Frozen Key Lime Pie #14

Let's just call it like it is, the Barefoot Contessa rocks. She does. I feel like each and every time I make one of her recipes I come off looking like a winner and this recipe is no exception.

So, yes, I've made this pie at least 10 times (and I plan on making it at least 100 times more), and while I wasn't going to count this as one of my 52 pies (because I didn't plan on making any repeats), it was definitely the best pie at our pie party and a few people asked if I was going to put the recipe on this blog. So here it is. Number fourteen.

It wins.

It always wins.

Whether you are a pie person, a lime person, a graham cracker crust-type of a person or none of the above, you will love it.

In fact, I will promise you that YOU WILL LOVE THIS PIE (and so will everyone else).

There you have it. Let the Barefoot make you a winner. Make this pie.

Frozen Key Lime Pie
 

Ingredients

For the crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (for a graham cracker recipe, click here)
1/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

6 extra-large egg yolks at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons grated lime zest
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (4 to 5 limes)

For the decoration:

1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Thin lime wedges

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a bowl. Press into a 9-inch pie pan, making sure the sides and the bottom are an even thickness. Bake for 10 minutes until firm and golden. Allow to cool completely.

For the filling, beat the egg yolks and sugar on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for 5 minutes, until thick. With the mixer on medium speed, add the condensed milk, lime zest, and lime juice. Pour into the baked pie shell and freeze.

For the decoration, beat the heavy cream on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until firm. Spoon or pipe decoratively onto the pie and decorate with lime. Freeze for several hours or overnight.

Strawberry Rhubarb #6

Okay, first things first, I don't believe in eating things that are out of season.

Even if the fanciest grocery store is selling watermelon in February I don't buy it because of principle (and price and taste...but mostly principle).

This new philosophy in my life came the day I cracked open the pages of the Omnivore's Dilemma. In a way, it's really screwed things up for me by prompting me to get to the farmer's market week after week to partake of their summer harvest, and has even stretched me to love beets and any other winter vegetable I can find during January and February. Not as easy as just buying what's at the store (but tastier).

Any way, why am I telling you this?

Because I believe that food tastes better and is better for you when it's not shipped from Guatalawherever or grown in some hormone-injected fruit factory.

That's something I've been meaning to say for awhile now for many reasons, but mostly because I wanted to explain why I've been making creamy/custard/chocolate pies instead of fruit pies: It's not that they're in season, but technically, they're not out of season.

In any case, I feel like I have to push my beliefs out on the forefront of this post because of this: A Strawberry Rhubarb pie when neither are in season? What's that all about?

Here's the thing, I'm making these pies for my husband...and it was Valentine's Day...and you know what his favorite pie is?
Rhubarb pie

So when I found frozen rhubarb in the freezer section of my new supermarket, I got a little excited about a frozen fruit experiment...and it didn't hurt that it was a lovely color of red too.

And so I give you: (frozen) Strawberry (and frozen) Rhubarb pie.

Or as Ryan called it: "The Jamba Juice Pie" which, if you think about it, is appropriately named. It tangy, it's fruity, it tastes like summer, and at some point, it was frozen.

Oh, and did I mention? The experiment worked. It was delicious.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie
(adapted to accommodate frozen fruit for those winter months when you need something a little different)

Filling:
3 cups frozen strawberries (slightly thawed and halved or thickly sliced)
3 cups cut rhubarb (slightly thawed)
1 cup sugar
5 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsweetened butter, cold and cut into pieces
1 tablespoon sugar, to dust top

Bubby's Butter & Shortening Crust
(8-10 Inch Double Crust)
6 Tablespoons ice cold water
2 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
7 Tablespoons cold unsalted butter
4 Tablespoons cold shortening

Directions
Measure out the water for the crust and chill it in the freezer while preparing the rest of the crust.

Measure out the flour (un-sifted) by leveling off dry measuring cups, and add the flour to large bowl. Add the salt to the flour and give it a quick stir to combine evenly.

Cut cold butter and cold shortening into cubes and add to flour mixture. Coat butter and shortening with flour and with a pastry cutter, cut it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse meal.

Add cold water and use hands to form the dough into a two balls or disks. Chill for 1 hour or overnight.

When dough is chilled, Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees.

Run frozen fruit under warm water to partially thaw fruit and drain all excess water. If needed, slice the rhubarb and strawberries and place in large bowl.

Cover the fruit with the sugar, flour, zest and salt. Toss lightly and be careful of mashing or breaking the fruit chunks but also separate any fruit that may still be frozen together.

Roll out 1 dough disk in to a 10-inch round and line your 9-inch pie dish with it.

Place the mixture into the pie pan. Dot the pie with the butter slices. Roll out top crust and cover pie filling with top crust, crimping the tops and bottoms so that the pie is well sealed. If not using a lattice crust cut steam vents into the pie.

Brush the top crust with milk and dust with the sugar.

Place the pie on a jelly roll to catch drippings. Bake the pie for 10 minutes or until the top crust appears dry and lightly blistered.

Reduce the cooking heat to 350 degrees. Bake an additional 50-60 minutes (or if using fresh fruit 30-40 minutes) or until the fruit mixture thickly bubbles in the middle of the pie. Pie crust should be golden and flaky.

Allow pie to cool completely before serving.