Italian Meringue Pie

There is nothing I love more about summer than its evenings. The lightening bugs come out, flickering about the lawn, while the sun slowly sinks down behind the trees. The sky above looks like sherbet with streaks of faded pink and orange hues, and somewhere in the distance, Sinatra’s record plays loudly into the still night air. The most enjoyable moment however, is sitting outside on the backyard porch finishing the night off with a slice of pie, or in this case, Italian Meringue Pie.

With its butter rich crust, berry compote, and cloud of toasted meringue this pie has taken a departure far from the tradition lemon meringue – not to mention the fact that this time, the lemons have been substituted with limes. Enjoy!

Italian Meringue Pie

(Adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine – August 2011)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Inactive Prep Time: 2 hours – overnight

Cook Time: Approximately 1 hour

Serves: 8

For Blind-Baked Pie Crust you will need:

2 cups AP flour

½ cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

¼ cup vegetable shortening

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

For Lime Curd you will need:

3 freshly squeezed limes

Lime zest

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks (set aside egg whites for meringue)

½ cup white sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

¼ cup of whipping cream

For Blackberry (Raspberry) Compote you will need:

½ cup fruity red wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon)

½ cup water

¼ cup sugar

3 cups fresh or frozen berries (I used raspberries)

For Meringue you will need:

2 large eggs whites

½ cup white sugar

2 Tbsp. corn syrup

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup raspberries for garnish (optional)

PREPARATION

Blind-Baked Pie Crust- Process flour, butter vegetable shortening, sugar, and salt in a food processor until butter resembles tiny pebbles. Transfer to a large bowl and gradually add ½ cup ice water until dough is a mixture of clumpy wet pieces and sandier pieces. Press plastic wrap over surface of dough. Chill in bowl at least 1 hour or overnight if you wish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough dough and fit into a prepared pie plate. Line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. After about 15-20 minutes depending on how hot your oven is, remove crust from oven. Reduce the temperature to 325 degrees F. Use the back of a fork to press down any bubbles that have formed. Return to oven and let bake for about another 15 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Lime Curd- In a medium size bowl, stir together lime juice, zest, eggs, egg yolks, and sugar. Set bowl over a large saucepan of gently simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). Whisk until mixture has thickened slightly. Add butter and cream and continue to cook until mixture has thickened, the whisk leaves a path when lifted from curd. Strain curd into prepared bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of curd. Chill until cold about 2 hours.

Blackberry (Raspberry) Compote- Bring red wine, sugar, and ½ cup water to a simmer in a medium saucepan over high heat: reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced to ½ cup. Let cool. Add berries and fold gently to coat.

Spread lime curd over cooled pie crust. Strain berries and spread over curd. Cover and chill for 1 hour.

Meringue- If toasting meringue in oven, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat whites until soft peaks form. Set aside. Stir sugar, corn syrup, and ¼ cup water in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium0high and allow to boil without stirring, occasionally swirling pan. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, beat in salt to egg white mixture until soft peaks form. Slowly add hot sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into whites until meringue is firm and glossy. Continue beating until cool. Spoon meringue over pie and place in over for about 5-8 minutes, or until meringue is toasted is some spots. Chill completely before serving.

In the original recipe, the berry compote is placed before the lime curd is spread over the crust, and the original recipe calls for blackberries. Just a few minor changes, but same delicious pie!

xx,

Tammy

Diary of A Baking Gypsy

Sour Cream Cheesecake with Homemade Blueberry Sauce

Cheesecake is a magnificent and marvelous creation. It is, in my opinion, more than just a velvety smooth cheese filling encased in a sweet crust. For my family, cheesecake is the heart of our dessert table. Looking back, I don’t believe there has ever been a family occasion where the cheesecake hasn't made an appearance...

Usually when I make cheesecake I like using ricotta cheese. However, this time, I used sour cream in its place. I used the usual graham cracker crust and then topped it all off with a homemade blueberry sauce.

Sour Cream Cheesecake with Homemade Blueberry Sauce

(Semi-Adapted from Martha Stewart)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: Approximately 1 hour 15 minutes

Inactive Prep Time: 15 minutes

For Graham Cracker Crust you will need:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 sheets graham cracker crumbs

3 tablespoons white sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

For Sour Cream Filling you will need:

8 ounces low fat cream cheese

½ cup sour cream

½ cup white sugar

2 large eggs

Orange zest

1 teaspoon vanilla

For Homemade Blueberry Sauce you will need:

1½ cups frozen blueberries

½ cup white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons butter

Juice of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine all ingredients for Graham Cracker Crust. Press firmly into bottom of pan and up the sides of the pan. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

For the cheese filling, beat cream cheese in a stand mixer with paddle attachment until fluffy. Reduce speed to love, and add sour cream, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Beat until well combined and pour into chilled crust. (Make sure not to over mix).

Cook the cheesecake for about an hour or until the cake has set but is still wobbly in the center. Let the cheesecake cool on a wire rack. In the meantime, combine all ingredients listed for the homemade blueberry sauce in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the berries breakdown and the mixture thickens to a sauce-like consistency.

Serve chilled and with a scoop of ice cream if desired!

xx,

Tammy

I will be submitting this recipe to The Taste of Pearl City for Any One Can Cook: Series 26!

Soft & Zesty Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies are my forte, respectively. I’ve tested over a dozen recipes, trying to find the PERFECT recipe. What is the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie recipe? In my opinion, the perfect recipe is one that does not sacrifice good taste to limit calories.

Thus, I give you my soft and zesty chocolate chip cookies. I have baked many a batch and spent long hours figuring out the perfect measurements to capture that sweet goodness with a soft center, without an abundance of ingredients.

I was thrilled to hear that Reeni a.k.a. Cinnamon Girl from Sugar & Spice was on a mission to find the “WORLD’S BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE.” There were no second thoughts for me here- this was the chocolate chip cookie bake-off that I have been preparing for my whole life!!! :) hehehe...

So, without further ado, I give you...

SOFT & ZESTY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: Approximately 10 minutes

¼ cup dark brown sugar

¼ cup white sugar

½ cup confectioner’s sugar

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup vegetable shortening

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups cake flour

¾ cup AP flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

9 ounces of chocolate chips (I prefer dark chocolate)

Zest of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine sugars, butter and shortening. Mix on a low speed for approximately 3-5 minutes. Beat the egg and vanilla and add to butter/sugar mixture on low speed until well incorporated with batter.

In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder and baking soda. Gradually add dry ingredients to butter mixture, on low speed. Finally, add chocolate chips and orange zest until combined.

On cookie sheets, shape cookie dough using an ice cream scooper. Make sure to flatten each cookie and place on top and middle shelf of oven. Bake for approximately 10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transfer onto wire rack to finish cooling.

BAKER’S NOTES:

I learned that when it comes to chocolate chip cookies it is very important to get your brown sugar right. Dark brown sugar should usually be used in chocolate chip cookies rather than light brown. Dark brown sugar gives it an extra bit of density and allows it rise a little more than when you use light brown sugar according to Tina Casceli of the famed West Village bakery, Milk & Cookies & Ashley Swider of YesUMay Cookies, in a recent article specifically on chocolate chip cookies.

When it comes to mixing, make sure to mix the ENTIRE cookie batter on the lowest speed. Over mixing will change the consistency of the final product.

Another important note to keep in mind is to bake the cookies with parchment paper. This helps the cookies bake better.

Finally, one last step to getting that absolutely perfect cookie is to under bake your cookies. To do this, make sure you know the temperature of your oven. Every oven is different. Once you understand the settings of your oven’s temperature, you can time how long your cookies take to bake. When you do, make sure to take them out at most, two minutes earlier than the usually directed time, i.e. 12 minutes. I baked this batch for 10 minutes and the following day, they were still perfectly soft.

I hope you try this recipe out soon! The orange zest gives the classic Chocolate Chip Cookie an interesting twist!

xx,

Tammy

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REENI'S CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE ROUND-UP!!!!