The key to my finale: Key Lime Pie

My last pie for 2012: Key Lime. It's my husband's favorite. Plus it seemed right to start with a citrus cream pie and end with one. 

I broke the "rules". Many baking experts say if you are making something for the first time, follow the recipe perfectly and then tweak from there. I looked at five different recipes online and just made it up. My hunches on the quantities worked out and it tasted amazing.

The whipped topping is a little free style. To get the canned whipped cream look, I put my home made whipped topping in my cookie press with a pastry tip. Anything that shoots out whipped cream by a trigger gets any child's attention. My oldest son (who is 9 and a budding foodie) begged me to let him help. Honestly, I got a little frustrated with him at first because he wanted the whipped cream to be a gigantic mound, but we negotiated the design and it turned out pretty.

Recipe below. Note we like our citrus pies a little on the tart side. If you like things really tart, I recommend only putting whipped cream on the edge and increase the zest to 2 tbsp. If you like your key lime pie a little sweet, I would increase the sugar in the crust to 1/2 cup and omit the zest. I use a glass 10" pie pan, so if your pan is smaller, you will need to adjust the amounts.

Thanks to everyone who helped and supported me with my New Year's resolution to make a pie a month. It's been a blast!

Betsy's Key Lime Pie
crust:
2 sleeves graham crackers
1/4 c sugar
1 stick butter, melted
filling:
2 egg yolks
2, 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
1/4 c sour cream
1 tbsp key lime zest
1 c key lime juice (about 40-45 limes)
topping:
1 c whipping cream
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Crust: Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Grease a 10" pie pan with PAM and wipe off excess spray. Break the crackers into chunks in a food processor. Pulse until crackers are crumbs. Add sugar and pulse a few times. While the processor is running, pour in the melted butter until it looks like wet sand. Press crust into pan and bake for 8 minutes. Allow to cool completely before filling.

Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Mix egg yolks, condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and zest in a bowl with a whisk until completely blended. Pour into cooled crust and bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour and then put the pie in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours until chilled through.

Topping: Mix whipping cream, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Beat on high with an electric mixer until peaks form. Either place in a pastry bag/cookie press with a fluted pastry tip or spread on the top of the pie. 


Now Bake That!
 





 

Double up

It's that time of year. When my coworkers and I all make dozens of cookies, bring them to work and line up an assembly line of baked deliciousness. We pile cookies into tins and deliver them all over the office to people we want to acknowledge with carbs.

Thank you, you're amazingly awesome cookies. 
Happy Holidays cookies. 
Secret preemptive bribes for favors in the future cookies.

I made these peanut butter cup cookies a few years ago and everyone was hooked. I like to call them double peanut butter cookies because the peanut butter comes in two ways. The cookie and the candy. 

I try to mix it up and ask each year, "What should I make?" They all give me that eye-squinty stare and then the command that they pose as a question: "You are making peanut butter cup cookies right?"

Okay. Okay. 

These cookies are great for cookie exchanges since they're so cute!

Betsy's Double Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
1 1/4c flour
3/4 t. baking soda
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/2 c butter, softened
1/2 c peanut butter, creamy
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
peanut butter cups (around 48), unwrapped

Preheat the oven 375 degrees. Spray a mini muffin pan very well with cooking spray or use mini baking cups. Beat butter for 30 seconds. Add peanut butter and sugars. Beat until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Add dry ingredients. Roll a small amount of dough into a ball and place in the cups, squishing in the dough just a little. The cup should be around half full. Bake for 5 minutes. Take out, press unwrapped peanut butter cups and bake for 7-8 more minutes. Cool completely before removing from the pan. Store at room temperature or the refrigerator.


Now Bake That!

Blonde ambition

Sometimes you want chocolate chip cookies but don't have the time to bake them. (Ya know, one pan, 10-12 minutes at a time). To solve my issue I scoured recipes books. I received a copy of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa cookbook, foolproof for the holidays from my in-laws. I flipped through the pages and the answer was...blondies!

Here is the recipe:  Chocolate Chunk Blondies

I used chocolate chips instead of chunks but they turned out just like the picture. Instead of flouring the pan, I sprayed it with butter pam and used a piece of parchment paper. I cooled them completely so I had no problems pulling these suckers out of the pan. I took them to my boys' chess tournament and a teenager ate one for breakfast. He couldn't wait! It wasn't just him. I brought home an empty pan. The kids loved them.

Now Bake That!