Happy National Pi Day!  In honor of this fun day, I whipped up a from scratch graham cracker crust key lime pie. Oh so good!  It was a lovely treat post our pulled pork sandwiches.  This pie is deceptively easy and tart and sweet perfection.  A must try!

Ingredients:

Crust:  10 graham cracker sheets
Smart Balance Butter – 5 tablespoons, melted

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In your food processor, pulverize the graham crackers until completely broken down into a sandy texture.  Add the melted butter and blend.  You should be able to pinch the dough mixture together, if it sticks, you can pour out into your pie pan.  If not, you may need to add additional melted butter.  Pour into your pie pan and push down firmly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden.

Ingredients:

Pie filling:
1 can 14 ounces of sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup of lime or key lime juice (freshly squeezed)

Directions:

Blend the ingredients in your stand mixer with the paddle attachment on.  Blend for about 1-2 minutes or until completely combined.  Pour into the cooled pie crust.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 17 minutes.  Remove and let cool. Then refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving.  Slice and enjoy!

— Knead to Cook

In honor of National Pi Day – being the foodie that I’m am, I had to make a pie to celebrate! Having on hand Meyer lemons & blueberries… this recipe was born!

Crust recipe:

This is a pretty stander crust recipe.

1.5 c of all purpose flour (unbleached)
5 tbl of I can’t believe it’s not butter (freeze it first and cut into cubes)
4 tbl of Crisco shortening (again freeze it first)
1/2 tsp of salt
3 tbl of ice cold water

In your food processor, add the flour.  Then add the very cold butter and shortening to the flour.  Add the salt and pulse to blend.  Quick pulses, 4 times.

Then with the motor running, add the water – 1 tbl at a time.  The dough will be very crumbly.  This is exactly how you want it!  Stop the machine.  Lay one piece of plastic wrap on your counter and pour the dough onto it.  Wrap the plastic wrap around it and form it into a ball (using the plastic wrap over top).  Handle the dough as little as possible.  Then chill for 45 minutes in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

When you’re ready, roll the dough onto a floured surface.  Make a 14 inch circle and then roll the dough around your rolling pin.  Then transfer the dough to your pie pan and roll it over top.  Push it down in the corners and cut off the excess around the edges.  Next, cut a piece of parchment paper to the size of the bottom of the pie pan.  Then fill the pie crust with pie weights or dried beans.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Then remove from the oven.  Carefully remove the beans and parchment paper.  With a fork prick the dough (bottom) all over.  Then return to the oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.  When done cooking, let cool fully.

 

Fillilng:

6 eggs, room temperature
3/4c of sugar
1/2 c of I can’t believe its not butter or regular butter
1/3 c of Meyer lemon juice
3 c of blueberries
1/4 c of orange juice
1 tbl of cornstarch

In your saucepan over low/medium heat, add the eggs, sugar, butter and Meyer lemon juice.  Whisking often.  Cook this for about 16-20 minutes or until thickened.   Remove from heat and let cool.

Add the custard to the cooled pie crust (first layer).

In a sauce pan, add the blueberries and sugar and begin to cook over a medium flame.  In a separate bowl combine orange juice and the cornstarch then add to the blueberry mixture.  Stir gently.  Cook this for about 10 minutes.  Continuing to gently stir.  Then let the mixture cool for 15 minutes.  Once cooled, top the custard with this mixture.  Then refrigerate for 4-5 hours prior to serving.

— Knead to Cook