Gluten Free Key Lime Pie Wordless Wednesday

I seem to be having some trouble getting the actual writing portion of this post done. Instead, I'm taking advantage of Wordless Wednesday :)

GLUTEN FREE KEY LIME PIE

adapted from Nellie & Joe's  Key Lime Juice 
yields 1 9” pie (6 to 8 generous servings)

Crust
230 g / 2c c Gluten Free Graham Crackers (or substitute regular grahams, if not following a Gluten Free lifestyle) 
56 g / 4 Tbl Granulated Sugar 
112 g / 8Tbl/ 1 stick Unsalted Butter, melted 

Filling
3 egg yolks
1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
122g / 1/2 c Key Lime Juice (such as Nellie & Joe's) 

Decoration
1/2 c Whipped Cream
1 Tbl / 15 g Granulated Sugar
Key Limes, thinly sliced 

1. To make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Crush the graham crackers, either in a food processor or in a zip top bag with a rolling pin.  Mix together the crumbs, granulated sugar & unsalted butter until combined. Press the crust into the bottom & up the sides of a 9” pie pan. Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven (but don’t turn it off) and allow the crust to cool completely. 
2. To make the filling: In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sweetened condensed milk.  Stir in the key lime juice, taking care not to stir too much & create bubbles. Pour into the pre-baked crust.  Bake the pie at 350 F for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Refrigerate until ready to decorate & serve.
3. To make the decoration: Just before serving, vigorously whisk the whipped cream with the sugar until the cream forms medium stiff peaks.  Place the whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe whipped cream around the edges of the pie.  Decorate by adding a few very thin key lime slices (remove the seeds first).  Serve immediately. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  

Key Lime & Coconut Cake: Practice Makes Perfect.... sort of....

I am nearly through with my finals!  Hurray!  Last Monday, as previously written, was my practical final in Intro to Cakes.  Earlier in the semester, we had to submit a cake, filling, and icing recipe with the intentions to make it for our practical.

I've been practicing and practicing and tweaking and tweaking my Key Lime and Coconut cake..... in all, I've tested the filling 4 times, the cake 3 times, and the whole assembly twice.....  {and I am so sick of key lime right about now!!}

For our exam, we had to make one 10" cake, but I've only got two 8" pans at home..... so my practice cakes were always smaller (but taller) and then included some cupcakes with the leftover batter. I left the cupcakes in the community area of my apartment complex, so I hope they were well enjoyed!

Despite all my practicing, I'm not going to lie, I was still pretty nervous for the actual exam!  So many people all doing projects at the same time.... Baking with different equipment than usual..... The worry that something catastrophic would happen!  Murphys Law does like to follow me!  So, I decided to try to cheat murphy by bringing some of my own equipment to class (my beloved Kitchen Aid mixer, my scale, my turntable) and some extra ingredients (just in case!)  I camped out, with my plethora of stuff and bundle of nerves, in a corner of the classroom and went to work!

Chef talking about some of the finished cakes. 

And, amazingly everything went well!  The coconut cake baked as usual.  The curd was a little less firm than usual, but not terribly. The Chantilly cream wasn't over worked (as it was a tish in my last practice version).  I didn't make a mess of my Toasted Coconut Garnish.  Best of all, Chef had good things to say about it.  Honestly, I believe it's the best work I've done all semester!  I guess practicing does pay off.

 Chef had to cut into everyone's cake to taste them and so the cakes couldn't be sold, as our cakes usually are.  So we were allowed to take them home.  I certainly didn't want any coming home with me because I still had the whole practice cake in my fridge.  I offered to give my classmates slices to take home because I also didn't want to just throw away my beautiful creation.

Then, disaster struck.....  It was one of those slow motion moments, as I was cutting pieces, I watched my cake slide off the turn table and land *SPLAT* on the floor.  Guess my cake had decided to become a Key Lime & Coconut UPSIDE DOWN cake instead.

Honestly, all I could do was laugh!  I've been afraid of dropping a cake all semester!  And here it was the final, right after grading, and my fear happened.  All I could do was laugh!  Honestly, I really did not care at all. Had it happened before grading, I'd have gotten a zero on the final and my emotions would have been much different.  I was just thankful.

Recipes:

COCONUT CAKE
makes 1 ten-inch cake (cut into 4 layers) or 2 eight-inch cakes (assembled into 4 layers) plus 9 or so cupcakes

227 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pans
460 g cake flour, sifted, plus more for the pans
14 g baking powder
2 g salt
238 g canned unsweetened coconut milk
48 g milk
386 g granulated sugar (divided into 374 g & 12 g)
6 g pure vanilla extract
12 g coconut extract
267 g egg whites at room temperature (approximately 8 large)

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F. Prepare cake ring and place on parchment lined sheet pan

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl and set aside. Stir the milks together and set aside. Put the butter and 374 g of the sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment;  cream on medium speed until pale and fluffy, abut 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and coconut extracts.

3.  With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 4 batches, alternating with the milk mixture and beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. set aside.

4.  Switch to a whisk attachment; beat the egg whites in a clean bowl until soft peaks form. With the mixer on medium high speed, gradually add the remaining 12 g of sugar. Beat on high speed until the peaks are stiff and glossy, about 30 seconds.

5.  Gently fold the egg whites into the batter with a rubber spatula. Scale into prepared cake ring, or cake pans lined with parchment. Smooth the top with an offset spatula. Tap the pan on a work surface to release any air bubbles.

6.  Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean and the cakes are golden and firm to the touch (some where around 40 minutes). Let cool before unmolding.

COCONUT SIMPLE SYRUP
200 g granulated sugar
200 g water
50 g shredded sweetened coconut (angel flake variety)
coconut extract to taste, if desired

1. Combine sugar, water and coconut in a sauce pan.
2. Bring to a boil
3. Cool over an ice bath and strain out coconut pieces, if desired.

KEY LIME CURD
158 g egg yolks
253 g granulated sugar
153 g key lime juice (such as Nellie & Joe’s brand)
50 g lime juice
52 g heavy cream
131 g unsalted butter, chilled & cut into small pieces

1. In a heavy saucepan whisk together yolks, sugar, lime juice, cream, and butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking constantly, 5 to 7 minutes, or until mixture just reaches a boil (do not let boil).
2.  Strain curd through a fine sieve into a bowl.
3.  Cool curd its surface covered with plastic wrap, and chill at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.

COCONUT CHANTILLY CREAM
906 g heavy cream
85 g confectioner’s sugar
Coconut extract to taste.

1.Whip heavy cream with sugar to a medium peak.
2. Add coconut extract.
3.  Continue whipping to a most stiff consistency (may do final whipping by hand)

TOASTED COCONUT GARNISH
90 g Let’s Do®...Organic®  Unsweetened Organic Coconut Flakes
100 g shredded sweetened coconut (angel flake variety)

1. Preheat oven to 300° F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil
2. Toss coconut varieties on sheet pan
3. Toast approximately 18 minutes, stirring often
4. Cool

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Intro to Cakes Practical Final.....

And so it begins.....  Fall 2009 finals, beginning with a week of practical exams and then written exams and cleaning all the lab classrooms.  Please excuse my {potential} lack of posting during this stressful time!

And today's the day of my practical final in Intro to Cakes.  Wish me luck!  I've had quite a few ups and downs in that class, and here's hoping today turns out better!

Here's a sneak peek of what I'll be making.....  (Recipe and longer post coming soon)

Key Lime & Coconut Cake

When life gives you key lime curd....

I really really hate waste, a fact that just might come from the fact that I'm also a pack rat.  I especially hate throwing away food.  I always feel like I'm throwing away my money (and hard work).

I've been tweeking a key lime curd recipe to use in my practical final for "Intro to Cakes" so I've had several batches of curd in my refrigerator, most of which have gone bad before I've had a chance to think of something to do with them...

While searching in my mess-of-a-freezer for bread to have with my dinner, I discovered some shortcrust dough from earlier this fall. And inspiration struck!  Why not make a tart shell and fill it with some of the curd!

And why not bake the tart shell in my toaster oven because it was already pre-heated and cooking my dinner.   Voila, Key Lime Curd Tart!

getting ready to eat my tart while watching a "Grey's Anatomy" marathon

Alas, the crust got a little darker than I originally wanted (a little over "caramelized").... so I'm thinking that perhaps the toaster oven doesn't heat quite as evenly as I originally thought.  Still tasty though!

I like making smaller, individual desserts because I'm quite often creating for just myself. And I have almost zero willpower and an insatiable sweet tooth.

Because this curd recipe was modified to be paired with a very sweet coconut cake, it's a very tangy (aka tart) curd.  Almost too tart.  I did contemplate adding whipped cream or meringue, but.... I didn't this time.  Perhaps in the future.

For one of the few times in my life, I actually could not finish the entire dessert!

I'll include recipes tomorrow....  I need to find them on my other computer....

Key Lime Coconut Cake, take one

In my "Intro to Cakes" class this semester, we have to come up with a cake combination to make for our practical final. The initial recipe is due by midterm, which happens to be next week. Wow! Where does the time go.

I've been pondering this assignment for a while and came up with the decision that although I needed to make something beautiful and delicious, above all I needed to do something that is simple and can be easily done within the confines of class.

So, I give you, Key Lime Coconut Cake, draft 1! Once I finalize the recipe, I'll post it.

The cake consists of a Coconut cake brushed with a coconut simple syrup, filled with a key lime curd, iced with chantilly cream and garnished with toasted coconut and lime slices.

This cake also doubled as my boyfriend's brother's birthday cake (which also allowed me to practice my chocolate piping skills, although they aren't required for my final).

Let me tell you, this cake was not without its challenges......

Challenge 1) Key Lime Juice

I searched high and low for key lime juice, and found actual key limes at Walmart (which I bought as backup) before finding jars of key lime juice at Whole Foods. Once I got the jars home and started making the curd, I discovered faulty seals in the jars and mold in the covers. Gross!

So, I ended up juicing all the little key limes. By hand.

If you're not familiar with key limes, they've got a very different flavor than regular limes (very distinctive flavor) and they're much smaller and more yellow colored. I'd say it probably takes the juice from 2-3 key limes to make up the juice from one regular lime. Oye, it took me FOREVER to get the correct measurement of juice......

Challenge 2) Coconut cake that actually tastes like coconut

This particular cake recipe contained coconut milk as the only contributing coconut flavor. Well, it doesn't really taste like coconut. At all. Bummer, since this is, after all, suppose to be a COCONUT cake. Even adding coconut simple syrup didn't seem to help much.... But like I said, this is trial number !

Mis-en-Place for assembling

Challenge 3) Making the cake ahead of time & assembling it in your boyfriend and his brother's kitchen.

Chef told us that it would probably be more difficult to assemble our cakes at home than it will be in school and I really hope he's right...... Assembling this cake was kind of a disaster. First of all, I made everything on Thursday night and friday afternoon, but didn't assemble until Saturday morning (I had class and then had to travel to my boyfriend's house, which took most of friday)......

Attempting to cut without a turntable

I did make the simple syrup the day of, as well as toasting the coconut, but the cake, the curd and the chantilly cream were made ahead of time.

By the time I assembled, the cake tasted even less like coconut, the curd had gelled too much and the chantilly cream was no longer stiff.

over-gelatinized curd

Not to mention, I didn't have any sort of a rotating surface or turntable.

Lots of dishes were dirtied in the process, and I ended up using a human turntable (aka my boyfriend) to place the toasted coconut on the sides.

Oh well, you learn, you make changes. Overall, it tasted pretty good, although not really like coconut. I'll be tweeking the recipe this week--hopefully it won't take too many more trials!

On the plus side, though, I really feel my chocolate piping skills improved.

I always seem to get so nervous about piping words, but Chef Jeff did a chocolate piping demo on Friday and I feel much more comfortable after the demo and lots of practice. Sometimes you just need to learn to take the easy way out: like writing "Happy 21st" instead of "Happy Birthday." Much less room for error :)

easy as P-I-E

Wow, did our classroom smell amazing this week! It was pie week in Bakeshop Production!

We started out by learning how to make pie crust. Most of my classmates (myself included) had made pies before, but some had not.

I pretty much always make my crust in the food processor--in fact I got the food processor as a gift specifically so I could make pie and tart crust! But Chef Fritz showed us how to use our bench scrapers and make the entire crust on our bench.

Sprinkling in the small amount of salt

We were suppose to use vegetable shortening in the crust, but somehow the shortening was gone. So we found a carton of lard (GROSS) and we were suppose to use equal portions lard and butter. I have SERIOUS issues with lard (mostly due to my partial vegetarianism I've been following since I was in middle school). So, I got special permission from Chef to use all butter instead. As it turned out, though, we ran out of lard too and lots of my classmates had to use all butter too.....

Checking the size of the fat pieces.

It was really cool to see the whole dough come together on the bench. We just had to be really careful not to overwork the dough, because then it becomes too tough and the risk of shrinkage when baking is higher.

We let the dough rest in the cooler for awhile to 1) keep the dough cold (and thus the fat cold) and 2) to relax the gluten.

Then it was rolled out

One trick I was reminded of was that it is important not to stretch the dough because that will also add to the risk of shrinkage.

Here Chef is putting the top on the double crust apple pie.

Adding the crimped edge.

Here's my ready-to-bake pie! Instead of doing the normal crimped edge, like Chef demonstrated, I did the Pithivier edging I've learned in Laminated Doughs & Pastries. I also added some dimension by putting pastry leaves on top.

And here's my pie (bottom) as it was coming out of the oven.

Mmmm.... Pie!