Lovely Helen from Tartlette is the hostess of Sugar High Friday #43, an event created by Jennifer of The Domestic Godess.

Beside chocolate citrus are Helen's favorite flavors, it's obvious she has chosen citrus as theme. I love citrus too, and I'm in the fortunate position to own some citrus trees. This is the first year my orange tree produces fruits. The oranges supposed to be blood oranges (Sanguinelli), but it turned out that the tree yields bitter oranges. Recently I made with these oranges Bitter Orange Marmalade, and with this marmalade I prepared the following cake. Unfortunately it is not as spongy as it should be, but its taste is still delicious. Due to the dark chocolate and bitter oranges not too sweet. We love it.

Bitter Choc-Orange-Cake

120 g sugar
1 tb vanilla sugar
3 egg yolks
150 g butter, melted
juice of 1 small bitter orange
zest of 1 bitter orange
3 egg whites
1 pinch of salt
1 1/2 tb sugar
200 g flour
25 g Maizena
1 ts baking powder
1 1/2 tb bitter orange marmalade
1 tb Cointreau
75 g dark chocolate, melted (I used 75 %)

Prepare a 20 cm pan. Preheat oven to 180 C.

In another bowl add the egg whites and salt, beat until foamy. Add half of the sugar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Sift together the flour, Maizena and baking powder.

In a large bowl beat the sugar, vanilla sugar and egg yolks until pale. Add melted butter, Orange juice and zest beat until combined. With a rubber spatula gently fold the egg whites and flour mixtures into the batter.

Turn half of the batter into another bowl. Add the bitter orange marmalade and Cointreau to one bowl and the melted chocolate to the other. Alternately spoon the bitter orange and chocolate batters into a pan. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Before serving dust with icing sugar.

sugar high friday, shf

More recipes and entries in English.

Zum 1. Mai und natürlich vor allem zum 3-Jahres-Blog-Event-Jubliläum wollte ich etwas Spezielles machen. Ich habe lange überlegt und mich gefragt, was zum Mai gehört? Beim Durchblättern von alten BB-Zeitungen kam die Erleuchtung: Natürlich Maikäfer!

In der Zeitung von 1996 gibt's auch noch den Kuchen dazu, der hat mir aber nicht so gepasst, deshalb habe ich gegoogelt und bin beim Chefkoch gelandet. Denn es musste ein Rezept sein, bei dem ich das restliche Marzipan aufbrauchen konnte. Ich habe das Originalrezept etwas abgeändert, weniger Zucker und mehr Marzipan genommen, und einen anderen Guss gemacht. Leider habe ich den Kuchen etwas zu lange gebacken, deshalb habe ich ihn grosszügig mit Amaretto getränkt.

Wie er schmeckt? Das kann ich euch morgen sagen! ;-)

***

Maikäfer
ergibt 8 Stück

100 g Marzipan-Rohmasse
50 g schwarze Schokolade
1 Spritzer Walnussöl
8 ungeschälte Mandeln
16 Zuckerperlen

Marizpan in 8 gleich grosse Stücke teilen und zu Käfer formen. Mandeln halbieren. Schokolade in warmem Wasserbad schmelzen. Walnussölspritzer dazugeben. Marzipankäfer mit Hilfe eines Zahnstochers in die geschmolzene Schoggi tauchen. Gut abtropfen lassen. Mit einem anderem Zahnstocher dabei die Schoggi an der Unterseite etwas abstreifen. Käfer auf ein Backpapier legen. Zahnstocher mit Hilfe des zweiten Zahnstochers entfernen und das entstandene Loch mit etwas Schoggi auffüllen.

Für die Flügel je 2 Mandelhälften in die noch feuchte Schoggi stecken. Für die Augen Zuckerperlen in die Glasur drücken. Trocknen lassen.

***

Marizpan-Schoggi-Kuchen
Rezept für eine 20er-Form

100 g Marzipan-Rohmasse
130 g Butter
100 g Zucker
1/2 Päcklein Vanillezucker
2 Eier (M)
1/2 Fläschchen Bittermandelaroma
250 g Mehl
TL Backpulver
50 g Milch, (evtl. mehr oder weniger)
70 g schwarze Schokolade, in Würfeli

Guss
20 g Puderzucker
2-3 EL Amaretto

Marzipan in Stücke schneiden. Weiche Butter und Marzipanstücke schaumig rühren. Zucker, Vanillezucker und Eier nach und nach zugeben. So lange weiterrühren, bis der Zucker gelöst und die Masse hellcremig ist. Bittermandelaroma zufügen. Mehl und Backpulver mischen und unterrühren. Dabei soviel Milch zugiessen, dass der Teig schwerreissend von den Schneebesen fällt. Schokoladenwürfeli unterheben. Den Rührteig in die Form füllen. Kuchen im vorgeheizten Backofen bei 175°C 30-35 Minuten backen (Stäbliprobe machen!) Kuchen auf einem Gitter auskühlen lassen.

Puderzucker sieben, mit Amaretto zu einem dickflüssigen Guss verrühren, in ein Papierspritztütchen füllen und die Kuchen damit besprenkeln.

Honestly I wasn't very delighted when I saw this month's Daring Bakers challenge - hosted by Elle and Deborah. I'm a lazy cook, this recipe seemed very elaborated to me. In addition I saw that some of my fellow DB's had problems with a soupy cheesecake. So I was scared too! In spit of all that - as a "real" Daring Baker - I accepted this challenge.

Unbelievable, my cheesecake came out just perfect.

It had the right consistence to form the pops, but still it was toilsome to form them. I'm not a patient person, so I filled half of the cheesecake in ice cream molds and freeze them as well as the pops. I don't know yet how I will serve them, frozen or not? That night I slept well.

The next day my personal nightmare began: The topping! I melted dark chocolate and everything did go more or less smoothly. So I'm quite happy with my Cheesecake Pops. At the end of the day I was happy I took the challenge. Thank you Elle and Deborah!

Cheesecake Pops
recipe halved and converted to grams

570 g cream cheese at room temperature (I used low fat cream cheese)
200 g sugar
15 g all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 small eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
30 g heavy cream (I used crème fraîche)
Boiling water as needed

16-20 lollipop sticks

100 g chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

1 tablespoons walnut oil

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)


Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Some of the ingredients - Vanilla Extract imported from London

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 50 minutes.

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate.

Frozen pops and 70 % dark chocolate.

If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

More entries and recipes in English.

daring bakers

To see more Cheesecake Pops visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll

November 2007 Challenge - Tender Potatoe Bread
December 2007 Challenge - Yule Log
January 2008 Challenge - Lemon Meringue Pie
February 2008 Challenge - French Bread
March 2008 Challenge - Perfect Party Cake

Solche Gerätschaften hat der Profi-Bäcker im Einsatz.

Wer weiss worum es sich handelt?

Ich hoffe im Verlauf der nächsten Woche bin ich mit meinem Bericht fertig. Stay tuned!

Meine beiden Grosis haben leider nie Gugelhopf gebacken. Meine Lieblingsgrossmutter hat meist Kastenkuchen gebacken, aber nie Hefekuchen. Egal, ich kann das ja inzwischen selbst. ;-)

Letztes Jahr habe ich schon mal den Gugelhupf von Sarah Wiener bzw. Chrisinte Ferber gebacken. Der war sehr lecker.

Dieses Rezept stammt aus dem Betty Bossi Buch Backstube. Aber wie so oft habe ich das Rezept etwas abgeändert. Ich habe nur 80 g anstelle von 120 g Zucker verwendet und mich an die Anleitung von Wiener/Ferber gehalten. Das nächste Mal würde ich jedoch etwas mehr Zucker nehmen, denn etwas süsser dürfte der Gugelhopf schon sein. Was auch wichtig ist während der Gugelhopf backt nicht telefonieren, damit man ab und zu einen Blick in den Ofen werfen kann und dann auch sieht wenn er zu dunkel wird. Zum Glück nur auf der Unterseite. ;-)

Grosis Gugelhopf

500 g Mehl
10 g Trockenhefe
180 g lauwarme Milch
100 g Zucker
1 TL Salz
200 Butter, weich in Stücken
2 Eier (M), verklopft
100 g gemischte Dörrfrüchte, klein geschnitten
50 g Mandelblättchen

Mandelblättchen für die Garnitur

ca. 200 g des Mehles mit der Trockenhefe, Zucker und dem Milch mischen. Zugedeckt 30 Minuten stehen lassen.

Restliche Zutaten Zutaten bis und mit Eier in der Küchenmaschiene zuerst 1 Minute auf Stufe 1 (Bosch MUM 8)dann weitere 6 Minuten auf Stufe 2 kneten. Der Teig muss glänzend und geschmeidig sein. Die Dörrfrüchte und Mandeln hinzufügen und gut unterkneten (Stufe 1.5 Bosch MUM 8). Den Teig in der Küchenmaschine belassen, zugedeckt 1,5 Stunden oder bis er sein Volumen fast verdoppelt hat gehen lassen.
Teig nochmals 1 Minute auf Stufe 2 (Bosch MUM 8) kneten, weitere 20 Minuten gehen lassen.

Mandelblättchen in der Gugelhupf-Form verteilen. Wer keine Silikonform hat, muss die Form zuerst grosszügig ausbuttern. Teig in der Form verteilen. Zugedeckt nochmal 1,5 Stunden gehen lassen, damit er sein Volumen ungefähr verdoppeln kann.

Backofen auf 200 C vorheizen. Bevor der Gugelhupf in den Ofen geschoben wird die Temperatur auf 180 C herunterschalten. 45 Minuten in der unteren Hälfte des Ofens backen.
Den Gugelhupf aus der Form auf ein Kuchengitter stürzen und abkühlen lassen.

Dies ist mein Beitrag zu foodfreaks monatlichem Event Dein Kochbuch das unbekannte Wesen.

Gladly I accepted this month's Daring Bakers challenge - hosted by Morven - and tried to bake the Perfect Party Cake. Unfortunately I failed and I have to acknowledge it was my fault.

The original recipe makes a huge cake, so I decided to half the recipe. I have only one baking ring so I decided to bake the cake in this 16 cm ring instead of two. Bad idea, I let it bake longer but it was not baked through. Unfortunately I noticed this only the next day.

Horror!

I hate to waste food, so I did go one and made the buttercream, of course it separated but this time I was warned (see below in the recipe) and it came together again. Hooray!

We were allowed to play around with the recipe (big thankyou to Morven!), so I added some Kirsch to the buttercream, soaked the "under baked" cake as well with Kirsch, filled it with canned cherries and topped it with icing sugar and almond flakes.

The result - tadaa:

Perfect Not so Perfect Party Cake - still edible even if doesn't look so

The masterpiece in his glory *hahaha*


and cut.

Perfect Party Cake Recipe - the original

2 1/4 cups cake flour (updated 25 March)
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons) - I used Kirsch
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable - I used canned cherries
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut - I used almond flakes

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.

Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.

Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

Fresh Berry Cake
If you will be serving the cake the day it is made, cover each layer of buttercream with fresh berries – use whole raspberries, sliced or halved strawberries or whole blackberries, and match the preserves to the fruit. You can replace the coconut on top of the cake with a crown of berries, or use both coconut and berries. You can also replace the buttercream between the layers with fairly firmly whipped sweetened cream and then either frost the cake with buttercream (the contrast between the lighter whipped cream and the firmer buttercream is nice) or finish it with more whipped cream. If you use whipped cream, you’ll have to store the cake the in the refrigerator – let it sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving.


More entries and recipes in English.

daring bakers

To see real Perfect Party Cakes visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll

November 2007 Challenge - Tender Potatoe Bread
December 2007 Challenge - Yule Log
January 2008 Challenge - Lemon Meringue Pie
February 2008 Challenge - French Bread

Schon wieder ein Jahr älter! Nicht nur die Jahre werden immer mehr sondern auch die Pfunde, die grauen Haare und Falten. Egal, heute wird hemmungslos geschlemmt! Für den Hüftspeck gibt es dieses Jahr keine Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte sondern ein einfacher aber trotzdem sehr leckerer Café latte-Marmorcake.

Ich habe öfters das Problem, dass sich die Eimasse scheidet. Hier auch. Ich glaube das kommt, wenn die Zutaten unterschiedliche Temperaturen haben. Das ist aber nicht so schlimm, sobald man das Mehl dazugibt bindet alles wieder.

Café latte-Marmorcake

150 g weiche Butter
1/2 Päcklein Vanillinzucker
1 Prise Salz
89 80 g Zucker
5 Eier
180 g Mehl
1 TL Backpulver
200 g gemahlene Mandeln
180 g gesüsste Kondensmilch
2 Päcklein Nescafé-Pulver (4 g)
1/2 EL Kakaopulver

Puderzucker zum Bestäuben

Fett, Vanillin-Zucker, Salz und Zucker cremig rühren (Bosch MUM 8 Stufe 4 ca. 2 Minuten).

Eier nacheinander unterrühren. Mehl und Backpulver mischen, auf die Eiermasse sieben. Mandeln zufügen und alles unterrühren.

Teig halbieren. 90 g Kondensmilch, Kaffeepulver und Kakao verrühren, unter eine Teighälfte rühren. 90 g Kondensmilch unter die andere Hälfte rühren. Erst hellen, dann dunklen Teig in eine gefettete, mit Mehl ausgestreute Kastenform (25 cm) füllen. Mit einer Gabel kreisförmig durch den Teig ziehen. Kuchen im vorgeheizten Backofen bei 175 Grad ca 55 Minuten backen.

Kuchen auskühlen lassen, mit Puderzucker bestäuben.

In February love and the smell of mimosa is in the air since mimosa trees start to bloom in this season here in Andalucia. Everywhere you see yellow spots, and if the poniente (westerly wind) blows their pleasant smell indulge your senses and so does the Mimosa cake. ;-)

It's obvious from where the cake's name originates: From the yellow-shiny Mimosa Flowers. The cake is exceptionally heart-shaped since it's my contribution to my A heart for your Valentine event.

The Mimosa cake consists of a moist but still fluffy sponge cake. To get such a sponge you must whisk it well and once baked wrap it up in a kitchen towel. That's the trick. I made a lemon filling since I have tons of lemons in my garden, but you can fill it with whatever you want or your sweetheart likes. Also you can soak the sponge with some liqour. I didn't because I have no Limoncello, and I think this would be the only one that harmonize with the lemon filling.


Mimosa Cake

Sponge cake
4 eggs (M)
150 g sugar
1 pinch of salt
100 g flour
50 g Maizena
1 pack vanilla sugar

Lemon filling
2,5 dl water
1 pinch of salt
30 g butter

0,5 dl water
3 tbs Maizena
2 egg yolks (M)
130 g sugar

zest of 2 lemon
1 dl fresh lemon juice

Sponge Cake: Add eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt in the bowl of your Stand mixer.

Whisk (position 4 Bosch MUM 8) until your mixture thickens and turns almost white in colour. This will take about 8 minutes. Sieve both the flour and the Maizena and gently fold into your mixture until you can see it has all mixed together nicely. Pour your sponge cake mixture into your 20 cm tin.

Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 C for approx 20-30 minutes (depending on your oven). Watch out the last minutes, mine get a little bit dark. Once cooked leave in its tin for about 10 minutes to cool a little. Unomold an wrap up in a kitchen towel and let cool completely. I let the sponge cake in the towel until the next day.

Take a large bread knife and gently cut your cake in two layers. One layer should be a little bit thicker then the other. Hollow out the thicker cake layer leaving sides and bottom about 1/2 cm and reserve the crumbs.

Lemon Filling: Bring 2,5 dl water, salt and butter to a boil. Remove from heat. Dissolve Maizena in 0,5 dl water, add egg yolks and sugar. Whisk well. Pour gently into the hot water/butter mixture whisking constantly, return to heat bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add lemon zest and juice stirring until combined. Pour 2/3 of the mixture into the prepared sponge cake.

Place your lid on top. Cover the whole cake with the remaining filling, spread the crumbs over the whole surface, make them stick pressing gently it down with your hands. Let cool at least 1-2 hours.

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

The "A Heart for your Valetine" roundup can be found here.

More recipes and entries in English.

Barbara hat uns im Dezember eine leckere Wirsing-Lachs-Quiche vorgestellt. Ich liebe Wirz und da ich noch Lachs im Tiefkühler hatte, habe ich mich ans Werk gemacht. Eigentlich bin ich ja auf Diät bzw. FDH, deshalb dachte ich mir, dass ich die Quiche zu einer Wähe umwandle, indem ich einen weniger gehaltvollen Guss, bestehend aus 125 ml Milch und einem Ei, mache. Das war eine schlechte Idee! Wir sind an der trockenen Wähe beinahe erstickt. ;-)

Fazit: Besser Originalrezept befolgen und davon nur die Hälfte essen. ;-)

I thought this time it's an easy Daring Bakers challenge, but no there were some obstacles, too.

First the crust - as we are only 2 I wanted to do 4 small pies.

Before baking they looked beautiful, don't they?

After baking they looked like that - shrinked! Difficult to fill with cream and top with meringue.

So I did the crust again in a 16 cm ring using my fool-proof shortcrust recipe. Sorry for saying that but my crust recipe tastes much better than the original one. The original is quite tasteless.

Second, as some other Daring Bakers, I ended up with a quite weepy pie. Already during cooling it was loosing water, once cooled and cut there was more water. As Lilian Chou in epicurious writes: It is the nature of meringue pies to "weep" liquid after cooling. I'm asking me why not everybody had this problem. Anyway we enjoyed the Lemon Meringue Pie. Thank you Jen for the challenge!

I did just half of recipe, and as mentioned changed (because of the disaster) the crust recipe. For the filling I used lemons from my own tree. I used 2 eggs, that was too much for the filling but could have been 3 eggs for the meringue. Below you find my adapted recipe.

Lemon Meringue Pie
makes a 16 cm pie

For the Crust:
60 g cold butter; cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm) pieces
125 g all-purpose flour
1 tb granulated sugar
1 pinch of salt
lemon zest
1/2 egg
1/2 tb cream

For the Filling:
190 g water
80 g granulated sugar
24 g cornstarch
2 egg yolks, beaten
20 g butter
72 g fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For the Meringue:
2 egg whites, room temperature
1/4 tsp lemon juice
1 pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
60 g granulated sugar


For the Crust: Sift the flour, sugar, lemon zest and salt into a bowl. Add the butter. With cool fingertips or with a spatula, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Mix egg and cream, add to the dough. Mix lightly into a dough. Press the dough between the palm of your hands to homogenize it. Do not overknead the dough or it will turn very sandy and fragile. Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight. To use, roll lightly with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface or directly on baking paper.

Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of ? inch (3 mm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about ½ inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C. Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.

For the Filling: Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated.

Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick. Add about 1/2 cup (120 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust.

For the Meringue: Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the warm pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.

More entries and recipes in English.

daring bakers

Visit the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

November 2007 Challenge - Tender Potatoe Bread
December 2007 Challenge - Yule Log

By the way, the small crust I just filled with the leftover cream and served it without Meringue.