TWD: Florida Pie

Back from Oregon! And just in time to whip up something for mom on mother's day. How serendipitious that this weeks Tuesdays With Dorie Recipe chosen by Dianne of Dianne's Dishes was something that I knew my mom would love! (And she did, incidentally).

So... I love me some key lime pie. The mix of a sweet and crunchy graham cracker crust with the tart and creamy lime filling is something that I absolutely adore and when you throw in an layer of chewy, sweet coconut goodness between the two... I'm sold. One thing I'm not a fan of, though.... meringue. So, I skipped that and opted for some whipped cream. I loved this pie and would definitely make it again.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you and appreciate all the big and small things you've done for me and I hope that one day I will be at least half as good of a mom as you are!

There always has to be one photo where we're squatting down for no reason. At Mt. Hood.
Happy Mothers Day, Mom!

Florida Pie

1 9-inch graham cracker crust (page 235), fully baked and cooled, or a store-bought crust
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
4 large eggs, separated
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh Key (or regular) lime juice (from about 5 regular limes) **
1/4 cup of sugar

Getting Ready:Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment of a silicone mat.

Put the cream and 1 cup of the coconut in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly. Continue to cook and stir until the cream is reduced by half and the mixture is slightly thickened. Scrape the coconut cream into a bowl and set it aside while you prepare the lime filling.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl beat the egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the condensed milk. Still on low, add half of the lime juice. When it is incorporated, add the reaming juice, again mixing until it is blended.

Spread the coconut cream in the bottom of the graham cracker crust, and pour over the lime filling. Bake the pie for 12 minutes.

Transfer the pie to a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes, then freeze the pie for at least 1 hour.

To Finish the Pie with Meringue: Put the 4 egg whites and the sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking all the while, until the whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the whites to a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer in a large bowl, and beat the whites at high speed until they reach room temperature and hold firm peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining 1/2 cup coconut into the meringue.Spread the meringue over the top of the pie, and run the pie under the broiler until the top of the meringue is golden brown. (Or, if you've got a blowtorch, you can use it to brown the meringue.) Return the pie to the freezer for another 30 minutes or for up to 3 hours before serving.

** Recipe Note: I had just shy of a full 1/2 cup with 5 limes... so, you might want to have 6 limes just in case.

Chocolate Eclair

Holidays in my family revolve around traveling to my grandma's house about an hour and a half East of Nashville. It's a pot luck affair. My Aunt Loretta always brings the turkey, my Aunt Evelyn always brings the broccoli and cheese casserole (one of my favorites), we always have my grandma's delicious green beans and my mom always brings this dessert. It's a tradition. A tradition that has gone on for so long, that the dessert has become apart of the family and as such, it is affectionately called "Clair."

Clair is brought to both Thanksgiving and Christmas. And a few times in the past, we would load up the car and sometimes we would forget Clair, leaving her a lonely holiday sitting in the fridge (although, this was always a good thing for my immediate family... just means we got Clair all to ourselves when we got home from grandma's hungry and empty-handed). Which means, now, when people start filtering to the dessert, you'll always hear at least one person say... "is Clair here?" And out of the various brownies, cakes, and pies, Clair is the one dessert that is always completely empty at the end of dinner.

Now, I actually didn't eat Clair for a long time. You see, on my 4th birthday I got sick and threw up and for about 10 years after that, I wouldnt touch anything with frosting on it (for some reason, I equated the vomiting with the frosting), so all my birthday cakes from then on had to be plain, etc... so, since Clair has canned frosting poured all over her top, I wouldn't go near her.

Eventually, I realized what sugary goodness I was missing for so long and fell in love with frosting and as a result, fell in love with Clair.

I don't know where the name comes from, but it's actually more like a poor man's tiramisu. It's essentially a pudding dessert with graham cracker layers that soften and a chocolate frosting top. I made it for the first time this year, and while it wasn't quite as good as mom's, it was pretty good.

Easy and delicious and for my family, tradition.

Clair (Chocolate Eclair)

box of graham crackers
2 large boxes of vanilla instant pudding
5 cups of milk
1 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
1 large tub of cool whip
1 tub chocolate frosting

Layer the bottom of a 13x9 inch pan with graham crackers. Set aside.

For filling: In a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer the pudding packages and milk until thick (when my mom first received this recipe she was told to beat for 15 minutes, which I did, but she said she usually only beats till it starts to get thick, about 5 minutes, either way is fine).

Then add softened cream cheese and cool whip one at a time, blend well.

Pour half of pudding mixture into pan and spread over crackers. Then add another layer of graham crackers and then put the rest of the pudding on top of that layer.

Heat the can of frosting up slightly, to make it pourable and pour it over the top and spread it out. Refrigerate overnight.

Note about the frosting: If you get it too hot, it will separate on top of the pudding and look gross. Also, we only use about 2/3 of the tub of frosting, but you can use as much or as little as you like, it's rich and sweet, which is why we don't use all of it.

I also baked a cherry pie and there was a slice to bring home! Yay!