Week 7: Double Trouble

This week I had a pie in mind that I wanted to make, but I made the mistake of asking my husband if he had any requests, and he asked for lemon meringue pie.

Now the dilemma...my pie, or his pie? I compromised and made both.

I'd seen Paula Deen make a white chocolate macadamia nut pie one day on her show. It looked and sounded delicious. White chocolate macadamia nut cookies are one of my favorites so I figured this would also be wonderful.

The ingredients proved to be somewhat expensive--things can get pricy when you're making multiple pies. Between the white chocolate baking bars, whipping cream, cream cheese, and macadamia nuts, this really added up. My goal for next week will be to see how inexpensive I can keep things.




For my second set of pies I chose another Paula Deen recipe that said it was lemon meringue. Instead of the usual cornstarch, sugar and eggs mixture, it involved mixing eggs and lemon juice with sweetened condensed milk.




My pie crusts went really well.



Both fillings were fairly easy to make, too. I was glad since I was making a total of 6 pies! I spent a lot of time with my mixer today.



As I expected the white chocolate filling was delicious!

Pat tried the lemon meringue and he was not impressed. I tried it later, and found it to be most definitely non-traditional. It was more creamy, and not very tart at all.

Since I made 6 pies and we kept one of each kind, I had 4 to deliver.

I delivered one pie to a next-door neighbor. In return I got to see her beautiful just-remodeled kitchen. I now have extreme kitchen envy because everything she'd done was something I have been wanting to do with my kitchen.

Another pie went to a co-worker to "convince" her to trade a shift with me so I could go to a friend's wedding. Yeah, it's a bribe. She loved it.

The other two pies went to church friends. One of them is moving so I'm glad I got to get a pie to her before she moved. Both of them said, "You made my day!" and that made my day.

I'm really having fun with this.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Pie
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, from FoodNetwork.com

Prep Time: 25 min
Inactive Prep Time: 4 hr 0 min
Cook Time: 5 min
Level: Intermediate
Serves: 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients:

Ganache:
•3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
•1/2 cup heavy cream

Filling:
•6 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened
•1/3 cup sugar
•1/3 cup heavy cream, plus 3/4 cup, whipped soft
•6 1/2 (1-ounce) squares premium white baking chocolate, melted
•1/2 teaspoon orange zest
•2/3 cup roasted, chopped macadamia nuts
•1 pre-baked deep-dish (9-inch) pie shell

Garnish:
•1 1/2 cups heavy cream
•1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
•1 to 2 ounces chopped macadamia nuts

Directions
Place chocolate chips in a metal mixing bowl. Bring cream to a simmer over medium heat. Pour simmering cream over chips and stir until melted. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.

Filling:
Beat cream cheese and sugar with a handheld electric mixer until smooth. Scrape bowl with a spatula and mix in 1/3 cup heavy cream. Add the melted white chocolate, zest, and nuts and stir just until incorporated. Fold in the whipped cream. Spread into pre-baked pie shell and level off using a rubber spatula. Put in freezer until frozen.

To finish pie, place the ganache in the microwave on low for no more than 10 seconds at a time. Stir after each warming, until ganache pours loosely but is not even close to boiling. Be very careful when warming chocolate, as it will burn very quickly when heated in the microwave. Once chocolate is scorched it is unusable. Spread warm ganache over top of frozen pie, smoothing to the edges with a spatula.

Garnish:
Beat cream and confectioners' sugar with a handheld electric mixer to stiff peaks. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe edges of pie with whipped cream. Sprinkle macadamia nuts over top. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Lemon Meringue Pie
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, FoodNetwork.com

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Level: Easy
Serves: 6 to 8 servings.

Ingredients
•1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
•1/2 cup lemon juice
•1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
•3 egg yolks
•1 (8-inch) prebaked pie shell or crumb crust

Meringue:
•3 egg whites
•1/4 teaspoon cream or tartar
•1/4 cup sugar

Directions
In medium bowl, combine milk, lemon juice, and zest; blend in egg yolks. Pour into cooled crust.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

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

Week 4 (ish): Chocolate Pies for Visiting Teaching

I am typing this up a week late, and having problems with this current week's pies, so I'm feeling a little behind. I also skipped a week while I was recovering from surgery. But here goes.

For this week's pies I wanted something fairly simple and foolproof. And, unfortunately, I was at QFC when I remembered that I needed to get pie ingredients (that means it probably cost about twice as much as it needed to). I decided to make something we hadn't had in years--Dream Pie. Dream Pie uses a powdered cool whip substitute called Dream Whip, instant pudding mix, and milk to make a fluffy, light pie. I wasn't even sure they still made Dream Whip, but there it was on the shelf.



Not wanting to spend the money on pre-made graham cracker crusts, I bought pre-crushed graham cracker crumbs instead. I followed the recipe to turn these crumbs into crust, and it came out looking pretty greasy after I baked them. Undaunted, I patted them off like some people do pepperoni pizza, and continued with my whipping.



The result--beautiful fluffy chocolate pie.



I was scheduled to go visiting teaching today, so I decided that the ladies that I was visiting would be the recipients of today's pies. Visiting teaching is something that the LDS (Mormon) church does as an effort to make sure that each woman in the church has someone who will visit them, check in on them, help them with their needs, etc. Mostly we try to visit the women who we are assigned to, once a month, and talk with them, have a little spiritual thought, etc. It's always nice to have a treat to bring them, so I felt pretty proud of myself for coming up with something, even serendipitously.

I actually liked the "homemade" crust--it was a little chewier and way less dry than the pre-made crusts. And the filling was delicious. Mmmm! This was one pie my husband really liked, too!

DREAM PIE

2 env. Dream Whip whipped topping mix
2 3/4 c. cold milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 (4 oz.) pkgs. instant pudding mix
1 baked 9" pie shell, cooled or 1 graham cracker or chocolate crust

Beat Dream Whip mix with 1 cup of milk and vanilla in large bowl with mixer on high for about 6 minutes until thick and forms peaks. Add remaining milk and the pudding mix; blend on low. Beat on high for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Spoon into pie shell; chill at least 4 hours.