Key Lime Pie

Did everyone else out there know that key lime pie contains shockingly few ingredients? And, that a 6 year-old can do practically all of the work for you? And, you can teach him a cool chemistry lesson along the way? What dessert could be more perfect?

I attempted this dessert for the first time when a neighbor dropped off half a bag of key limes as they were headed out of town for an extended trip. (Are key limes used for anything besides making pie?) She kindly lent us her lime squeezer as well, so we were all set. I turned to the web to research the 'best key lime pie recipe' and discovered something shocking - they are all almost identical. Which, when you consider the chemistry involved, isn't that shocking. Though, I confess the first all-nighter I ever pulled in college was trying to make sense of results from a chemistry lab experiment, so admittedly it's not my strong suit.

Back to how simple this is. First, give your 6 year-old a bag of key limes and have him zest the skins (with repeated instructions to 'stop when you see white.') He'll skin a knuckle and ask for a band aid. After he skins a second knuckle you'll probably have enough zest and can let him stop.

Then, after halving the limes, let him use the squeezer to get a measured amount of juice. Yes, there will be a lot on the table and down his arms. Luckily, one bag of key limes contains more than twice as many are needed.

Let him slowly stir as the filling ingredients are combined, and explain how the acid from the limes is reacting with the sugars in the condensed milk, and he'll be able to feel it thickening up. Tell him about your chemistry all-nighter in college. At age 6, the thought of staying up all night sounds unbelievably cool, and not the least bit painful.

While it sets up, give him a bag of graham crackers and a meat tenderizer. So far, I've still always had to transfer it back to the food processor to get fine enough crumbs for the crust, but the kid definitely gives it a good head start.

I don't bother with a topping, though either meringue (you'll have egg whites left over) or fresh whipped cream are encouraged.  And, if you want to get fancy, you can sugar some thin slices of key lime for garnish.

Key Lime Pie
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen, and numerous other sources

Filling:
Several teaspoons of key lime zest
1/2 Cup freshly squeezed juice from key limes
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 or 4 egg yolks (we get farm eggs, so sizes are inconsistent, and so were the recipes found on the web anyhow)

Crust:
1 Cup graham cracker crumbs
4 Tablespoons melted butter, cooled a bit
3 Tablespoons sugar

Directions:

1. Zest the key limes, then halve and squeeze enough to yield 1/2 Cup of juice.
2. Whisk the zest with egg yolks for a couple of minutes until light. Add the sweetened condensed milk, and then the key lime juice. Mix until combined, you'll feel it thickening immediately, then set aside for 30 minutes.
3. In the meantime, pound graham crackers, or skip this and put them in the food processor. Any box of graham crackers will have a recipe on the back to tell you how many of their whole crackers should be used to make a graham cracker crust. Feel free to follow their guidelines instead of these proportions. Some recipes call for maple syrup, but I like the crunch of sugar for this. Add the sugar, drizzle in the melted butter and pulse to combine.
4. Press the crumbs onto the bottoms and up the sides of a 9" pie plate, and put the empty crust in a 325 oven for ~15 minutes, which should be exactly how much time you have left to wait on the filling.
5. Remove crust from the oven (let cool a bit if you have time remaining) then pour in filling and cook for an additional 15 minutes.
6. Let cool on a wire rack and then refrigerate for several hours, or overnight. It's fine to keep it covered or uncovered.

Pannukakku (Finnish oven-baked pancake)

Though not even halfway through, 2010 can already be defined by a few significant events in my life. Most impactful is the fact that Jim accepted a job out of state, but that will happily soon transition to a job back here and we are anxiously awaiting his move home. Towards the end of last year our family began enjoying a tradition of eating foods from different countries Jim visited for work, but 2010 is the year we discovered pannukakku from our Finnish friends right here in Houston.

The inspiration for making this the first time (yes, we've had it twice now, and I have no good excuse for not blogging about it earlier) was strawberry season. After spending the morning together with my friend Rebecca picking strawberries with our kids, we returned here to make jam. Luckily, Charlotte (mostly) waited until after we paid to dive in to what we picked.

Part way through the jamming processes, Rebecca thought out loud "Do you know what is a great way to eat fresh jam? Spoon some on to pannukakku!" Since my kids love all breakfast carbs, and pannukakku was described as an 'oven-baked pancake' there was no way this wouldn't be a hit. She called her husband for a reminder of the recipe, then a little math ensued (did we have enough deciliters of milk, or did we need to buy more?) and finally we were rewarded with the golden goodness.

A couple pics of the finished product from strawberry and blackberry jam sessions - yum!!

Yes, the kids help picking and mashing. Ironically, I had to go out to ebay to buy a vintage Foley food mill, exactly the same one my mom had growing up that I remember her using to make applesauce. I'm sure the one I purchased is older than I am - if you're curious about that number, just ask Charlotte how old she is, and she'll be sure to add how old her mommy is too.

OK, so fast-forwarding to this past weekend. Rebecca returned with her daughter, and again we took the kids outside of the Houston city limits to pick blackberries. And we made more jam. Lots more jam. About twice as much as we had made a couple months earlier. Mmmm - blackberry jam! We had been originally planning to eat the fresh blackberries with sweet cream, but instead decided to make more pannukakku that could be covered with blackberry jam AND sweet cream. A-ma-zing!

Last time we also ate the pannukakku with savory topping of lox and dill, but warm pannukakku with warm, not-quite-fully-set jam is one of Spencer's all time favorites.

Pannukakku
Adapted by Rebecca Rautio, from the classic Finnish cookbook Kotiruoka (Home Cooking) via her Finnish mother-in-law.


3 eggs
3 1/4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
toppings of choice (jam, cheese, smoked fish)


Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a jelly-roll pan (or similar pan with a thick rim) with overhanging parchment paper, if you have, and grease the parchment paper. Otherwise grease the pan liberally.


Beat the eggs for several minutes, until thick and light. Mix together the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl, and then mix into the pannukakku. Let the batter rest 10 minutes, then pour into the prepared sheet pan. Bake 30 minutes, until fluffy and lightly golden in some spots. Cut into squares while still warm, and serve.