mix, mix… stir, stir

Luck was on my side last week in Las Vegas and I had the great pleasure of meeting Dorie Greenspan! She was the host for a cooking workshop taught by Anthony Amoroso, Executive Chef at Michale Mina, as part of the Bon Appetit Vegas Uncorked event. The workshop was a fantastic inspiration to explore sous-vide cooking, and Dorie was a wonderful host asking great questions of the chef. When I told her I was a Tuesdays with Dorie baker she was thrilled and mentioned that she loves following along with our kitchen adventures as much as she can. Now, on to the dessert of the week, Florida Pie. 

Florida Pie is a bite of summer thanks to the refreshing and tart key limes. I have never used key limes before and for being tiny little suckers they deliver a bold floral lime juice that justifies all the hoopla . Happily my juicer made quick work of them after I simply cut off the rind. I stuck true to the recipe, but made my graham cracker crust, well I made the graham crackers and then made the crust. The graham cracker recipe is one I worked out last year during a smore’s binge. Graham crackers are one of those items that I didn’t realize could be made at home, and I still get a thrill every time I make them and they really turn out like graham crackers.

The best thing about this pie is the velvety, creamy, texture of the filling. I have not cared for the key lime pies I have tried because they all had a very gelatinous texture to the filling. Most of they key lime pies I have encountered were on a convention buffet, which explains a lot, but this recipe proves there is no need for a stiff gel-like filling when making a key lime pie. There is a layer of shredded coconut that has been cooked down in cream between the crust and filling that not only adds flavor, but chewing satisfaction! The coconut adds a delightful tootheness allowing each bite to linger for a couple of extra chews before the filling melts away. It is a technique worth incorporating into other creamy/meringue style pies. The other nice twist to this recipe is folding coconut into the meringue topping.

You can find other pie results by checking out the Tuesdays with Dorie Group. Thank you to Dianne of Diane’s Dishes for selecting Florida Pie for this week and introducing me to key limes. You can find the recipe for Florida Pie along with loads of other fantastic things to bake in Dorie Greenspans book Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Here is my graham cracker recipe. If you have never made graham crackers I hope you will try it. My grahham cracker pie crust proportions still need work or I would post them. The standard ratio I use for a crumb crust of 1 1/2 cups crumbs to 3 ounces of butter was far too wet with these crumbs, so I just kept adding crumbs until I got it right, but I don’t know what I ended up with.

Graham Crackers

Makes about 40 three-inch crackers

 1 cup all-purpose flour

1 ¼ cups whole-wheat pastry flour

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup (4 oz.) unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

2 Tablespoons honey

2 Tablespoons molasses

¼ cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

 

In the bowl of a food processor add the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Pulse a few times to thoroughly combine. Add the pieces of cold butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the honey, molasses, and vanilla and pulse a couple of times to distribute the ingredients. With the machine running drizzle in the milk and stop processing just as the dough is beginning to come together, but is still a bit scrappy.

 

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board and bring the dough together to form a ball. Divide the dough in half. Wrap one half in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator while working with the first half. Place one of the pieces of parchment from a baking sheet on the counter and and roll the first piece of dough out on the parchment paper to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Dust the dough lightly with flour as needed to prevent the rolling pin from sticking. Try to roll the dough into an even rectangle shape, feeling free to trim and reposition any strange protrusions that develop while rolling.

 

Leaving the dough on the parchment, cut squares in the dough to create break lines for the crackers. This is quite like creating score lines, but cut all the way through the dough, just be careful not to slice the parchment into pieces. With the tines of a fork dock each cracker three or four times to create prick marks. I leave the ragged edges in place for baking because they make the edges of the outter crackers more uniform and they make great snacks for the cook once the crackers come out of the oven!

 If you like you can sprinkle the tops of the crackers with a course sugar or even a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.

 Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F

Slide the parchment of prepared dough onto a baking sheet and let chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes before baking. Repeat for the other half of the dough.

 

Bake for 13-15 minutes. The edges of the crackers should be fairly brown and the center portion will have a nice golden toasty color.  Remove from the oven and slide the parchment onto a cooling rack. Using a spatula loosen the cracker (which should have baked into one large piece) from the parchment and slide the parchment out from under the crackers. If the crackers won’t move as one unit, cut along one of the score lines and break it in half to transfer in pieces. Once cooled, they will be very crisp and should easily snap apart along the score lines, if not use a knife to cut along the score marks.

 

Store in an airtight container.