Dirty Little Secret

Yep. There it is. My most favorite summer dessert: Key Lime Pie. I know the picture isn't the best (taking a good picture of a white frozen treat in a white bowl isn't exactly easy), but it tastes amazing. Sweet, tart, and cool on a hot summer day!

Here's why my post has that elusive title: it's REALLY REALLY easy to make. So easy, I'm almost embarassed to post the recipe on here. But, why be stingy with a good thing, right?

So, here it is - my dirty little secret:

2/3 cup Jo & Nellie's Key Lime Juice
8 oz. Lite Cool Whip
14 oz. Fat Free Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 graham cracker crust

Literally, all you do is mix the first three ingredients in a bowl until blended, pour it into the graham cracker crust, and freeze for 1-2 hours (until it's totally frozen through and through). If you want to eat it frozen (that's how I like it), just slice a piece and eat it! If you'd rather it be a little creamier, let it sit out for a few minutes before you devour your piece.

Hope you enjoy it! I just can't tell you how good it is! Hope everyone enjoys it and is enjoying her/his summer!

~ Mari

Blueberry-Peach Pocket Pies

We had an abundance of fresh blueberries in the fridge, so I thought I would use them in these cute little pocket pies (I got the idea from this month's Fine Cooking). They were ridiculously easy because I just happen to keep frozen pie dough around. It's a good idea to make more than you need (I usually do by accident anyway) when you do make pie dough so you don't have to make it every time you need it.

Basically, all I did was mix fresh blueberries, roughly chopped peaches, about 1/4 cup granulated sugar, a splash of vanilla extract, and some ground cinnamon in a bowl. Then I rolled out the pie dough into circles, put a blob of the blueberry mixture into the middle, and folded the sides up all around it.

Then I took the leftover blueberry mixture and cooked it down (with a little water) and made a sauce.

Then I strained the sauce (to get all the peelings and stuff out).

Mmmmm... deep purple goodness...

After the pies cooled, I drizzled the sauce on them and put a dollop of fresh whipped cream (just say NO to Redi-Whip if you can!). DELISH!

Yummers! I loved it because it wasn't too sweet - it was just the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness.

Enjoy!

~ Mari

Exam Week

Today was my Bakery Skills practical final exam. I've never taken a practical final... so it was a bit awkward for an essay test-taker pro like myself. But, it wasn't too horrible. We had to draw a random sheet of paper and make whatever was on it. I ended up with Whole Wheat Soft Rolls and Standard Pie Crust. Luckily, I had made both before (except for the whole wheat... which was the tricky part). So, first, we had to convert each formula into the yield amount that Chef gave us. This would have been easy except my roll formula did not have any percentages. So, I had to convert the original weights into percentages, and then do the baker's percentage formula. Not the easiest feat. Especially, since we had never done that before. But, luckily, I studied quite a bit and knew how to do it. If you haven't ever done this before, this part of the post probably makes no sense, but just think of it as weird science/algebra - baking style.

The pie crusts came out great. I was excited about that. I got darn good at making the things the other day when Chef had Megan and I make 20 lbs. of dough... and all the pie crusts that come with it. But, we learned it, dangit! The directions were to blind bake one pie crust and not bake the other at all. And that was exactly what I did.

My rolls, however, were another story. They were just beautiful to behold (as you can see in the above picture), but weighed as much as a darn baseball. When I handed it to Chef Hallman her arm dropped. It was hilarious... at my expense, of course. Hah. I didn't let them proof enough before I baked them, sadly. With whole wheat flour, it takes longer for the dough to rise & proof because the whole grains react with the glutenin and gliadin... causing it not to rise as well. But, you live and you learn. And now I know: whole wheat flour = longer proofing time. Simple, really.

Tomorrow I have two written exams, so I won't be taking pictures (for obvious boring reasons). Wednesday I have my Culinary I written & practical exam. I shan't be taking any pictures, though, since I have to focus all of my energy on my knife cuts, veloute sauce, bechamel sauce, chicken fabrication, and chicken cooking. Sigh... lots to do in only 2 hours!

I'll blog about that later. Right now, I need to try my very hardes to motivate myself into studying. Yeah. We'll see how that goes...

Double Chocolate Chip

When Chef Hallman told us we could make any cookies (from the list) that we wanted... we went for the double chocolate chip ones. I mean... who wouldn't? They were DELICIOUS. Just so everyone knows.

We also made three peach pies (with double crusts - meaning there is a crust on the bottom and one on the top) in our group. We didn't get to try them, but ours looked amazing... as opposed to the other groups' pies that looked...well...sad. Haha. A trick that we learned is this:

- If you brush your pie crust with egg wash, it will brown & bubble

- If you brush your pie crust with heavy cream, it will look rich and shiny

We went with rich and shiny for something different. And, as I said before, it went over quite well. I hope that whoever gets to eat those pies appreciates them! (Granted, it could be me... tomorrow... in culinary cafe)

We also made Parker House dinner rolls - which were sorta fun, but not nearly as fun as making 2 lbs. of chocolate cookie dough. ;)

No pictures today - but, I'll try to take some on Wednesday. It will be our first production class. We will actually be serving real live people food that we made. Eeek! And... I'll be "chef of the day." Great. Haha. I'm sure I'll have some stories... and hopefully some photos to add to the blog as well.

My, Oh My, Sweet Potato Pie

How thrilled were we to be making pie in Bakery Skills? Quite. We were to make two flaky pie crusts, one graham cracker crust, one sweet potato pie, and one key lime pie.

Have you ever tried to make flaky pie crust from scratch? It is not an easy feat. It's quite hard to keep it from being too crumbly... which causes it to fall apart while trying to put it in the pie pan (not that that happened to me...). I definitely over-mixed my shortening into the flour. If you mix it slightly you'll get a flaky crust and if you mix it as much as I did, you get a mealy crust. A mealy crust might be desirable for a custard, but not so much for a sweet potato pie.

The pie filling came out quite well, though. Lots of brown sugar and evaporated milk (makes a more rich pie than whole milk). Yum. Mine might have gotten a little overcooked, but nothing too bad. You want the middle to be very jiggly when it comes out of the oven. Mine was only slightly jiggly. Fail. :)

The key lime pie came out pretty good... looking, that is. We didn't get to try either pie in class, but I got to taste the sweet potato pie today in Culinary Cafe. It was divine. I always thought pumpkin pie was the perfect fall pie... I was wrong. Sweet potato pie is amazing (especially with REAL whipped cream).

So, I am quite excited about the upcoming weeks. I have to make a ginerbread house or a specialty bread for the final baking project. I'll definitely put some pictures up of that. I'm also choosing my classes for next semester. Ace of Cakes... here I come (I'm taking cake decorating)!

Off to watch the most important election.... ever. I hope I won't have to stay up too late, considering I have to be in class at 8:00 am tomorrow. ;)