Lime Tart

I hope you’ll forgive me if I post another recipe with limes. Does it help if I mention that there are no further lime recipes for a while? Does it help if I say this one is delicious? Does it help if I invite you over for some?

You might remember that in last week’s recipe I was trying to use up some cornmeal. I had gotten some limes for that recipe, and now I had a bunch of limes. So I found another recipe to use up the limes. Yeah, I know this could turn into a never-ending story, but thankfully it stops with this. (This time at least. 🙂 )

You might notice that there’s no picture of the ingredients this time. Well, I wasn’t sure if the limes were actually any good still. So I had to cut them open and check them out and by that point a picture seemed already too late. Actually, my wife took care of the limes. She zested and juiced them while I was putting the crust together. Thanks hon!

If you’re following along with the recipe, I want to point out a few things. I forgot to put the vanilla in the crust. Oops! Juicing 4 limes made just enough for a 1/2 cup of juice. Also they were not key limes, just regular limes. I didn’t use an egg in the crust.

I used my friendly neighborhood kitchen helper, the KitchenAid, twice for this recipe. The first kitchenaiding (is that a word?) was making the crust. Mixing it together using the KitchenAid was a snap.

However, I have to come clean about something. I cheated on putting the crust together. I don’t have a tart pan, so I used a cake dish (9″ round). And rather than roll out the crust, especially if it was going to be a crumbly mess like the recipe suggested, I grabbed the cake dish and just dumped the dough in. I pressed it all along the bottom. Then I pulled some of the excess out and smooshed it up the sides. I tried to keep it from being too thick along the edge, which is an issue I have when making crusts this way. It wasn’t perfectly flat, but it was okay. I put it in the fridge to chill.

After it chilled, I sprayed cooking spray onto a piece of foil and covered the dough. I weighed it down with pie weights. After the first 20 minutes baking, it looked super poofy and like it was baking unevenly. (I guess that’s why you shouldn’t do it the way I did.) I pricked it with a fork and put it back in for another 20 minutes. It looked very done at that point, so I took it out. Unevenly done, but done. I let it cool.

As it was baking, I made the filling. The zest and juice were already done. I minced the zest with the sugar in the food processor. As I was doing so, what can only be described as lime scented sugar dust wafted up from it. And in the end it turned into sugary lime powder. Yum!

The second kitchenaiding (I figure if I keep using it as a word it might catch on) was for mixing up all the ingredients for the filling. Easy peasy. Then I put the filling in a saucepan. I had thought it was all combined, but as I was pouring it, I realized it wasn’t. At that point, all I could do was hope that it would combine more while heating. I heated it up a bit different than the directions. It took a total of 12 minutes on medium heat. I was concerned that it wasn’t thick enough, so that’s why I cooked it for a longer time and at a higher heat. Eventually it thickened. (Maybe it needed the extra time and heat because it wasn’t quite combined at the start?)

The crust was cool-ish when I poured in the filling. I let it set, and I did the jiggle test to confirm. We weren’t quite ready for it, so I put it in the fridge till we were. It smelled lovely all through the making of it: the zesting and juicing, the processing, the mixing, the heating, etc.

When it got to dessert time, it was hard to cut it. Mainly because it’s a non-stick pan, and I don’t want to ruin it. I need to get something to cut on it, as I keep having this issue. I ended up using two different spatulas and a plastic knife. Eventually I was able to cut it. The second piece was easier, as is usually the case.

It was a bit of a mess. Maybe it hadn’t really thickened enough, as it was kinda sloppy and all over the place. And even though I had tried to work against it, the crust had bunched up at the edge. I think next time I should make a tart crust properly, or if I’m going to do it this way, I need to adjust my technique by either leaving it lighter around the edge, or starting from the edge and working my way in.

Even with all of the mess and such, it was still really good. There is a nice taste and texture to the crust. Thankfully, it didn’t taste overcooked. The lime filling was nice and limey, which is to say tart and sweet.

Coincidentally, my wife’s anosmia had kicked in again. You can read more about it here. That time I made a lemon based dessert which she could taste. I didn’t realize it had really kicked in again when I made this, but it was a similar situation. She couldn’t smell it, but she could taste the citrus and the sweet.

I was hoping that after a whole day in the fridge the filing would firm up more. Well, I can confirm that on the second day, it had firmed up a bit and was much more solid. And still delicious. And I can’t say for sure that it kept getting better day after day, but one taster a few days later said it was one of the best things she’s ever had.

Now, I could go the punny route and say it was simply sublime. Or I could go the non-poetic route and say it was tasty. Or I could just suggest that you all try it for yourselves and tell me what you think of it. I think I’ll go the last route. So I look forward to hearing how it was for you.

Recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen.

Lime Cornmeal Cookies

Someone deserves a prize for coming up with the idea of using cornmeal in cookies. I’m not talking Nobel Peace Prize level of prize, but something would be nice. It was an excellent idea, and it surely wasn’t mine. I don’t think I would have even tried it if not for the proliferation of recipes I found. (Who knew there were so many?) I just wanted to make something with cornmeal, as I had wanted to use up the cornmeal I had gotten for the chess pie. In that search, I practically ran headfirst into this recipe. Figuratively, of course. Spoiler alert: it turned out to be an excellent cookie, but it didn’t use up that much cornmeal.

I had walked out the door to go grocery shopping without having looked recently at the recipe, and without having it with me. Silly me. I knew I needed limes, but not how many. I got a bag of organic limes, and I figured I could use the rest another time if needed. Actually, while making it, before even tasting them my wife suggested I make a double recipe. In retrospect it would have been a good idea, but I wanted to try them out once first. I only ended up using two limes, but that’s okay. (I wonder what I’ll do with the rest of the limes?)

I didn’t have eggs handy, and I didn’t want to get any just for this so I used aquafaba. It’s an egg substitute, and it’s really just the liquid left from a can of beans. It works great, it doesn’t taste like beans in the final product, and you would never know it’s in there. (You can read more about my previous adventures with aquafaba here.) And, as a special bonus, we ended up using the beans for dinner that night as well. (We made a slightly modified version of the White Bean Fritters recipe here.) Yay planning! Yay synchronicity!

So I zested and squeezed one lime at the beginning of the recipe. I got just about 2 tbsps zest and plenty of juice. I used 1 tbsp zest in the recipe and the other almost tbsp for the sugar mix for rolling. I used 1 tbsp juice as needed and saved the rest for later.

It was easy to put together. I chilled the dough right in the mixing bowl. It took some finagling to get the dough into a 12 inch roll. I wrapped it up in wax paper and kept squeezing, squishing, and measuring until I got it to the right size. It wasn’t exactly round, but it was close enough. I wrapped plastic wrap around the wax paper.

I had started it early in the day as it needed to rest in the fridge for a while (1 hour and then 8 more hours). I almost put it in the freezer for less time or took it out sooner, but I ended up getting caught up in other stuff so I wasn’t ready for it until the full time frame had passed anyway.

After its time chilling, I took it out of the fridge. I then mixed up the sugar and reserved zest. It didn’t seem like a lot. I removed the plastic wrap and unrolled the wax paper. I poured the sugar mix out and rolled the dough in it, but since it wasn’t quite round, it needed some assistance. I ended up scooping up the sugar mix with my hands and pouring it over the dough. Then I patted it in, rotated the dough, and repeated. It turns out it was a lot. Plenty in fact.

With the dough all ready, I started cutting slices. I had an idea of how big they should be after making the world peace cookies. It was a pretty similar setup all around.

The first round I baked for about 10 minutes. They didn’t seem quite done, so I baked them for another 30 seconds or so. That first round might have been a tad bit undercooked. The second round got a tad bit overcooked, as I got caught up in something right when I should have taken them out. The third round was better (spot on, I think) which was about 11 minutes. Despite the differences in baking times, they were all good in the end.

I let them cool, and I made the glaze. I zested another lime and juiced it. I used up all the zest as the recipe asked for, but between that lime and the juice I had left from the first one, there was plenty of juice. I used 3 tbsps plus a few more tsps to get it to the right consistency.

I put wax paper under the cooling rack and spooned the glaze on. The first few got maybe a bit too much, which left not quite as much for the last few, but they all got covered in the end. A little uneven but okay. I’m glad I put down wax paper as it was a big ol’ mess underneath. I let them cool.

After they cooled, we tried them. Wow. The lime was awesome. They have a nice texture, a little crunchy but still chewy. You can taste the cornmeal, and it works very well. The cookie is not super sweet, but the glaze is pretty sweet. They go well together. With the lime in the cookie, surrounding the cookie, and in the glaze, if you don’t like lime, this is not the right cookie for you. I wasn’t expecting these to be anything special, so I was pleasantly surprised. They were really good.

The next day, after sitting in the fridge overnight, the glaze was much less sticky. Since that made it easier to travel with them, I decided to bring some in to work. Everyone at work really enjoyed them. One person referred to them as “crack”. After tasting one and enjoying it immensely, someone who was visiting from another office was very jealous upon finding out that I made baked goods regularly. There was some discussion again about stealing me for that office.

So I would highly recommend these. They’re very good. And they’re easy, even with the lime zesting and juicing. The glaze is a little sweet, so if you want something less sweet, you could probably put in less sugar. But they’re very good as is. Do you have any good recipes with lime to share? I’d love to hear them!

Recipe courtesy of Half Baked.

World Peace Cookies

Given all that’s happening in the world today, I truly wish that these cookies could bring about world peace. If that were the case, I would happily make them non-stop until that happened. Now to be sure, bringing about world peace is kinda part of their pedigree. They’re named world peace cookies because one time they were made, the person having them thought that if everyone ate these cookies it would bring about world peace. I would be very happy if that’s all it took. I guess we’ll never know unless we try, right? 😉

I made these for my family’s 4th of July party. (You can read some of the history of this party in this earlier post.) I wanted something big enough for a crowd, easy to transport, and that would last a few days because I was making the recipe ahead of time. I found lots of fun recipes, but I settled on this one because it checked all the boxes.

Chopped up chocolate. Yum!

For the chocolate, I used Trader Joe’s Super Dark 73%. I was trying to figure out the difference between bittersweet and semisweet. According to this article at least, there seems to not be a difference. So I went for the one that seemed darkest. I chopped it all up by hand into little chunks.

It was a pretty easy recipe. Thank you KitchenAid for helping to make it easy. I love setting it to mix things and going off to do something else. It’s like an extra set of hands. (Hey look ma, more hands!) I didn’t use a towel over the bowl like suggested, rather I used the KitchenAid pouring shield (and my hand a little bit). It worked out well.

Dough logs.

I mixed in the chocolate by hand. In the dough it looked like chocolate looks in ice cream. (Now I know what to do next time I make ice cream. 🙂 )

First batch, ready to bake.

Following smitten kitchen’s own comment in the comments section below the recipe (and matching my own lack of time to wait around), I ended up sticking the dough in the freezer. It ended up hanging out there for about an hour. That might have been too long, as it was a little hard to cut the dough until it warmed up a bit.

First batch, fresh from the oven. The perspective is very close to the before picture, so you can compare.

I had measured out the inch and a half diameter for the dough logs initially. And I measured out the half-inch for the first cookie, but the rest I just guessed on, using that first one as a guide. They were mostly close to that size, although mileage varied a little bit. Some of them did break apart as the recipe warned was possible, but I just smooshed them back together.

So I chopped off slices to make the cookies and then I baked them. I used Silpats for the first two batches, and then since they were still cooling, I used parchment paper for the third batch. (3 batches x 12 cookies per batch, for a total of 36 cookies.) Some of the cookies got a little warm while they were sitting out as I was cutting cookies for the sheet. The last sheet I stuck back in the fridge for a bit before baking to help counter that.

Second batch.

I did one sheet at a time as instructed and set them to cool still on the sheet, on a cooling rack. I put the cooling rack in the living room, as who has that kind of room in the kitchen. 😉 They looked really nice. They didn’t smell overly chocolately or sweet. They were more subtle. I let them cool and put them away.

Third batch.

I tried one the next night. They were really good! A good, solid chocolate cookie. As much as I would like to think it’s possible, I don’t know that they will bring about world peace, but I think they’re good cookies. My wife liked them as well, probably more than me.

I brought them to the party. After I made them, I had left them in the freezer as the party was a few days away. I took them out of the freezer to travel, and I put them back in the freezer once I got to my destination. They traveled really well. I took them out the day of the party.

There was a whole lot of dessert competition at the party. I’m not saying that there was an official competition with prizes and everything. (Although, idea! 😉 ) However, lots of people brought dessert. But even in the face of such competition, they went over well. People really enjoyed them. They were amused by the story of the name. I got comments on how good they were. And one person in particular thanked me for catering to the dark chocolate lovers.

The recipe made three dozen cookies. I brought two dozen to the party (and came back with none). That left one dozen at home in the freezer, minus the taste testing we did. My wife doesn’t want to part with them so quickly. So they’re hanging out in the freezer for a while.

These are easy to make and delicious. So, yes please make them if you enjoy chocolate. Or if you want world peace, because hey, you never know. Speaking of which, do you have any recipes that are so good you think they could bring about world peace? I’d love to hear, so let me know in the comments below!

Recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen.

Chess Pie

I normally don’t talk about world events on this blog, not because I don’t care, but because this isn’t the forum for it. But I wanted to say a few words about recent events, because they can’t be ignored, and because my dear friend for whom this recipe was made is a tireless advocate for racial justice and equality, and I think she would want it this way.

My heart goes out to the families, friends, loved ones, and communities of those who were killed. These tragedies are heartbreaking. I want a world where everyone is treated fairly and equally, where everyone is safe, and everyone can live in peace. I am committed to working towards that world.

---

Hey everyone! How are you? I’m fine, thanks for asking. I know you missed all the recipes, so I wanted to let you know I’m back. With more recipes! More yummy things that I’ve baked! More delicious descriptions and pictures! More exclamation points! So sit back and enjoy.

So what in the world is a chess pie? And where are the checkers pies, dominoes pies, and backgammon pies, too? Chess pie is a classic southern (US) pie. I had never had it before, but I had come across it a bunch when looking up pies. It’s got an interesting name and stories about its name. Is it named after playing chess? A pie chest? From the Rick Springfield song? I don’t know what’s actually true, but the pie piqued my interest.

One dough recipe. Which makes…

I was looking for something to make for my friend’s birthday/graduation. I asked her what she wanted, and she said she would be happy with anything. Since she’s southern, I thought it would be fun to make a southern dessert in her honor. Intrigued by this funny-named but tasty-looking pie, I decided to make it. I didn’t know if it would be something she would like or not or if it was even part of her southern experience, but I thought I would give it a shot.

…enough for two crusts.

As I do with most pies now, I started with my go-to pie dough from smitten kitchen. The recipe makes two pie crusts, so I was able to save one for later. (Future yums!) After I made the crust, I didn’t have time to let it sit in the fridge for an hour. So I put it in the freezer, and I let it sit for about 30 minutes, which turned out to be okay. I put it in the fridge for a little bit before taking it out, so it could get to a better temperature.

Notice the handy circles on the pastry mat. Makes measuring a breeze.

I rolled it out using my handy pastry mat. What makes it particularly handy is that it has the pie crust sizes right on it. No more rolling, guessing, measuring, re-rolling, etc. My first attempt at rolling it out was okay, but it got a little too stretched out while I was putting it in the pie pan. I had to re-roll it, but the second time was the charm. I followed the instructions to pre-bake the crust.

While it was cooling I mixed up the filling. There’s a lot of sugar in this. It’s a custard pie, so eggs and sugar are to be expected. But the odd ingredients in this one are cornmeal and vinegar. It smelled a lot like vinegar as I was mixing it up, but once I put the eggs in, the vinegar smell kinda went away. It was simple to put together. I mixed it up a fair amount to make sure everything was mixed in.

Pre-baking the crust

I then filled the pie crust. There was a lot of filling. It ended up being filled pretty close to the top. I carefully put it in the oven and baked it for 10 minutes.

Then I took it out to put the aluminum foil on the crust. This was difficult. I should have pre-planned it. Trying to get the foil into the right shape and to cover just the crust and not fall off, all on a hot dish, was challenging. I’m afraid this took too long as it seemed the consistency of the filling changed. I will have to practice more if I do something that requires it again. Actually, I guess I should prepare it ahead of time so it’s all ready to go. (I’m interested to hear any tips or tricks you have for this part.)

Filling.

I put it back in for 40 minutes. It got really poofy, then it cracked. The “jiggle test” also seemed to indicate it was done. It eventually deflated. It looked and smelled awesome. I didn’t end up doing the optional powdered sugar, although that might have covered up the cracks. I was excited to see how it tasted and what the birthday girl/graduate thought of it.

All ready to bake!

At the party the next day, it went over well! When I mentioned to the birthday girl/graduate that I had made chess pie, she immediately asked which kind. So I knew I was on the right track. She really enjoyed it. Everyone really enjoyed it, even if no one else knew what chess pie was. They did learn, however, that it was delicious. It was full of eggy, sugary goodness, surrounded by crust. And you can’t really go wrong with that.

That filling is living on the edge.

I’m not the world’s biggest connoisseur of custard pies, so I didn’t have a lot to compare it to. Of anything, it reminded me a little bit of Swedish pancake. Swedish pancake is an old recipe which is a specialty of my mom’s, which isn’t really a pancake the way most of us think of a pancake, and I don’t think is actually Swedish. (As far as my research has gone, it seems similar to a Dutch baby.) I think the similarity is due to the deliciousness of baked eggs in both.

Beautiful, if slightly cracked.

In any case, it was a wonderful party. My friend had drawn together an amazing assemblage of fantastic people. She is an amazing and fantastic person herself, so I’m not surprised. I had interesting, heartfelt talks with people from all over the world. And it was a great chance to celebrate her.

I was also not the only one to bring dessert, as she and others had baked and brought a wide array of delicious dishes. So while the chess pie went over well, it was definitely in good company.

If you’ve never made chess pie before, I would easily recommend it. It’s simple, it’s delicious, and it’s a great conversation starter. If you have a favorite pie crust, you’re already half-way done. And if you have made it before, I’ve heard that there are lots of different variations on what you put into chess pie. So I’d love to hear, what’s the secret ingredient in your chess pie? How do you deal with covering up the crust while baking? Do you have any other favorite southern desserts? Let me know in the comments below!

Crust recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen.

Pie recipe courtesy of Southern Living.

Stay Tuned

I know you’re waiting for a new recipe with bated breath. I hate to disappoint you, but you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer.

I’ve been under the weather a little bit, and while I’ve got lots of new recipes to share with you, none of them are ready to share with you yet.

There’s more to come, so stay tuned!