Nothing Says Summertime Like Key Lime Pie (a recipe worth Re-Posting)

This is a re-post from 5 years ago.  It's a perennial favorite.  It is summertime deliciousness! 

I believe that little things can make a big difference.  It might only take a few more minutes, or a couple more dollars (or not any more $$ at all) – just a little time, creativity and intentionality, and you can greatly enhance the beauty and enjoyment of things.
For example:
>Use a pretty tablecloth or cloth napkin whenever you can (some of my favorites I got at thrift stores and antique stores).  It can add such a nice touch.

>Instead of pens rolling around in your junk drawer, why not put them in a fun jar on the table?

>On a nice evening when a friend comes by, why not light some candles outside and sit for your visit?  (It can feel magical!)

>Or keep a dish of yummy seasonal candy on your office desk to share with those who pass by.

>When you have a meeting to attend, make some cookies or muffins to take with you.

>Place a pretty napkin in a basket when serving muffins.

>Write a handwritten note of love, thanks, or well wishes to someone.

>Have a small vase of fresh flowers in the room for your spend-the-night guest.

>Sprinkle coarse sugar on top of your muffins.

>Use fresh garlic &/or herbs in place of dried when cooking.

>When hosting a gathering, make little tents out of card stock with labels of "de-caf" or "regular" on your coffee or specific titles of the foods being served.

You get my point?  All these things are little things but they can really add beauty, creativity and fun to the ordinary.  I would love to know what special little things you think make a big difference!

I was thinking about all of this as I was making Key Lime Pie this week.  As I made it, I was thinking about how much homemade graham cracker crust and whipped cream for really takes this pie up a notch. Such a small investment for a big difference!

Key Lime Pie.
It is many people's favorite summertime dessert.
The filling is so creamy and tangy and the crust is sweet and buttery.  The whip is so light and fluffy.
I love it in the summer, or when we have Mexican food, or fish or really anytime of day, with any menu.
It is such a simple, timeless recipe.

I don't know if you have made many Key Lime Pies, or have eaten many.  But making a graham cracker crust takes about 5 minutes and the result is a crumbly, buttery, golden crust that you want to just eat by itself!  Buying a Keebler crust is more expensive and just can't compare to the crunchy buttery goodness of a homemade one.  And whipping cream is super simple and it typically costs no more to buy whipping cream than to buy Cool Whip.  And it is so much better (and not filled with a long list of chemical ingredients).

Key Lime Pie
1 1/2 cups Graham Cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp. melted butter)

For a normal or deep dish pie pan:
2 cans Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 cup Key Lime Juice
6 egg yolks

{OR for a smaller aluminum pie pan}:
1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 cup Key Lime Juice
3 egg yolks

Make Graham Cracker Crust – I put graham crackers in a ziplock bag and crush them with my fist, or with a mallet.  (You can make them as fine or coarse as you like). Stir together ingredients for the crust.  Combine until well incorporated.  Press into a lightly greased pie pan – reserving one spoonful for tasting (okay, you don't have to, but I can't ever resist!) Place crust into oven and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

In a separate bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the filling. Stir until consistent and smooth. (Hang on to the egg whites, as you can use them in another recipe or have them on hand for breakfast egg whites). Pour filling into crust.  Return to oven for 10 minutes (just to "kill" the raw egg).  Let sit on counter for 10 minutes to cool a bit.  Place in refrigerator for 4 hours or more – until set and cold.

whipped cream

Make whipped cream: 
Pour 1 pint of whipping cream into mixing bowl and let it go full speed for a few minutes until thickened and peaks remain when you pull out the beater. (Watch it or you will have butter in your bowl!) Add a hefty spoonful or two of sugar and voila! 

There you have it!

It doesn't get any better than this simple pleasure – it's the little things!

Gooey Fudge Pie

We had some excitement in the kitchen this past week. Monday was Pi Day. My son's terrific Geometry teacher put out a request for Pie donations.  I said yes, but wasn't sure what kind I would make.  It needed to be quick, simple, preferably non-in-need-of-refrigeration since that is limited at the school. The answer - Gooey Fudge Pie. This is one of my mom's signature pies.  She adapted the recipe from Entertaining with Friends Cookbook (written by and benefitting Vanderbilt Children's Hospital).

Of all of the baking I do, I don't end up making pies very often- I think the potential of crust burning and/or falling apart feels high risk to me and because I am often feeding a larger group than a pie can serve.  But I sure love to eat pie! This one is a winner (I especially love it when served with whipped cream or ice cream.)

Jennifer's pie photo she texted me

About the time my crusts were thawed on Sunday evening. (I used bought crust that I had in the freezer), I got a group text from my sister letting my mom and me know that she had just made 2 gooey fudge pies for Ben's math class for Pi Day, wondering how we would be celebrating Pi Day. It must run in the family!

a few hours later, my pair of pies 

They are so easy to make, with ingredients you most likely have on hand.  I didn't get to taste the pie this time (a downside to pies- no way to sneak a slice without it being obvious) but Asher gave a good report, and the plates came home empty.

Gooey Fudge Pie
(from Elaine Williams- Mom)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. flour
1 cup sugar
dash of salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 unbaked 9 inch pie crust

Toppings (optional)



Preheat oven to 350 ˚.  Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl in microwave, stirring occasionally until blended.  Remove from oven and set aside.
Add whisked eggs, flour, sugar and salt. Stir. Stir in vanilla. Pour into the prepared pie shell (Mom suggests the Pillsbury Refrigerated Pie crust).  Bake for about 25 minutes or until the center is still slightly liquid.  Cool on a wire rack. Slice and eat.  Add toppings of your choice.
Toppings: ice cream, hot fudge, caramel sauce, toasted sliced almonds or whipped cream.  (Click HERE for whipped cream instructions).

If you want to make a homemade pie crust- I think Martha Stewart's Easy Pie Crust is a winner-here is the recipe and is a video with some great tips to making a perfect pie crust.  

I just heard from my sister that she ended up making 7 pies this week! 3 fudge, an apple, tomato pie, shepherd pie and a chocolate chip pie!  I love that!

In honor of St. Patrick's day, this week for our small group meal we decided to get crazy and have a "Green Meal". We have a google doc each week where everyone signs up for what they will contribute. So this week we just had a blank page where we all wrote what GREEN item we would bring (trying to make a balanced meal). It was an incredibly delicious meal. I don't know how I would describe it, but we are already thinking about the next color-themed meal we will share.  We agree that some colors would be less healthy than this one! 

I am hoping to get some of these recipes to share with you.  I keep thinking about this salad with warm bacon dressing. 

Next week is Easter Week! It has snuck up on me.  I need to do some Easter baking/cooking in the next few days.  There are so many clever and beautiful ideas on the internet, but if you need some easy tried-and-true ones, here are a few- an activity, a main dish, my favorite Coconut Cake,  Candies and treats. Enjoy!

Always Learning, Always Changing: Recipe Edits

This post is about old recipes that I have updated/improved/tweaked since posting them originally.

When I am cooking, I like to write in the margins of the recipe things I discover as I am making the dish, noting changes/additions/subtractions that I made along the way.

I 'm not great at cooking with an electronic device as the source of my recipe. I'm a pretty messy cook (okay, a really messy cook)! I don't want to touch screens or buttons or have my screen go to sleep while my hands are sticky, so I usually print off recipes when I am cooking from a blog or website.

Ironically, some of the recipes from this blog that I have in my notebook also have scribbles on them from the time since I posted them.

Even though they are tested, tweaked and approved before I post them, I sometimes alter things after the fact.  I love getting feedback from people about recipes and new ideas of how they altered them. I have often tried changes people have suggested.

I decided that I needed to tell you some changes I've made, rather than sneaking in and changing the recipes on the past blogs without alerting you (and thereby confusing those of you who have made them before). 

So here are some of my updates, improvements and changes from previous posts.  

1. Sugar Cookies

This is still my favorite sugar cookie recipe and so many friends have told me that they make these too.  So fun, that my mom's tradition that she started could be passed down far and wide.

My long-term challenge with these cookies has been that they spread so much! This is especially a problem when you are cutting them into detailed shapes.  The shapes tend to spread to the point of unidentified objects!  Which, of course, defeats the purpose of cut out cookies!  My mom looked up a shortbread recipe one day and noticed that the absence of baking powder was the main difference between the recipe and her sugar cookie recipe.  It makes sense that baking powder would change the spreading of the cookie- that's its main job.  So, since this discovery, I have dialed it back from 4 tsp. of baking powder to 1 tsp. baking powder in my "Timeless Sugar Cookie" Recipe.  It makes a pretty major difference in the spreading.  They have the same taste and texture as before, they just keep their shape much better. 

2. Banana Muffins 

These are a staple in my home for breakfast treats and to take for breakfast events.  They are so easy and are made with things you most likely have on hand.  They are a good use for dying bananas and do not even require an egg! My college roommate, Karin, told me that she likes this recipe and uses it but cuts the sugar.  I thought…"Cut the sugar? Why would you ever do that? :) "  But I tried it, and she's right- especially if you are going to add mini chocolate chips or sprinkle the tops with sugar before baking. :)  I think the flavor of the other ingredients really comes out when there is 1/4 cup less sugar.  Who knew? Thanks, Karin!  So rather than 3/4 cup sugar, I do 1/2 cup.  

3. Baked Potato Soup

This is my son's most requested soup.  One day when I was making it, I thought, "really does it need a STICK of butter??" and I gave it a try with 1/2 a stick (4 Tbsp.) and it was just as rich and creamy and tasty!  I have a hard time with a stick of butter in soup! I mean, in cookies, yes, 2 sticks most of the time, but in soup, I try to lighten it up if I can without compromising taste or texture.  Certainly, this one fairs well with that reduction. Also, you can take or leave the sour cream depending on how creamy and dairy-ish you want it.  My husband says, "Yes" and "Always" to including sour cream in all things, but sometimes I think it makes it more thick and creamy than necessary.  So, in summary, my changes are cut the butter in half to 4 Tbsp. and take/leave/or reduce the sour cream.

4. Key Lime Pie 

This is a our family's favorite pie.  It's just so good.  My challenge with it has been the size of pan and amount of filling.  In the original recipe I posted I gave two sizes- a traditional pie pan and a deep dish. Well, this summer I tried to make the standard size and the 1/2 recipe of the filling was not enough at all.  I ended up tripling the filling and putting it in 2 crusts...meaning it really needs 1 1/2 batches of the filling for a traditional pie plate.  So, my conclusion is, use a deep dish and the large batch of filling unless you have a much smaller pie pan (diameter wise) like an aluminum pan.

5. Tea Cakes 

I made Tea Cakes recently for an event.  I always love them more than I remember!  Sometimes I forget about them and then when they resurface and I make them, I fall in love all over again.  They keep longer than sugar cookies and they are less work, but just as lovely.  When I made them this summer, they just didn't stay puffed up as high as I like them.  I texted my friend, Melissa B.(when she makes them they always look perfect).  She said she rolls them in small balls and that helps keep the roundness. I had rolled mine out with a rolling pin and cut them with a biscuit cutter. They turned out bigger and flatter.  So, though in the blog post I said "roll and cut out or roll into balls", based on my experience, I will now say roll them into balls!

6. Popcorn and Kettle Corn 

We make stove-top popcorn most every week in our house (sometimes for family movie night on the weekends and sometimes for our Snack dinner on Sunday nights).  Several months ago someone at church said I should ask our friend Drew for his Kettle Corn recipe.  My kids and I are big fans of kettle corn.  I asked Drew for his recipe and he said, "there isn't really a recipe, but rather it's just a matter of adding a few Tbsp. of sugar to the oil before popping."  That simple!  So, now we sometimes make a batch of each.  For the recipe, we simply add 3 Tbsp. sugar to the oil as it is heating up and swirl it around to distribute it evenly amongst the kernels.  Make sure you salt the popped corn well, as the salty/sweet combo is what makes it so super-delicious!

I'm sure there are a dozen more recipes that I have tweaked-since-posting, but these are the main ones that have been on my mind.  I often write about making recipes your own, altering them to your liking, and getting creative! So, since I have done that and have taken your advice on making things better, I wanted to let you know.  I will update these 6 posts with these changes so that they will be "new and improved".

Keep your great suggestions coming!

2 Years and 40 Minutes Later: Coconut Cream Pie

Do you ever long to do something and put it on a “to do list”and it sits there for weeks, months, even years? Sometimes the delay is because we fear that it will be hard to accomplish, or at least complicated or time consuming.  And so we put it off. 

And we keep transferring it from one list to the next list.  (It could be writing a letter to someone, or trying a new recipe, or scrubbing the grime out of the refrigerator.) And then finally one day we get the gumption and we just go for it.  And then, we think, “that was not that difficult, or time consuming or dreadful after all”! And we wonder why we were hung up for so long.  And we feel ambitious in that moment and want to do the very thing again within days.  Perhaps to make up for lost time!

Yeah, that was me last week.

I have been wanting to make a Coconut Cream Pie forever! It’s one of my favorite desserts and I had wanted to give it a try and hopefully share it with you here.  But for some reason, the combination of my fear of making the custard-y filling of the pie, and not having the right occasion at which to serve it kept me from making it.  Instead, I continued to rewrite it on the "to make" list on my refrigerator dry erase board for a couple of years.  Then one day, I decided to force myself to just do this.  And, low and behold, it wasn’t hard at all and it tasted even better than I imagined it would!  

I'm inspired. To transfer this experience onto other tasks I have been putting off. And I'm inspired to add this pie to my favorites list.

A couple of choices must be made when pie-making after deciding what kind of pie: the crust and the topping. The question is whether to use a pastry rolled crust or a crumb crust.  I love a homemade graham cracker crumb crust- it's buttery and nutty and is more predictable and easier than a pastry crust. When it comes to the topping you have to decide between a meringue and whipped cream.  Meringues are pretty intimidating, require baking (hoping for the right climate), and in my opinion (though stunning to look at) don't have much flavor.  Fresh whipped cream, on the other hand, is simple, quick, predictable and oh so delicious! 

I wasn't sure how this combination would be and I needed it to succeed, since I had been putting it off for 2 years and wanted success! I have to say, it was one of the best coconut cream pies I've ever had.  (I will warn you that it was much more flavorful on day 2). We had a slice on day one and it was good, but the next day it was de-li-cious! 

Coconut Cream Pie
Step 1: Make the Crust

1 1/2 cups Graham Cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp. melted butter)

Make Graham Cracker Crust – I put graham crackers in a ziplock bag and crush them with my fist, or with a mallet.  (You can make them as fine or coarse as you like). Stir together ingredients for the crust.  Combine until well incorporated.  Press into a lightly greased pie pan – reserving one spoonful for tasting (okay, you don't have to, but I can't ever resist!) Place crust into oven and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

READ HERE if you want to know more about making a graham cracker crust.

Step 2: Make the Filling
Spread 1 1/3 cups shredded sweetened dried coconut on a cookie sheet or cake pan and toast, stirring occasionally, in a 300˚ oven until golden brown, 20 to 30 minutes.

Whisk in a medium, heavy saucepan until well blended:
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt

Gradually whisk in:
2 1/2 cups whole milk

Vigorously whisk in until no yellow streaks remain:
5 large egg yolks

Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof rubber spatula, bring the mixture to a bare simmer over medium heat.  Remove from the heat, scrape the corners of the saucepan with the spoon or spatula, and whisk until smooth. Return to the heat and, whisking constantly, bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minutes.

Off the heat, whisk in:
2 Tbsp. butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup TOASTED shredded sweetened dried coconut (save the 1/3 cup for topping)

Step 3: Put it Together
Spoon the filling into the prepared crust and press a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface. Allow to refrigerate at least 3 hours to firm the filling.

Step 4: Top it Off
Make whipped cream: 
Pour 1 pint of whipping cream into mixing bowl and let it go full speed for a few minutes until thickened and peaks remain when you pull out the beater. (Watch it or you will have butter in your bowl!) Add a hefty spoonful or two of sugar and voila! 

Before serving, remove plastic wrap, top with whipped cream and sprinkle with remaining toasted coconut.

After devouring their piece of pie- my family declared it a success.  They also decided it was like a cross between Gretchen's Coconut Cold Cake (which we adore and have every Easter); and Key Lime Pie (which is one of my most frequently craved desserts).  And I agree.  It really merges the best of both of these beloved desserts!

If you want a good, classic, fluffy, delicious dessert – this one won't disappoint! Don't delay making this like I did. Now I shall go scrub my floors, so as to mark something else off my lingering list! 

Blueberries: Rustic Mini-Pies, Muffins and Ponderings on Perfectionism

Blueberry season has been a fun one in our household.  We love them.  We eat them like candy.  Mostly because they have been tasting like candy! This summer we had the chance to go berry picking a couple of times and it was such fun!  I didn't freeze any of them, because between eating them by the handful, on yogurt and granola in the morning, in fruit salad at dinner; and baking these rustic mini pies, blueberry muffins and cake, they have been gobbled up!  

There has been this internal dialogue happening for me surrounding blueberries and perfectionism.  I have a child who is quite the perfectionist (in certain areas of her life).  And when it comes to blueberries, which she adores, she is extremely selective.  When I buy them from the store, I find her eyeing carefully before reaching in to pick one to eat.  Even when we buy frozen berries, she is careful to find the dark blue ones and reject the pinkish purple ones.  She prefers dark, plump berries – and the biggest, roundest of all.  This annoys me and her brother! We see it as selfish! "How dare you pick out the "good ones" and leave the less than great ones for all of us!?", we say.  I have tried to help her see this.

The interesting thing that happened when we were blueberry picking in July was that she was the VERY BEST picker.  Her discernment in selecting the very best berries makes her an excellent picker.  If you have ever gone picking, you know it is a little tricky because the same branch will most likely contain berries across the spectrum of ripeness, and you have to carefully move about, plucking the very darkest, plumpest, best berries and leaving the green and pink ones for a later week.  I realized that this quality of hers, that in one sense is a selfish quality – one that needs to be reformed, in another situation, is the quality of discernment, carefulness, skillful selectivity.  In this action, rather than plucking the best for herself out of the bowl at home, she was gathering the best for our collective basket for all of our benefit. 

Isn't this true. Don't we all know that our strengths turned around can potentially be our greatest weaknesses?  It's hard to see this in others sometimes.  And it makes parenting a tricky, and skillful journey of trying to guide and shape the character of these humans under our care!  I would imagine  you would hope your surgeon is a perfectionist.  I sure do! And however, I want my friends to love me with my imperfections and all. 

I think there is great value in having high standards, being an achiever, discerning and striving for excellence!  And yet we can become enslaved to it, or defined by it, or run down from trying to maintain perfection, or becoming self-absorbed with our perfectionism.  One of my favorite truth-tellers is Brene´ Brown and in her book,  The Gifts of Imperfection, she dismantles this dangerous pursuit and gives antidotes which include Gratitude, Authenticity, Self-Compassion, and more.

So, back to berries.

I decided to make some pie out of the blueberries we picked.

When thinking about it, I decided individual pies would be easier to serve and would be fun to make.  

I looked up a filling recipe from my standard, The Joy of Cooking, and used a frozen roll-out pie crust from Trader Joe's.  (You can, of course, make a from scratch crust.  I just didn't have the time or oomph. The Joy of Cooking recommends a couple of crusts, if you're looking for a crust recipe.)

I really like rustic pies.  I like that they are free-form, not all alike, and can be made on a baking sheet.  I think I like the freedom of imperfection in them!  They are more artistic, less tidy, and somehow European-cool.  Some cookbooks call this kind of pie a Galette or in Italian, a Crostata. Maybe that's why they seem European.

For these Galettes, here's what to do:

Thaw the frozen crust according to the package.

Make the filling:
[Combine and let stand 15 minutes]:
5 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar (more or less depending on the sweetness of your batch of berries)
3 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
1/8 tsp. salt

Divide dough into 8 balls.  Lightly flour the dough and roll out between sheets of parchment paper.  Peel off the top sheet of paper.
Place rounds on parchment lined baking sheets. Spoon berry mixture in center of dough.  Gently wrap the dough around to form an edge, pinching and squeezing as you need to to create a pouch.  Sprinkle with Turbinado sugar.

Bake in 375˚ oven for 15 minutes or until crust is golden and berries are bubbly.  Serve immediately with vanilla ice cream!

I have been working daily on my school prep – selecting articles, designing syllabi, and course assignments and getting kids back to school.  In all of this I have had very little time to blog and very little time to play around online.  But I let myself do some pinteresting one day and saw a friend had posted these "very best blueberry muffins" and when I clicked the link, it was In Praise of Leftovers, one of my favorite blogs.  So, I knew I had to try them.  And I will say, they are delightful! They are certainly more of a cake-for-breakfast-muffin, than these BRAN MUFFINS or these CORNMEAL MUFFINS but man are they good.  So, hop on over to her BLOG and check out these muffins, if you are more in a muffin-making than pie-making mood.  

The "Best" Blueberry Muffins via In Praise of Leftovers

For batter:
6 Tb. unsalted butter
1/3 c. whole milk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
3/4 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
2 c. blueberries

For topping:3 Tb. cold unsalted butter, cut into little cubes
1/2 c. flour
3 1/2 Tb. sugar

Preheat oven to 375 and butter a 12-cup muffin pan.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over moderately low heat; remove from heat. Whisk in milk, egg, yolk, and vanilla until well combined.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add milk mixture and stir until just combined. Gently but thoroughly fold in blueberries. Divide batter among muffin cups and spread evenly.

Combine all ingredients for topping in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle evenly over batter in each cup.

Bake until golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. Cool in pan for at least 5 minutes (10 would be better), then run a knife around edges of muffin tops and carefully remove from cups. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

          ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

If your area still has blueberries to pick, I hope you can do it.  If not, I hope you can find some at the store and make something yummy with them before the calendar turns September...and consider how your perfectionism could be best utilized!

Guideposts for Life- applied to Coconut Chocolate Pie

My whole life my mom has reminded me of the golden rule – Do to others as you would have them do to you.  Did you grow up with this as a mantra in your life?  When I had girl drama with school friends as a teenager, I would be reminded to treat others in a way that I would want to be treated.  When there was any kind of conflict or dilemma, this was a guiding principle in our home. 

In adulthood: as a friend, as a sibling, employee, teacher, neighbor, – keeping in mind this simple guidepost is transformational.  Many times a week I ask myself, “How would I want to be treated?” This changes things.  When I want to put someone in their place because I am irritated, when I want to give up on someone who is flaky, when I want to elevate myself, in those moments, if I ask myself “How would I want to be treated?”, it usually alters my response.  I turn towards a response of mercy, compassion, gentleness, and generosity.  After all, that’s the treatment I long to be given!

So the other day, friends came for dinner, and I broke a different principle of my mom’s by trying a new recipe when company is coming. Because it was “low pressure” company – a couple from our small group at church, they love us/we love them, I thought it was worth the risk.  I recently reorganized my cookbooks in the kitchen, and with the new arrangement, I am trying to use them more, now that they are more accessible.  A Martha Stewart Pies & Tarts Cookbook is one that I had wanted to use but hadn’t had a chance to.  I flipped through the pages the other day and marked recipes that looked especially yummy (and/or doable).  I found a recipe for a Coconut Chocolate Pie and it looked amazing.  I remembered that this couple we were hosting likes coconut, so it would be fun to make it for them.  I followed the simple recipe and made the pie.  And it bombed!  The chocolate filling didn’t set up at all.  I was so disappointed.  After a couple of hours, I moved it to the freezer, instead of the fridge, hoping it would firm up. I kept checking it, and finally gave up.  Our friends were kind and gracious.  I was irritated. 

My first reaction was to be mad at Martha Stewart and to mark this recipe off as a dud.  I was tempted to dismiss the entire cookbook.  “If this one was touted as one of the simple ones, and I couldn’t accomplish it, then surely I couldn’t succeed at the others!”, I thought to myself. Then the golden rule popped in my mind.  What would I want someone to do with my recipe? What if someone came to my blog, tried a recipe that I claimed was simple and when they tried it, it didn’t work, and so they dismissed the recipe (that I found to be a treasure)?  What if they just rejected the whole blog? I would be disappointed.  I would want to say, “Oh, no! Let’s trouble-shoot; tell me what you did. What went wrong? Try this, do this, let me know how it goes.”  

So, I decided to try again: to give the recipe the benefit of the doubt, to own the possibility that I could have done something wrong.  This time I looked on-line to see if anyone had made it and had tips.  I found a couple of blogs where they had tweaked things a little.  I re-read the simple recipe from the cookbook and evaluated my ingredients.  I realized that while the recipe calls for “bittersweet chocolate - preferably 61% cacao”, I had used semi-sweet chocolate chips because that’s what I had on hand.  I thought it would be fine.  But then I realized that the less pure, less dark chocolate probably was to blame for the pie not setting up.  The filling is made with just two ingredients: heavy cream and dark chocolate.  Therefore, each ingredient really needs to be correct.

We bought 60% cacao chocolate bars from Trader Joes and finely chopped it, as was instructed in the recipe.  And low and behold, it worked beautifully.  So, really it wasn’t the recipe at all, it was my using the wrong ingredients.   Which leads to another guiding principle of my life – taking personal responsibility for my part of a problem.  I find that our culture is especially prone to blame-shifting. We would rather point a finger at others than to self-reflect and own our part of the problem.  When we can “own our junk”, take responsibility, and admit our faults, it can make a huge difference in our lives (and in the lives of others around us)!

I have a feeling the pie mess-up was a divine gift.  It was a humble reminder to extend grace, give it another chance, own my part of the problem and enjoy the delicious rewards of trying again.

(I know these are deep thoughts regarding pie.  I guess this is what happens when a social work professor is also a baker.  Thanks for going there with me.)

Coconut Chocolate Pie

(borrowed from Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts)

For the Crust:

4 Tbsp. butter, softened

11 oz. sweetened shredded coconut

For the Ganache Filling:

1 1/4 cups heavy cream

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate

(preferably 61% cacao) finely chopped

Make the crust:  Preheat oven to 350 ˚. In a food processor, process butter and 1/3 of coconut until mixture forms a ball, 1 to 2 minutes.  Transfer to a medium bowl.  Sprinkle remaining 2/3 coconut over mixture, and combine with your fingers. (which I love to do)

Place a 9 inch pie plate on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet.  Lightly spray pie plate with cooking spray.  Press coconut mixture into the bottom and up the sides of pan to form crust, leaving top edges loose and fluffy.  Place foil around edge to prevent burning. Bake until center begins to brown, 10 to 15 minutes; remove foil, and bake 4 to 6 minutes more.  Transfer crust to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the filling:  Bring cream just to boil in a small saucepan; pour over chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl.  Let sit 10 minutes, then stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is combined.  Pour into coconut crust.  Refrigerate until filling is set, 1 hour or up to 1 day.

(The cookbook noted that this pie is gluten-free, with the crust made out of coconut).

It really is easy and lovely.  Next time I would like to top it with toasted almond slices.  Mmmm.  I have always wished that Almond Joys and Mounds candy bars could flip-flop, because I like the dark chocolate with the almonds.

(we served it with a dollop of whipped cream and we decided it didn't add much
to the flavor but added a nice texture)