Hooray for Pie

We’ve had an unusual spell of incredibly summery weather around here, and it put me in the mood for some key lime pie. There’s something about key lime pie that makes me think about beaches and sunshine and bare feet – I just love it.

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Usually I go for my brother in law’s recipe, which is quick and tasty and trustworthy. Since I didn’t have an occasion for this pie, it seemed a good opportunity to experiment. The recipe came from Joe’s Stone Crab, in Miami Beach. It’s a non-meringue version, as you can see, and the filling was quite good – fluffy yet full of tangy lime flavor. Yum.

I made a simple graham craker/butter crust since Hotwheels can’t have store bought crusts or nuts in the crust because of his allergies. Maybe it’s the type of graham crackers we have to buy for him, but the crust was disappointing. It didn’t hold together all that well. We managed to eat the whole thing, however, so it can’t have been that bad!!

The extra nice thing about this recipe is that because it calls for egg yolks, that means you have egg whites leftover, and that means you can have… 

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mmmmeringues. Everybody in our house likes these. Ever since Hotwheels got cleared for eggs (he had to avoid them for 2 years because of the old allergies), we’ve been having such a fun time introducing him to all these great egg-based treats! He’s crazy about meringues now.

Here’s a question for all my baking friends… why are my meringues oozing a bit like that? Does it have to do with the beating time? Or how long I bake them? I’m open to any ideas. The taste is great, and they’re not super sticky, but I’d love to know what I’m doing.

Here was my daughter’s teatime the next afternoon:

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Looks like a still life for Wayne Thiebaud!