I Blog What I Bake

There are tons of recipes that I want to put up on the blog, but I only have so much time. So, I have decided to do some baking “shorts”.  I’m not really sure what else to call them. “Micro-posts” sounds weird. Anyway, these won’t have a million pictures or stories to go along with them . Just good food.

I adapted this recipe from the Strawberry Bread recipe on My Baking Addiction. The Limoncello glaze was delicious! But if you don’t have, or have never heard of, Limoncello, you can substitute fresh lemon juice or lemonade.

Strawberry Lemonade Bread with Limoncello Glaze
Adapted from My Baking Addiction “Fresh Strawberry Bread”

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon fresh grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, roughly blended

Glaze
4 tablespoons of confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon of Limoncello (or lemon juice or lemonade)

DIRECTIONS

Bread:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper.
I a medium bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
On the medium speed of an electric mixer beat the sugar and butter together.
Beat in the vanilla, lemon zest and lemon juice.
With a wooden spoon or spatial, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until just blending. Add the buttermilk and still only until just combined. Be careful not to over mix.
Fold in the strawberries and bake in a 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes.  Allow bread to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Carefully turn it out of the pan and allow to cool completely on a baking rack.

Glaze:

Stir together 4 tablespoons of confectioners sugar with 1 tablespoon of Limoncello. Once bread has cooled completely, pour over the top and spread. If the glaze is to runny add a little more confectioners sugar.

I’m on a berry kick lately. It must be the weather. Sunshine and heat make me want fruit. I’ve also been reconnecting with my “More From Magnolia” cookbook. As I was flipping through it on Saturday afternoon I came across the Strawberry Shortcake recipe. The whole of my experience with Strawberry Shortcake has been those packaged angel food cakes you buy at grocery story, topped with Cool Whip and strawberries. Not that appealing.  I was excited to attempt my first homemade Strawberry Shortcake!  Overall, this was fairly easy to make. My cake layers didn’t come out perfectly even, but I fixed that with a leveler. Also, my cake frosting skills are still a work in progress, but I think I’m getting better at it. I think.

Strawberry Shortcake Recipe from Magnolia Bakery

Cake
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks of butter) softened
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whipped Cream Filling/Frosting
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cups confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Berries
2 pints (4 cups) ripe strawberries sliced in half
2 tablespoons of sugar

Grease and lightly flour 3 9×2-inch round cake pans, line the bottom with parchment paper. Do this step even if you working with nonstick pans.

In a small bowl combine the flours and set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until smooth (about 3 minutes).  Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy.
Add the eggs on at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not overbeat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure all the ingredients are well blended.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pan for 1 hour. (YES, one hour. You can wait.) Remove from the pans and cool completely on wire rack.

To make the cream filling whip the heavy cream with the sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. How long this will take depends on how cold your cream is. I recommend chilling the bowl you will be using in the fridge prior to making the whipped cream.

Once the layers have cooled completely (LET THEM COOL OR THEY WILL MELT THE FROSTING…I’m not yelling you, just warning you) spread one-third of the whipped cream filling over the bottom cake layer, followed by one-third of the berries. Repeat with the remaining layers.  After all the layers were assembled I used the rest of the whipped cream to cover the whole cake, you can leave the sides bare if you choose.

I used 8 inch cake pans, because I didn’t have three 9×2 inch pans. Result? A REALLY TALL Strawberry Shortcake.  It was so good.  I would recommend serving this as soon as you can. The whipped cream frosting can be temperamental in the summer heat and putting cake in the fridge dries it out in no time.

Enjoy!

ps – my next post involves the left over strawberries I had from this recipe

One of the best bits of summertime is all of the fresh fruit and not only it’s availability, but it’s cost! I can finally buy a pint of raspberries for under $4.  Yay!

I love raspberries. They are one of my favorite fruits and one of the few raw fruits that my husband is not horribly allergic to.  That being said, I try to get these little berries into as many recipes as I can. This is the first time I tried putting them into cupcakes. Truth be told, they did not turn out as expected in the first go around. I over-beat the batter and turned them into raspberry muffins. Tasty? Yes. Cupcakes? No.  So, a word to the wise, DO NOT put the raspberries into the batter whole. Chop half, puree half and then FOLD them into the batter.

I made two options for the topping to go on these cupcakes because I couldn’t decided which I wanted to use, so I used both. The first is a raspberry cream cheese frosting, the second is chocolate ganache topped with a whole raspberry. One note, if you do the ganache it is best to serve them fairly soon after adding the ganache. I like my ganache a little more liquid than set.

Raspberry Cupcakes Recipe
Basic Vanilla Cupcake Recipe from “Magnolia Bakery”.

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter softened
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pint fresh raspberries

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz package of cream cheese, at room temperature
1 stick butter, at room temperature
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 pint fresh raspberries

Chocolate Ganache

8oz semisweet or bittersweet chocoloate
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons unslated butter

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin tins with cupcake papers.  In a small bowl, combine the flours and set aside.

Chop one half of the raspberries. Set aside. Puree, or just mush with a fork, the remaining raspberries. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of hand held mixer, cream the butter until it’s smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. About 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over-beat! (unless you want muffins)

Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

Fold the chopped and pureed raspberries into the batter

Carefully spoon batter into cupcake liners, filling them about 3 quarters full. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool in the muffin tin for 10 minutes before removing them and placing them on a baking rack to cool completely.

Now, for the cream cheese frosting.

Cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Slowly beat in the confectioners sugar one cup at at time. Beat in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Add 1 pint of raspberries and beat until incorporated. Spread, or pipe, over cooled cupcakes.

For the chocolate ganache…

Place chopped chocolate into a heat resistant bowl. Set aside.  Heat cream and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream mixture over the chopped chocolate. Allow it to stand for about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Gently spoon ganache over cooled cupcakes and top with a fresh raspberry.

Enjoy!!

This just was released and I thought I would share for those of you who love food blogs. The text below is copied directly from the 55 Knives page.

“The 55 Knives book is a collaborative project from some of the web’s top food bloggers in a simple, easy to download format.  The authors included in the project were picked not only because of their expertise in the kitchen but also because of their ability to write well about food.

Each of the 55 bloggers will have a chapter where they will present one or two of their favorite recipes.  Some recipes will be simple and some might be more complicated (Individual Beef Wellingtons!).  Don’t worry though, the complicated recipes will have crystal clear instructions.

In addition to the recipes, each chapter will have a story explaining why that recipe is important to that author.  Some of the recipes have been in families for generations and some are newly created.  I think you’ll find the stories to be touching, funny, sincere, and above all else, entertaining!”

55 Knives is available for sale !

Limelight. Once a dark gritty headonistic nightlife mecca , has reivented itself as Limelight Marketplace. The former, church- turned- nightclub, is now a bright, glittery luxury marketplace relpete with specality soap shops, botique lingere stands, clothing alcoves and, of course, lots of cute little dessert stations. My how times have changed.  Once upon a time, I recall stumbling out the door of Limelight after a very long night of…fun. Today I stumbled out the door practically vibrating from the sugar  extravaganza I just indulged in.

I’d heard about all of the dessert stands that had opened up in their “Sweet Room”, paticularly the Cupcake Stop, and figured reviewing them for the blog would be a brilliant excuse to go on a sugar binge. So, with Matt (I Blog What I Eat) as my accomplice, I attacked the “Sweet Room”.  Below, I have listed my conquests in the order assault.

Disclaimer: All but two pictures were taken with my iPhone. I had my camera, alas cameras are of no use without a battery.

THE CUPCAKE STOP

The Cupcake Stop, which usually is just a truck that drives around Manhattan and parks in different locations everyday, has secured a stationary spot in Limelight. And I am sooo glad they did.  I have had cupcakes from dozens of NYC bakeries, they are trendy little confections after all, and I must say these are among the best.  I ordered a Mexican Chocolate cupake and a  Nutella Crunch.  They both had great consistency and smooth frosting. The Mexican Chocolate was the winner of the two. The Nutella Crunch was good, but didn’t have as much flavor. Honestly, if you try these you will never eat a Magnolia Bakery cupake again. Okay, onto the next…

BUTTERFLY BAKESHOP

Isn’t that a pretty little Red Velvet Cake? I thought so too. That’s why I bought it.  It had really nice flavor and a good cream cheese frosting (maybe a bit too sweet), but the consistency was…well…odd. It was like the cake had been soaked in a simple syrup mixture. Yes, the cake was wet.  I’m not sure what the reasoning was here. Maybe to keep it moist past it’s prime? I was a little suspect. I wouldn’t advise to steer clear of the place, maybe just try a alternate selection. It was pretty. I ate the butterfly.

MARIEBELLE CHOCOLATES

Please forgive my wacky formatting with the images. It’s late and I have had some wine.

Anyway, Mariebelle’s Chocolates. This shop was a little challenging to find, even though you can see it as soon as you walk into the Marketplace (they also have a cart on the first floor). It’s in a space that is sort of between floors. I should add that Limelight Markeplace is a bit of maze and you feel like Alice in Wonderland trying to navigate the place. There are little half staircases that lead to dead ends and various nooks and cranies that can have you very turned around. What made the nightclub version so interesting , can make a shopping trip feel like falling down a rabbit hole. After we found Mariebelle’s, I was excited to try their off-beat artisan chocolates. Of all all the flavors, I selected Saffron and Whiskey. At first I wasn’t so sure about the Saffron chocolate, but it grew on me and I am now determined to use Saffron in one of my recipes. The Whiskey flavor did not dissapoint. It was like taking a chocolate shot of Jack Daniels. I will certainly make a return trip to try flavors like Cardamon, Earl Grey and Passion Fruit. Oh, and a quick note, they serve real food. You can sit down at one of the little tables and order lunch. Cute.

WANNAHAVACOOKIE

Wannahavacookie? More like Wannahavadevildog.  I wouldn’t really classify this as a cookie. Round does not a cookie make.  This is a round Devil Dog. They call it a Whoopie Pie and offer different flavor variations. I choose the Chocolate Mint variety. It’s light, fluffy and had a good mint flavor but it’s just not a cookie. Their website www.wannahavacookie.com does have actual cookies, but Whoopie Pies are their main business.  If you are a fan of Devil Dogs, this is your product.

By this point a was on sugar overload and had to call it a day. There is a Gelato stand I will have to go back and visit and some other food stops, like the cheese shop and bread baker that are a must try. In the next few months the restaurants and wine bars will also be open and that will certainly warrant a return trip. Overall, it was a great trip and I really enjoyed trying all the different offerings. I am still skeptical about the non-food based shops and I am curious to see the sustainability of the marketplace as whole. If you are in the neighborhood (6th Ave & 20th in NYC), I would highly recommend stopping by.  That’s it for now, below are a few pictures I took of the interior.

Thanks for stopping by!!

I wasn’t planning on posting this. I had some overripe bananas that I needed to use so decided to make some banana chocolate chip muffins.  There are no elaborate pictures or anecdotes. I made muffins, they were amazing, thought I would share.

Enjoy!

Jumbo Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins (makes 6 jumbo muffins)

1 3/4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
14 cup white sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 eggs
1/3 cup whole milk
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 over-ripe bananas (mushed)

• Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg together in a small bowl, set aside
• In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugars until light and very fluffily. About 3 minutes
• Add the eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture beating well after each addition
• Stir (do not beat) in the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the milk. Only mix until just incorporated
• Fold in the bananas  and chocolate chips
• Scoop batter into a buttered/floured muffin pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

I feel like it has ben FOREVER since I have posted anything. Sorry about that, but this recipe is worth the wait.  This one comes directly from My Baking Addiction and the second I saw these I knew I would have to give them a try. I am so happy I did! They are perfect delicious chewy sugar cookies with just a little punch of tart. LOVE.

I did run into a minor situation while making these cookies. The recipe calls for shredded unsweetened coconut. I went to three stores and only found sweetened coconut. So I improvised and bought an actual coconut (only after the fact did I realize I should have gone to Whole Foods for unsweetened shredded coconut). I have never cracked a coconut. The result? My husband in the basement with Google and some power tools. Needless to say the coconut never saw what hit it and I got my shredded unsweetened coconut.  It was a lot of effort for a cookie, but it was worth watching Brian so determined with that coconut. Love you babe.

RECIPE

2 3/4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of one large lime
3 tablespoon fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Printable Recipe: Lime Coconut Cookies

First things first, toast the shredded coconut. Place in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until the coconut starts to turn a little brown. Cool before adding to cookie batter.  My husband also shredded the coconut for me. I was losing patience.

In medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Using a hand held mixer beat the sugar and butter together until very light an fluffy.

Beat in egg, vanilla, lime zest and lime juice.  Stir in the toasted coconut. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until everything is well incorporated.

Next, roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls and gently roll them in sugar. Place about 1 1/2 inches apart on a cookies sheet lined with either parchment paper or a Silpat.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. They needed the whole 10 minutes in my oven.

Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the sheet and then move them to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!!!

Aimez-vous le champagne ? Aimez-vous le chocolat ? If so, this is your cupcake baby. Rich dark chocolate cake and light fluffy frosting both spiked with champagne transform an ordinary cupcake into a dessert that is simultaneously indulgent and playful.

The inspiration for the recipe came from a few places. I had seen a few Champagne Cakes and was curious, my friend Leo suggested that I make the cupcakes dark chocolate and the base of the frosting recipe came from Give Me Some Oven. I also played with some decorative frosting . I usually don’t get along well with pastry bags, I need lessons, but I think these turned out pretty well and I didn’t make too much of a mess! Which is surprising, because by the time I got around to frosting the cupcakes I had helped myself to a bit of the champagne. I know, I broke one of my own rules. Don’t drink and bake.  I avoided disaster this time.

My fear was that, once complete, these wouldn’t taste anything like champagne. Admittedly, the cupcakes did not really taste like champagne, but the addition of the champagne made them incredibly light and moist.  The real champagne flavor came in the icing. It has the perfect little punch. SO good. On that note… onto the recipe.

Dark Chocolate Champagne Cupcakes

2 cups white granulated sugar
1 3/4 cups of unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened dark cocoa powder (I use Hershey’s Special Dark)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
2 large eggs (room temperature)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup champagne (I used a semi-sweet champagne, not brut)

Pink Champagne Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
7 tablespoons of champagne
2 drops pink food coloring
Sugar crystals for decoration (because champagne sparkles!)

Assemble your ingredients, pour yourself a glass of champagne and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. What?

Line two cupcake pans with the liners of your choice. I was feeling playful when I made these, so I used black liners with gold swirls. Seemed appropriate. You can buy all kinds of decorative cupcake liners. Looking for an online shop? Go to Bake It Pretty. Fun stuff… some is a little to cutesy for me, but overall they have creative choices.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a lage bowl.

Add the eggs, vanilla, oil and milk and beat until well combined on the medium speed of an electric mixer. Add champagne. Beat on low until completely combined. Next, using a wooden spoon, STIR the boiling water into the batter.  Carefully fill each cupcake liner with the batter. Use just under a 1/4 cup per cupcake. Anything more will produce a mess and your cupcakes will overflow the rim when they bake. Don’t ask how I know this.

Bake for 15 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pans for about 10 minutes. Carefully pluck each cupcake out of the pan and place them on a baking rack to cool completely.

For the frosting cream together the sugar, butter. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in each tablespoon of champagne one at at at time. Add the two drops of food coloring and beat until the color is even.

You can either frost the cupcakes the old fashioned way, with a knife or small offset spatula, or you can get fancy and do any array of pipping.  Once frosted sprinkle the crystalized sugar over the top.

Last but not least, grab your glass of champagne and enjoy!!

Sugar and spice and everything nice. That is what I think of when I think of this cake.  It was so sweet and comforting and just plain good!  This recipe has already been on two food blogs that I know of, but I just couldn’t resist making it. The original recipe comes from Smitten Kitchen and Hot Polka Dot featured the cake just over a week ago. I made a couple of super minor adjustments and added the drizzle.  My first attempt at the cake didn’t quite go as planned. I ignored one of my own baking rules. DON’T RUSH. Every time I rush I make mistakes and this was no exception. Let’s just say a tablespoon and a teaspoon of baking powder produce very different results indeed.  So don’t bake rushed, don’t bake distracted and don’t drink and bake. Bad things happen.  Anyway, the second go around worked out perfectly and produced very delicious cakes!

Apple Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, “Mom’s Apple Cake”, www. smittenkitchen.com

6 macintosh apples – peeled, cored and cut thin
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
5 tablespoons of sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of salt
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
4 eggs

Cream Cheese Drizzle
Courtesy of My Baking Addiction, www.mybakingaddiction.com

4 oz. of cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

The original recipe called for a tube pan. I don’t have one, so I used two 9 inch cake pans instead. Having two cakes is never a bad thing. Line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper and butter and flour the pan.

Peel, core and chop up six macintosh apples and place in a mixing bowl.  Stir cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg into the apples and set aside.

Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl whisk together oil, vanilla, orange juice and zest.  Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones.  Next, add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated. Note: this dough is thick and sticky!!  (At first I thought I did something wrong.)

Pour half the batter into the pans. Because it’s so sticky you will have to work it to the sides with spatula.  Layer half of the apples on top of the batter. Pour the remaining batter on top and then finish with another layer of apples. Be patient with it.

Bake in a 350 oven for approximately 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes. Turn out of the pan, remove the parchment paper and allow to cool completely on baking racks.

Now for the cream cheese drizzle.

In a medium sized bowl, cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Add the confectioners sugar, alternating with the milk and vanilla and beat until it reaches desired consistency. If it’s too think to drizzle, add more milk. If it’s too watery add more sugar.  I used a squeezy bottle to apply  the drizzle. You can also pipe it with a pastry bag.

Slice it up and enjoy with good cup of coffee!

A few weeks ago I go it in my head to make Key Lime Pie. A friend of mine was searching Manhattan for the pie, so I decided to just go ahead and make one. Simple, right? Um, no. Little did I know that Key Limes are not so easy to come by in Northern New Jersey. But, after a prolonged search and some mild cursing I finally found Mexican Key Limes at Corrado’s Market in Clifton. Thank you Corrado’s for carrying ingredients no one else has. I got really irrationally excited when I found them and bought 3 bags. That’s a lot of limes. SO… I decided to make 3 pies using three different recipes. I’m beginning to think I just like to make things harder on myself than they should be. One is from a native Floridan, one is from Ina Garten (Food Network) and the other is from Epicurious.com. The ingredients are almost exactly the same for each pie, just arranged differently to produce 3 very unique pies. I finally went into pie making mode a couple of weekends ago and here are the results in all their tangy zesty sugary glory.

A lime juicer about to be put through it’s paces. If you don’t own one of these little contraptions, run out and get yourself one. It will save you lots of aggravation. Key Limes are tiny (which I did not know) and I wouldn’t recommend trying to juice these little suckers by hand. The juicer also comes in handy for margaritas. Just sayin’.

Juiced Key Lime graveyard.

These are basically the only ingredients you will ever need to make any Key Lime pie. Sweetened condensed milk, key limes, key lime juice and eggs.

Key Lime zest. The best part.

And now for the 3 recipes….

I used the same graham cracker crust recipe for each pie since they didn’t vary enough to make 3 differnent ones.

Graham Cracker Crust

10 graham crackers

3/4 stick of melted butter

1/4 cup of sugar

In a food processor, process the crackers until the are fine. Add sugar and pulse. Slowly add melted butter. Process until well combined. Press evenly into either glass pie plate or springform pan (see recipes).  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely before adding filling.

Mr. K’s Key Lime Pie

1 Graham Cracker Crust in glass or foil pie plate

4 egg yolks

3 oz. fresh squeezed key lime juice

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

3 heaping spoonfuls of Cool Whip

Combine egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk. Mix well using hand held beaters. Slowly add lime juice. Mix well. Add Cool Whip. Mix well. Pour filling into prepared pie crust. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow pie to cool on the counter for an additional 20 minutes. Place pie in fridge for 4-8 hours to cool completely. Can be made a day in advance.

Epicurious.com Key Lime Pie (slightly altered from their original recipe)

1 prepared graham cracker crust in pie plate

1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup fresh key lime juice

1 tablespoon fresh key lime zest

Whisk together condensed milk and yolks in a bowl until well combined. Add juice and whisk until well combined (mixture will thicken slightly). Pour filling into crust and bake in oven for 15 minutes. Cool pie on rack (filling will cool as it sets), then chill, covered, for a least 8 hours.

Topping: Beat cold heavy cream with 1 tablespoon of confectioners sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.

Ina Garten Frozen Key Lime Pie

6 extra large egg yolks

1/4 cup of sugar

1 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed sugar

2 tablespoons fresh grated lime zest

3/4 cup of freshly squeezed key lime juice

For decoration:

1 cup cold heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

Beat egg yolks and sugar on high speed with electric mixer for 5 minutes until thick. On medium speek, beat in the condensed milk, lime zest and lime juice. Pour into prepared crust, in a SPRINGFORM pan and freeze for about 8 hours.

For decoration, beat the heavy cream on high speed of electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until firm. Spoon, spread or pipe onto the pie. Garnish with lime wedges.

And there you have it. Three Key Lime Pie recipes for the testing. Slice up and enjoy!

Oh… and this happened on my way to deliver some of these pies. They are now fondly known as the Pies of Mass Destruction.