TWD: Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie assignment was Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie, chosen by Spike (of Spike Bakes). And it was perfect timing. This week, we'll experience the first of many hot, humid Kentucky summer days. Ice cream pie was a perfect reward after working in the gardne tonight with David's grandmother.
But I'm not so sure that everyone was quite as excited about this ice cream pie. In fact, I'm sure there was lots of gnashing of teeth among the other TWD participants over this pick. This recipe includes two polarizing ingredients...coconut and banana. Before I joined TWD, I had no idea that people had such strong aversions to those two foods. I love bananas, and I don't mind coconut, so I wasn't too concerned about this week's flavor combo. And I hope that lots of people baked along, because this is one tasty pie!

I think it ranks right up there as one of our most simple (and quick!) recipes. The crust was the most time-consuming part, but it only took about 10 minutes to put together (but there was very little real effort involved: crushing cookies into crumbs, melting butter, and stirring coconut until toasted). From there, you slice bananas, whir some bananas, ice cream, and rum in the food processor, and stick it all in the freezer. Easy peasy!
David, Mama, and I really enjoyed this one. After the first bite, I wasn't sure about it, but then I was hooked. Yum! But the very best part? The crust. I could just eat the crust plain. I have a feeling I'll be using it for other pies in the near future. It's so crunchy and flavorful...not too sweet, and not too coconuty. Just perfect crispy perfection.

If you're looking for the perfect summertime dessert, please visit Spike Bakes for the recipe.

Florida Pie

Last weekend, I made dinner for my father-in-law's birthday. Last year, I gave him a choice about his birthday dessert, and he chose banana cream pie. This year, I didn't really give him a choice. But Earl loves Florida, so I thought I'd make Dorie's "Florida Pie."
It was delicious, as are most things I bake from Baking: From My Home to Yours. The pie starts out with a simple graham cracker crust (which is delicious on its own!), and then it gets a little fancy. It's a double-decker pie. The bottom layer is a coconut cream, and the middle layer is lime filling. Dorie's recipe calls for Key limes, but I had no intention of juicing a bazillion little limes to get 1/2 cup of juice. I used regular limes, and they were delicious. I took the recommendation of several TWDers who made this in the past and I included the zest of one lemon in the lime filling. It was tart and limey and incredible! Of course, the top of the pie is covered in meringue.

I got a little over zealous and let my meringue whip a little too long. It was awfully stiff and not so pretty. Not anywhere near as pretty as the meringue on David's grandmother's (Mama) pies, but I guess I don't have quite as much practice as she does, either! All in all, this was a wonderful pie. It was perfect for a springtime birthday, but it would also be a welcome treat during the hot and humid Kentucky summers we'll be experiencing before too long. If you'd like to try the Florida Pie sometime soon, just click the link above, or you can find it on page 340 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

TWD: Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie

Behold, my first meringue pie! Why, oh why, have I spent so many years afraid to make cream pies with meringues?!Linda, of The Tender Crumb, is responsible for this week's pick...the one that busted me out of my no-cream/meringue pie rut. Thank you, Linda! I had huge expectations to live up to on this one, because David's grandmother, Mama, is the Lemon Meringue Pie Queen. She makes lemon meringue pies on a pretty regular basis, and they are good! I wasn't sure if my pie would compare...but David said it was just as good as Mama's lemon meringue pie! Wow!
Mom and Chet (and David, of course) were the lucky taste-testers on this TWD assignment. Chet (the family chef) was very interested to hear that lime juice was used instead of water in the recipe. He said that all of the lemon meringue pies he'd made in the past called for water. I wouldn't know...I've never made one! I'll admit that I was intimidated by this recipe and nearly wimped out. Any time a recipe calls for the use of a candy thermometer and a specific temperature, I freak out. I don't know why...I've never had a bad result. I think I just equate a candy thermometer with some fancy technique. I did use the "supercharge" method to make the cream...I'm a very impatient person, and I couldn't begin to imagine whisking the mixture for 10 minutes. No way. My mixture turned to cream in a matter of a few minutes! I'm still trying not to think about the amount of butter that was blended into the mixture...good grief! But the results were delicious! I do wish I had used a little more ginger; I didn't really taste it much in the finished product. I really enjoyed the tart, zippy taste of the limes. I'll make this one again! If you want to try this super-refreshing pie, you can get the recipe at The Tender Crumb!

Talk Derby (Pie) To Me!

So, unless you've been living under a rock, you're aware of the fact that today was the running of the 135th Kentucky Derby. And here in Kentucky (very near Louisville), it's kind of a big deal. One of the many culinary Derby traditions (second only to the mint julep), is the Derby Pie, which you may not know is actually copyrighted by Kern's Kitchen. They are the only folks who can make "Derby Pie" and the recipe is a closely guarded secret. But that doesn't stop us from looking for a copycat! There are tons of Derby Pie recipes out there, and the best one I've ever had is the one my stepmom, Theresa, makes. But I forgot to get her recipe in time to use it for the Derby Party that I went to today. I checked around on the Internet last night and found a pretty good substitute. I've learned from experience that when people are at a party where they'll be grazing on food all day long that they're not going to sit down and eat a whole piece of pie or cake. If you take a whole pie or cake to one of these type events, it's going to look great, but it will just languish on the counter while people eat chips or cookies. So I decided to make mini-Derby Pies. Little two-bite pies, if you will. Of course, I used Dorie's pie crust recipe, because it's unbeatable.

Here's a shot of my floury countertop with the mini-muffin pan lined with Dorie's pie crust. The first batch I made was a wreck. They tasted great, but I was still working out the kinks. By the time I got this batch done, I was on fire. The secret was to roll out the pie crust super-thin...like 1/16" thick, then to use only a teaspoon of the filling. That gives you pretty much the perfect mini-pie crust to filling ratio. On the first batch, the crust was still kind of doughy and there was too much crust for the filling. But this is perfect.
Here are the filled mini-crusts. The filling kind of reminds me of chocolate chip cookie dough. It's good straight off the spoon. YUM! I was hoping you'd get a better shot of the chocolate chip and walnut chunks peeking out of the dough, but not so much. I really need to work on my food photography skills. But at least I was cooking in the morning on this project, instead of starting at about 8:30 at night.
Here's a shot of a portion of the mini-Derby Pies. The later batches turned out much better...they actually looked like mini-pies instead of muffins.
I made 6 dozen of these Derby pies this morning. I just realized that. I thought I made 3 dozen. Then, while I was adding these pictures, I realized that my mini-muffin tin holds 24 mini-muffins. I filled up the muffin tin 3 times. That's SIX DOZEN DERBY PIES. Holy crap. I came home with about a dozen and a half. I think they were a hit!

So, for those of you who have never had had a Derby pie...are you wondering what they taste like? Luckily, at the party, we had two of the real deal Derby Pies...from Kern's Kitchen. I had one of my three loyal readers, Jason, do a side-by-side taste test. He said that the Kern's Kitchen pie had more of a "pie filling" texture, which I would describe as a chess pie-type filling with chocolate chips and walnuts. He said my mini-pies had a kind of "chocolate-chip cookie dough" texture, which he said was more desireable. So I don't know which would win in a throwdown...probaby Kern's real Derby Pie. But Jason's pretty partial to sweets of any kind. But to only come home with a dozen and a half of the original 6 dozen pies tells me I'm on to something! Want the recipe?

Derby Pie (Shhh...Don't Tell Kern's Kitchen!)

Adapted from a recipe by Starry News from Recipezaar

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup walnuts

Enough crust for a 9-inch pie

Combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Mix well.

Roll out pie dough to 1/16" thickness and cut with a small biscuit cutter to a size that will fit your mini-muffin tin. Fill each mini crust with 1 tsp. filling. It will look skimpy, but I promise, it's just right. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, turning once during baking. Serve slightly warm so the chocolate chips will be melty, but they're really good at room temperature, too.

* I doubled the recipe to get 6 dozen mini-pies. The amount listed above will also make 1 traditional sized Derby pie.

Chocolate Cream TartWow. This was great! I know lots of TWDers were saying that it was "chocolate overload", but I loved it. I have a hard time having too much chocolate, though...I'm not sure that it can be done! And I guess I should say that I really made a chocolate cream pie, not a tart, since I don't have a tart pan. That will have to go on the wish list, since we've got another tart coming up in May. Anyhow...regardless of the pan it was in, it was super-chocolate deliciousness! Over all, the pie wasn't overly sweet, it was just dark chocolatey goodness. Definitely a keeper. I would like to try it sometime with the plain sweet tart dough, just for those who don't like the overwhelming chocolate flavor. The process of the Chocolate Cream Pie began last night at about 8:30...let's check it out:

First, we have the ugly, patched up crust. Who cares about the lumps and patches? Nobody will see it because it's gonna end up slathered in chocolate pastry cream...which turned out to be silky and delicious. So delicious, in fact...that after I spooned most of it in the pie shell, I ate what was left straight from the spoon. Then I licked the bowl clean. (Kidding...kind of. I used a spatula to get it out. I do have my limits.)

Would you just look at all that chocolate? I was getting giddy at this point. I have had this tart on my mind all day long. It's a wonder I got any work done. What's the next step?Whippin' some cream, ya'll...whippin' some cream...

Here's a lame, amateur attempt at an artistic photo of the pie...And now...a slice of chocolate cream goodness...

Tonight, David and I had help devouring this delicious confection. My parents and my Great-Aunt Sarah came over, and this is what we had left after we attacked the pie with reckless abandon:This pie was worth every sinful calorie. I'm going to bed now so I can get up at 5am to get my butt kicked by Jillian Michaels. She's got her work cut out for her after Dorie's awesome Chocolate Cream Tart! We can all thank Kim, of Scrumptious Photography for choosing this pie! Head over to her beautiful site for the recipe!

Earl's Birthday Banana Cream Pie

Earl is my super-awesome father-in-law, and his birthday was April 10. I offered to make him a pie for his birthday, but his sister-in-law had already baked him a cake, so we were forced to continue the celebration today! I started my Banana Cream Pie adventure last night at about 8:30...pretty late to start making pastry cream (I thought), but it went together like a dream!

First, I got all my ingredients together and ready to go:

After I boiled my milk, I poured it into the rest of the ingredients for pastry cream and whisked away:

Everyone said that the pastry cream would thicken up really quick, and they weren't kidding! It smelled divine...almost like Christmas, which was kind of weird since it's April and 70-some degrees outside, but divine nonetheless. This pastry cream process (plus making my pie dough) left me with a huge mess to clean up at about 9pm, but I got it done.

This morning, I rolled out my pie dough, let it chill for a bit, then baked it off so it would be ready for pie assembly:

Isn't it pretty? I was pretty impressed. I am now a convert to using Dorie's pie crust. And this pie crust has even gotten shortening reinstated at my mother-in-law's house. Earl told her she could buy some, as long as she uses it to make pie crust. (It's only 2 1/2 tablespoons, after all. But I didn't tell them how much butter. And yes, Earl, it's REAL butter. Land O'Lakes Butter...because it was on sale!)

Right before heading over to Earl and Shirley's house this afternoon, I made the whipped cream topping and assembled the pie. Didn't it turn out nice?Earl was ready to dig in! (See the big red scrape on the side of his cheek? Shirley ran him into a hedgeapple tree while they were out on the 4-wheeler. His side of the story: We were in a wide-open field, then all of a sudden she runs me into a hedgeapple tree! Her side of the story: He should have been more alert! At any rate, it's a little funny. He prefers to be addressed as "Scarface" now, rather than Earl.)

Here's David's big '0l slice of the pie:

The four of us really put the hurt on the banana cream pie this afternoon, but we needed our strength to go pick up limbs that were down all over the farm. As Earl says, "Picking up limbs is BORING."

I think I'm pretty much caught up with the Tuesday's With Dorie group now. This was the pie I was supposed to make when I made the Devil's Food White-Out cake for my Mom instead. For the recipe, you can go to Amy's blog: Sing For Your Supper. I still owe Earl my recipe for chicken salad...I'll get that up tomorrow!