Key Lime Pie for Hungry Guests

So when asking my mother what I should make for Christmas dessert, the first response was "lemon marang!" I said, "Mom, what is MARANG!?"

I told her I wasn't a huge fan of lemon meringue. She then proceeded to ask me why I ask her what to make if I'm not going to make what she suggests? Hmmm...valid point mother. She said, "I don't know, key lime?" This I agreed to. Key lime pie is one of my favorite summer treats. I feel like it's more fitting for the warmer months of the year, however, I wasn't going to turn this one down.

This was my second time making key lime pie except this time I used a different recipe. I have become a huge fan of Joy of Baking's website and have used many of her recipes over the course of my journey here in the blogging world. I decided to try her key lime pie recipe out this time.

The first time I made the pie, I used a meringue topping in contrast to a whipped cream topping. That was my first time making meringue in general so I was a tad nervous. While baking the meringue on top of the pie, I noticed it was extracting some watery substance onto the top of my pie. It was a bit concerning as no one likes watery pie...however, it was extremely tasty when we bit into the final product.

Joy of Baking's recipe included a whipped cream topping this time. The pie is EXTREMELY easy and all recipes for it are really similar. The main ingredients in the pie are SWEETENED condensed milk, egg yolks, FRESH lime juice, and lime zest. That is it! The yolks and condensed milk make the pie seem pretty fattening, but it also makes it absolutely creamy and delish.

If you are making your own crust, I'd recommend buying actual honey graham crackers and crushing them in a food processor. In my case, I didn't get my food processor until Christmas morning so I had to deal with already crushed grahams. 1 1/2 cups of grahams, 6 tbsp. of melted butter, and 2 tbsp. sugar is all it takes to make a 9 inch crust for this pie (or any other pie that calls for a 9 inch graham cracker crust).

I used regular limes (the juice from 3-4 of them) in this recipe since the grocery store I went to did not have key limes. Key limes are really small and round so you would be able to tell the difference between those and regular limes. Key limes are also higher in acidity so it makes the pie more tart. I just used a tad more juice and zest from the limes to make it as tart as I wanted it to be.

This pie is so easy and only needs to cook for about 15 minutes. You want to make sure that the pie is "just set" to know that it is done. Set means that it is still a little jiggly but the top of the pie does not shift. You will be done in no more than 45 minutes!

After it is done cooling COMPLETELY in the fridge (I like to leave it over night) you can make the whipped cream and top the pie with it. I piped the whipped cream on Christmas day right before serving the pie to our guests.

REMEMBER! Don't eat the green stuff :)

Shawn is still not old enough for pie, but this was his FIRST Christmas!

Dirty Eggnog Cookies

Good morning All!

So remember when I said I was going to be making "Dirty Eggnog" cookies for an ugly sweater holiday party last weekend?! Well I made them and I must say I am pretty damn proud of 'em!

The eggnog cookie recipe was extremely easy and very tasty. However, when I added chocolate chips and crispy bacon bits to the sweet batter, it put the icing on the cake. Instead of covering the bacon bits in chocolate, (I figured this would get pretty messy and was just plain unnecessary) I just threw whole, semi-sweet chocolate chips into the batter and bacon bits alongside them.

It's funny. I am not a dark chocolate fan AT ALL but I just can't fathom putting milk chocolate chips in cookies. It's just ODD to me. While in the store, I went to pick up a bag of Hershey's milk chocolate chips and thought to myself, WAIT A MINUTE I can't do that!

Another tip of the day for these cookies: BURN the bacon. Well, make it real, nice and crispy. I baked the bacon (I had lots of time that day before the party) at 400 for about 30 minutes or maybe more. I just kept an eye on it and made sure it got super dark. I like baking bacon because it prevents grease from flying everywhere. However, if you are on a time constraint, I'd just fry it up because it does take a while to get it crispy in the oven.

I used this eggnog cookie recipe. It was super easy and includes those two favorite holiday flavors--nutmeg and cinnamon. However, I think maybe next time if I decide to add the chocolate chips and bacon bits again, I would leave out the nutmeg. There were LOTS of flavors going on!!

I added some more eggnog to the batter because a 1/2 cup just didn't seem like enough when I tasted the batter (oops!).

Once the batter was made, I crushed up the crispy bacon (it ended up being about 10 strips of bacon but you can adjust to your preference...more or less), threw in ALMOST the full bag of Hershey's chocolate chips (didn't really see a need for the whole bag but you can use the full bag if you like), and stirred it up!

The recipe said it would make six dozen, but this was not the case. I even dropped them by SMALL spoonfuls onto the baking sheets and I still ended up with about 4 1/2 dozen.

The final verdict: The dozen or so people that tried the cookies at the party thought they were very strange but liked them. It was so funny watching the faces of the people that tried them. One individual said they loved the nutmeg in them...others thought I should possibly remove the nutmeg the next time. Dominic ended up taking the rest to his family's house on Christmas day and said they all LOVED them. His grandma even took the rest home with her!

These cookies were a success for one important reason: They successfully captured EVERY single flavor that I tackled in this recipe. Eggnog, spices, dark chocolate, and crispy bacon. The fact that you could taste each ingredient made me smile :)

These may be added to the Liv's Bakery menu!

Check out these new additions to Liv's Bakery! One of my favorite personal cupcake photos framed in a 20x30 and a matching apron!

What Do Ya'll Think of Chocolate Covered Bacon??

Current Mood: Thankful & Sleepy!

Current Song: Frankie J-Suga, Suga (Baby Bash station on Pandora rocks!)

So I was being a complete bum yesterday (not complaining at all!) and didn't get a chance to bake anything. That's okay though because I am definitely going to make up for that this weekend and next Monday as well! Yesterday was filled with laying on the couch for 5 hours, watching our boys not win (unfortunately), and then doing laundry and enjoying a nice spaghetti dinner at my parents house. 

So this coming holiday weekend (and end of the world!) I will be going to another ugly sweater party. I've decided to bring a dessert, of course, to the party but just couldn't think of something different/unique off the top of my head. Dominic decided to throw his two cents in and suggested I make cookies...well duh...it would have been between cookies & cupcakes...but not just ANY old cookies...eggnog cookies. Well, the eggnog cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting were a HUGE hit at my work holiday party so I knew the cookie form was going to be just the same huge hit. Then...there's bacon bits...not JUST bacon bits...but I suggested adding chocolate covered bacon bits into the batter of the eggnog cookies. STRANGE HUH?? Then of course, what are cookies without a nice cookie glaze on top?? I'll be piping a cinnamon/nutmeg glaze on top of the cookies and then sprinkling a little extra cinnamon to give them the final holiday touch.

Definitely going to be an interesting experiment! My group of guinea pigs at that party better be ready :) 

I think I'm going to name them "Dirty Eggnog" cookies. Chocolate covered bacon bits...eggnog...ya get the idea! 

Stay tuned for the outcome that will be posted this coming Sunday!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Holiday Favorite

Who likes eggnog???

I've actually never (at least I don't think I have) had a full glass of eggnog--with or without alcohol. I am a huge fan of eggnog frozen yogurt...we used to have this at TCBY back in the day when I worked there in high school...but I have never had a full glass of ACTUAL eggnog. Is this strange??

I hear that it's definitely an acquired taste and ya either like it or ya don't. The flavor, to me, is awesome so I had the urge to make eggnog cupcakes! We were having a holiday party at work on 12-12-12 (WEIRD!!) and my CFO presented me with another bake-off opportunity. This guy dislikes literally everything that has to do with food. Well, not EVERYTHING, but he is extremely picky. However, he is apparently a very good baker. When he proposed the idea to me a few weeks ago when we began to organize the holiday party, I took it! I'd participated in a 3-round bake off last month with a friend and I lost 2-1 :( However, this does not stop me from keeping up with my passion!

The only rule to this bake off was our dessert had to be holiday-themed. We had decided on cupcakes also. I immediately thought of eggnog as a traditional holiday flavor. I also thought about ginger bread, however, I knew that not many people acquire a taste for this. Then again, there are probably many people that don't like eggnog, but the idea of an eggnog cupcake sounded pleasing!

Then he got sick.

Not too sick though! He was out for a few days here and there and mentioned the day before the party that he probably wasn't going to be making anything for the bake off. I was saddened, but not TOO upset, because we had been talking about it for a while! He said he'd probably just buy something from the store and TRY to stay at work for the party.

Then came 12-12-12!

As I walked down the hallway to my office, he says to me, "Hey Alivia, I put my cupcakes on your desk so you could try one before I put them out for everyone...I usually bake by smell and I can't smell s*** right now so I don't want someone to die from eating one." HA! At this point, I was sort of displeased because I felt like I could have done a way better job on my mini eggnog cupcakes with maple syrup cream cheese frosting! He went on to say we were still doing the bake off EXCEPT he was leaving before the party. WOW. He ended up making candy cane cheesecake cupcakes which were pretty scrumptious I must say.

Long story short, everyone raved about my cupcakes and ate 2, 3, or 4! I had co-workers saying, "Alivia, you SOOO won that bake off!!" So that made me feel 20X better that day :)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Don't forget to check out that recipe! There is no alcohol in these cupcakes and they have just the right cinnamon-nutmeg spice to give that real, eggnog flavor! I also used organic maple syrup that my boss had given me. I made them into minis and they were all gone after the party!

The icing could have been a bit thicker, but I will be sure to add more confectioners sugar next time!

Back from the Break!

HAPPY PURPLE FRIDAY EVERYONE! 

Since I took Sunday off last weekend from baking (YES, I was at the Raven's game!!), I just HAD to bake something this week to make up for it. I was also bored out of my mind last night and it was only 7:45pm. What does one do when TV/movie won't do the trick?? BAKE SNICKER DOODLES! I mean honestly, who DOESN'T like snicker doodles???

A few months back, I made snicker doodle cookie CUPCAKES and they were da bomb. Layer of cookie on the bottom, layer of cupcake in the middle, layer of homemade cinnamon whipped cream spread on the top. To make you drool a little, here's what they looked like inside:

Definitely a cupcake you want to try now, right?

Anyways, I hadn't made the good ol' fashion snicker doodle cookies in a while and since after all, they are my favorite and I had all the ingredients for them last night, I just had to make 'em.

I have to say though, what I really wanted to make were oatmeal raisin cookies.

Oats-check
Raisins-check
Brown sugar-not nearly over 1 cup :(

Then I thought about molasses...hmmm...these are delicious when they are fresh out of the oven, soft, chewy, sugary around the outside...I forget why I didn't make these last night...oh well!

These were the gingerbread/molasses kissed cookies I tackled last year for our holiday party! They were unbelievably soft and stayed that way for days! 

Okay, back to my snicker doodles. I was thinking about making a soft butter cookie with some flavor glaze on top (lemon, orange, etc). I didn't have either fruit...

I found this snicker doodle cookie recipe from one of my favorite baking sites, Joy of Baking! It is SOOOO simple and anyone can do this...honestly...

Just a soft, chewy butter cookie covered in cinnamon sugar before going into the oven that puffs up while baking. HOW CAN YOU GO WRONG WITH THAT??

Tips: do NOT overbake these. I suggest taking them out when you see them rising in the oven. They will actually stay like this and won't flatten out. These cookies do not show so easily when they are really "done" but I can tell you that if you start to see a brown edge, TAKE THEM OUT RIGHT AWAY! :)

Also, when you make the dough, it will be very sticky and soft. I rolled them into balls just like this though which isn't a problem. It might be helpful to cover and refrigerate the dough right in your mixing bowl for a little while. It will make it easier to roll!

USE A STANDING MIXER IF YOU HAVE ONE! It makes EVERYTHING 100x easier...true life. These cookies only took 5-7 minutes to whip up with my brand new Kitchen Aid mixer!

That's all for now folks. Check back in next week on WEDNESDAY after I bake amazing egg nog cupcakes for our work holiday party! ANOTHER BAKE OFF!!!!

Cheers :)

My mixer in action for the very first time! Life is good :)