When Life Hands You Lemons...

My husband’s all-time favorite pie is Lemon Meringue Pie.  As an alternative to cake and ice cream to celebrate his 33^rd year, this pie adventure lends itself to providing him with another one of his favorites.  The recipe for Week 20’s Lemon Meringue Pie comes from the New Best Recipe cookbook.

Fresh lemons make for tart and refreshing filling

Instead of going with the All-Butter Crust which I use in most of my pies, I decided to follow the recipe provided in the New Best Recipe cookbook.  This crust uses a combination of butter and shortening and for this particular pie, adds crushed graham cracker crumbs as you roll out the crust.  The idea here is that the graham cracker added to the crust will allow the crust to stay firm, after adding the lemon filling.  This proved to be true for the pie I made, as well as providing a subtle and complementary flavor to the crust, not found in the average Lemon Meringue Pie.

For me this pie really makes its mark by the tart lemon filling, using both lemon zest and lemon juice from fresh lemons.  The meringue is pretty amazing as well, but without that refreshingly tart center… well, I just don’t care about the meringue enough. 

Covering the filling with plastic wrap while making the meringue,  reduces the risk of a skin  forming on your filling

Filled graham-cracker rolled pastry crust

Whipping up meringue

Meringue before browning

Perfect Lemon Meringue Pie with nicely browned meringue

This Lemon Meringue Pie was perfect.  The crust, filling, and topping came out as I hoped they would.  My husband was treated to a great example of his all-time favorite pie.  

Now I Understand Why

Lemon Blueberry Pie was the short order for Week 16.  Blueberries were on sale for a spectacular price, so another pie featuring the delightful berry seemed an easy choice.  The recipe comes from the Cutie Pies cookbook.

For the crust I chose to follow the recipe for All-Butter Crust from the Cutie Pies cookbook as I am becoming increasingly fond of this simple to make and simply delicious crust.  For the last month or so I have been using this crust and it is with reserve, and delicacy, that I am venturing to say that it may be my favorite crust yet.  Grandma’s Oil Crust has, and will always remain, one of my favorite crust recipes, but I believe it may have finally met its match.  Hopefully, if Grandma reads this blog entry, she will forgive me this betrayal and accept a homemade pie of her choice the next time we are together as payoff for such a breach in loyalty....

The filling for this pie was very simple, and the whole pie was prepared, baked and cooling by the time I was on my way to church this particular Sunday morning. 

The recipe leaves the option to leave the pie open-faced or put a crumb topping on.  I opted for the crumb topping.  The only other time I have had a blueberry pie it did not have the addition of lemon and was prepared with a double-crust.  The flavor of that first pie decent, but I felt it was missing something.  So with this pie I had my hopes on brightening the flavor with the lemon and the sweet crumb topping. 

Our visiting friends were not disappointed.  This Lemon Blueberry Pie was delicious.  The addition of lemon perked up the pie and made my taste buds pop.  The crumb topping further enhanced the pie by providing a melt-in-your-mouth finish.

Not many leftovers this week!

To all of my friends who have always loved Blueberry Pies… now I understand why.