I have a new found respect for those who bake pie completely from scratch. Growing up, my mom made pie, but *cheated* by using the store bought pie crusts (which are pretty decent I might add). So I was never exposed to the true art of making a pie completely start to finish.
This weekend I was ambitious. My friend Ted had people over for dinner (where he made homemade pizza; delicious by the way). He mentioned Key Lime pie was his favorite, so I thought I would give it a go. The recipe seemed [relatively] straightforward and I like trying new things, so why not?
Ok, two day process here we go (I’m a busy girl and didn’t have that many consecutive hours to devote to pie!). I made the crust a day in advance, a long procedure that would have been easier with a food processor, but more on that topic later. After mixing, refrigeration, rolling, a glass of wine, and more refridgeration the dough was finally ready for some oven time…ahh golden brown goodness. I could already tell that real crust is more satisfying to eat than store bought. The time, effort, love and sweat that went into that pyrex dish was intense.
Fast-forward to day two. I zested, squeezed, boiled and simmered over medium heat to produce a custard-like filling that tasted pretty damn good (in my humble non-biased opinion). Into the pie shell it went! Next…meringue! Not hard to make, but when directions tell you to dump the entire batch on the pie it becomes intimidating. What if it doesn’t spread out over the pie? What if mixes with the filling or worse…SINKS IN THE MIDDLE? These thoughts crossed my mind, so I cheated and put a little bit on at a time and somewhat connected them together. Then pretended I was artistic and made some of those fancy peaks and valleys before putting in the oven again…and Voila!
Now here is where I would like to say it was a huge success and I have orders coming in to make more. Sadly, something, somewhere went wrong. The pie never solidified and had a viscosity somewhere in the range of ketchup. Defeat. It was disappointing to introduce new friends to my cooking with a pie disaster. They were awesome sports about the whole lack-of pie incident and most everyone still ate it, even though Alex picked up an ice cream cake (seriously, it’s like he had ESP and saw this coming). And then they even gave it a decent review, calling it, “Key Lime Pudding.” I tried it as well, it wasn’t terrible and the crust was actually pretty good, but it was pudding and not pie…oops. Perhaps in the future I won’t make new friends guinea pigs for my cooking, but what’s the fun in that? (Sorry guys)
Going back to pie as an art form, it seems that just about everyone has their own family recipe. So not only is it art, but a family heirloom as well. I mentioned my disastrous pie to a couple of friends and they immediately offered alternative recipes. One friend said her grandmother had an easy key lime pie made with a graham cracker crust and didn’t require any eggs. Another mentioned her family recipe was a favorite and loved by everyone who has ever tasted it. The great part about these heirlooms is that most people are willing to share them, so they can be incorporated into your own family and passed on for others to enjoy.
