In time, you can learn to pipe straight up and down the drag to the side to keep the tail or peak from forming but in the beginning, just do your best to keep the shell round and even; that will be hard enough if you've never used a piping bag before. My mother in law said my first ones looked like terds... Nice. But she was right. Don't worry about it. They don't taste like terds... LOL!
9. Piping bags - great but totally unnecessary. Load your batter into a gallon zip lock bag, zip the bag almost all the way to let air escape. Twist the end to keep it all compressed towards one of the bag corner-ends and snip the tip off the bag when you are ready to go. Just be sure you are ready... ;)
10. Weigh your ingredients exactly. I mean, exactly as if someone were grading you on it.  Exact measurements (don't groan :) is key to doing it right. Weighing is important because it is an exact ratio of ingredients and each ingredient weighs differently.  Do you know how many cups of almonds are equal to 165 g of almonds? EXACTLY. Neither the hell do I! :) Weigh it, my friend.
11. Save your egg yolks for making Zoku pudding pops, TexMex Valley Lemon Curd or Gelato. :)

Paris in the Summer

I like Paris in the rain... Ok, I like Paris anytime.  Our trip to Paris was to celebrate my husband's college reunion and classmates from all over the world flew in for the celebration.  Wonderful people who either lived in Paris during their schooling or live there currently with their families or as this case is for myself, just along for the French ride.

Whatever the reason for visiting France during July, I have to admit it is a pretty spectacular time to visit despite it being well known for misty showers and evening thunderstorms.  It didn't much break its overcast attitude while we were there for six days and I was delighted. The weather was beautiful even if a little damp at a times. No matter, just whip out the old umbrella or pop into a cafe for a leisurely espresso or wine or heck, just stay the whole day chatting and watching passersby enjoy the scenic strolls as much as we did watching them.

During our stay, the menu we saw across town in the tourist-y areas are all pretty similar.  Beautiful fresh salads, mainly Nicoise or chef salads, carpaccios of fish or beef, tartares of fish or beef and of course, the beloved baguettes with ham and cheese, eaten at practically any time of the day you can find them.  We picked some up our first day on the way back to the hotel that evening just in case we experienced some jetlag munchies which usually occurs at a time when the hotel kitchens and many kitchens, for that matter, are closed for the night.  Bummer when you are quite hungry so having done this rodeo before, we were quite well prepared because we sure did need those sandwiches later that night. Light fare. Indisputably French.

One reason for this post is to highlight a love affair that just began... something I've never had before this trip and can't wait for the next opportunity to have it again. French macarons are my newest foodie obsession.  Not one for frilly desserts or overly sweet sweets, these little delights were full of magic and allure.  Even if you aren't a frilly kind of gal, the jewel toned colors of these treats seduce you and the myriad of flavors you come across in Paris overwhelm and delight no matter who you are.  Eye candy in its truest sense.

So since being back home and waxing on and on endlessly to anyone who will listen, I endeavored to make a batch.  Merinque with a little powdered sugar and almond flour. How hard can it be?  Stay tuned to find out just how freaking hard, folks!  I will attempt to document my education when I can put down the piping bag long enough to write about my trials. And small, step by step tribulations because let me just tell you, it is a steep learning curve. Be prepared to eat or give away a LOT of hard won experience because it doesn't come easily or quickly.  But, I carry on and hope to have this mastered by Christmas if I am at all lucky at my new found love...

Shortcake Muffins

Shortcake Ingredients:
- 2 c flour 
- 1/4 c sugar 
- 4 tsp baking powder 
- 1/4 tsp salt 
- Dash nutmeg
- 1/2 c butter, diced (should be soft enough to cut but not melted)
- 1/2 c milk 
- 2 eggs, separated

1.  Mix the above dry ingredients in a bowl. 

2.  Add butter to the above dry ingredients using a fork to mix in the butter until a crumbly texture forms. 

3.  Mix egg yolks with the milk in a coffee cup and save the egg whites for later, maybe Macarons. 

4.  Next, add the yolk/milk mixture to the flour mixture until a dough forms. 

5.  Spoon into small muffin tins or make balls using a cookie scoop onto a baking sheet. 

6.  Bake @ 450 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. 

Topping Suggestions:
- Additional sugar (about 1 tbsp) 
- 1 c whipping cream 
- 2 1/2 c strawberries 

1.  Mix sugar to taste with whipping cream to form soft peaks. I also add a little vanilla. 
2.  Top mini muffins with fresh strawberries and whipped cream just before serving. 

This shortcake recipe makes such cute bite size muffins that I always bake it this way but you can certainly use any pan form you like, just test the center with a toothpick like Mama taught you to test for doneness. If the toothpick comes clean, it is done. If any moisture or crumbs adhere to the toothpick once you remove it from your test muffin, give it another couple of minutes, depending on your oven. Don't overbake them or they will get too dry and crumbly. Who cares, right? It will just taste more like a cookie than a muffin.