Pomegranate Winter Chiffon Meringue Pie

I was wondering what the chiffon referred to in Rose's Pomegranate Winter Chiffon Meringue Pie but realised (as I was eating a piece) it's the mousse filling. Always such fancy names. 

To be honest, if I had seen this recipe without the benefit of a bake-through group, I doubt I would have considered making it. To my mind, a meringue pie crust is an odd concept, and filling it with mousse straight out eccentricity.

However, I would have been completely wrong. This is a really surprising (for me and those of my ilk) flavour and design winner. The meringue swirls at the rim of the pie (see The Baking Bible for a photo of a properly executed version) are a clever and pretty way to show off the pink mousse filling. The pomegranate flavoured filling is a really lovely, fresh flavour that goes well with the sweet meringue. Rose always uses lemon so effectively and the little teaspoon of lemon juice to the filling makes all the difference. 

Of course, that's the theory and then there's my execution. It was pretty disastrous despite the picture of apparent success below*. 

*Apologies for the photos which make it look like I live in a cave. I don't. I think it's time to invest in some lighting doodad.

This is my attempt to follow Roses's instructions (on her blog) about the best way to grease the pie dish to allow the meringue crust to release. It's not the picture of evenly sieved cornflour that I envisioned (you can't but admire the scratchings where I tried to redistribute the thick piles of cornflour). Even so, it might have worked if other things hadn't gone wrong...

A vision of loveliness... Even the blobby piping around the rim wasn't too bad (yes, that's right, I piped). I forgot about the heat and its effect on the meringue, so the definition from the star shape is not great.

The real issue I had with the meringue crust was in the baking. It may have been a bit marshmallowy when I took it out of the oven, when it should have been dry right the way through. This wouldn't have been a big problem if I hadn't had to leave it in the fridge an extra day before filling it with the mousse. Unfortunately after a day and a half in the fridge it kept leaking fluid into the bottom of the pie dish. I could see the tide rising through the glass pie dish. But having started I thought I'd keep going and make the mousse. What else could go wrong...?

The mousse, like the meringue, was a pretty straightforward concoction of flavouring (pomegranate juice), structure and volume (more meringuey egg whites beaten with sugar) and airiness (whipped cream). Not difficult. However. I ran out of sugar and had to use a mix of demerera and icing sugar. The juice and gelatin was cold but not set at all when I was ready to mix it with the whipped cream and the meringue. Hmmm. What to do? No time or energy to wait. I decided to mix the juice into the whipped cream. Hmmm, juicy blobs. I'll just have to whisk it with the hand mixer. Creamy juice, no air. Hmmm. I'll just fold the meringue and creamy juice together. Creamy juicy blobs. More whisking. Creamy, meringuey juice. Great. Perfect. I poured it into the dodgy meringue crust and carefully placed it into the fridge. It would have been merciful if I'd tripped and dropped it on the floor but the gods of clumsiness were not feeling kind.

All bakers know that sinking feeling where you've 'finished' but you know things are not as they should be. That was my experience, and it was confirmed when I cut the pie this morning to find a nice mousse layer on top of a marshmallow layer, under which ran a stream of pinky, gelatiny liquid. I know a few of our projects have looked like an accident scene but this one looked like a science experiment. The taste (of the first two layers), despite everything, was lovely and light and fresh. I didn't take it to work and I don't have any chickens or squirrels so this one might have to go to the big fridge in the sky.

If I was to compose this type of dessert myself, instead of a meringue crust, I might try two or three meringue discs pasted together with the mousse. It would avoid all the issues with the pie crust, although I'm sure 'me and my ilk' could find some other issues...

Next week the Alpha Bakers are making White Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Mousseline.

Frozen Lime Meringue Pie

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself over this one because, to be honest, it looked like a pain in the backside to make. It really wasn't, especially when you make it over several nights (one day buy ingredients, next 2 days think 'I really should make that pie'...). Unfortunately, due to new job exhaustion, I still didn't finish my post in time for the round-up that our fearless Alpha Baker leader Marie writes every week (although I did get an honourable mention).

This Frozen Lime Meringue Pie (which sounds a bit like a cocktail) is another of Rose's unusual concoctions which turns out to be delicious. The pile of meringue topping makes it look like it'll be overly sweet, like lemon meringue pie, but, eaten cold, it's actually refreshing and creamy.

It was almost a frozen ... meringue pie since I wasn't organised enough to buy local limes at the weekend markets. Instead I had to pay an outrageous price of $1.70 PER lime at the supermarket. In fact I stood there at the fruit display considering my options for a while. In the end (options were no pie or expensive lime pie) I only bought 4 limes so I had to make do with minimal zest.

I had to ask my Alpha Baker friends about the wafer biscuits specified for the biscuit base. Apparently it refers to biscuits called Nilla wafers. Faithy suggested Marie biscuits as a substitute but when I spotted Scotch Fingers on the supermarket shelf I knew I had to have them. I spent quite a while calculating how many I could eat out of the packet. Quite a few as it turned out. The base also had toasted almonds in it which made it nutty and sweet and buttery. Is it wrong to want to just eat the base?

The filling is lime curd mixed with whipped cream. I must have been feeling usually zen because it seemed pretty easy. This is when the pie becomes out of the ordinary as you put it into the freezer to, um well, freeze. 

Then we're back on track to make, what turns out to be, a not particularly sweet meringue. I had the two egg whites left over from the curd and I didn't feel like breaking any more eggs, so my meringue 'pile' is half-size. 

The meringue is put back into the freezer after browning under the griller. Fitting it in the freezer was the most challenging part of that step. I would never have thought of putting barely cooked meringue in the freezer but it seems I'm lacking in imagination and daring.

I wasn't sure how a semi-fredo* pie would be but it turns out to be light, cloudy and creamy all at once. It was really a surprising and delightful texture. Well it was when I took the time to let my piece defrost. Otherwise straight from the freezer it was just a little bit frozen and icy :)

*spell-check kept changing it to freddo so now I'm thinking about chocolate Freddo Frog pie (which is not really a thing. Yet.).

Since this post is so late next week is actually this week and we're making Coconut Crisps.

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Posh Pie (it's chocolate)

I missed out on making the Baking Bible's Posh Pie with the Alpha Bakers last year. I wanted to try and catch up since it looked luscious and of course chocolatey. The Posh Pie is a chocolate tart with a biscuit crumb base, chocolate mousse filling and shiny cocoa glaze.

My pie didn't turn out looking all that posh but it certainly was shiny. A bit of bling can fix anything. The pie was very nice but I think I need to make it again to tweak a few things and get it right. It also took quite a lot of time and energy. I'm not sure this pie was, but maybe posh pie 2.0 would be worth it.

The biscuits. It's kind of unbelievable that anyone would be masochistic enough to make biscuits just to grind them into crumbs. But that's what I did. This could be my first and only time and not just because it goes against the grain to crush biscuits you've sweated over. I also found this biscuit dough quite difficult to deal with. It was very sticky and melted after very little time out of the fridge. I think I'd probably choose an easier chocolate butter biscuit if I did it again.

I thought I might have packed the biscuit crumb in too hard by the time I finished but it was so crumbly it seemed to be the only way to compact it. Next time I might cook the biscuits a little less so they're softer and thus make softer crumbs. Or just buy some nice chocolate biscuits.

I love this type of mousse-like filling, and prefer it to buttercream filling for cakes. It's rich but not as sweet generally. I'm not a fan of using gelatin usually but if you're not serving the cake or tart immediately (or you live in a hot climate) you probably do need to use it. I might try a bit less next time or use leaf gelatin which I think gives a softer, less jelly-like finish. 

I don't have any photos of making the glaze because it was late by the time I got to that point. It was easy to mix up and poured on with no trouble.

I took this tart to work. It was very difficult to get the base out of the bowl. By the time a few pieces had been hacked off for hungry workmates the tart looked a bit messy. Most seemed to like it although no one raved. One person said it was too rich. He's never getting another piece of cake.

I'm making the Pink Pearl Lady Cake this weekend which means I'm making fondant icing. This is something I'd never bother to try otherwise, but being part of the Alpha Baker's is all about trying out new things...and then complaining when they don't work out.

Back with a pie

Hello all and Happy New Year! I'm back from Christmas holidays which I spent at the Southernmost end of the country. My parents have recently moved to the wilds of Tasmania where it was blissfully sunny and cool.

Having caught up with family and friends, I'm back refreshed and ready to go back to work - and to while away the rest of January in a summer holiday haze. January is the 'August' of the Southern Hemisphere where everything slows down, lucky people get to spend the month at the beach and no one expects very much to get done*. Lovely.

While I was away the more industrious Alpha Bakers were busy baking up a storm with Frozen Pecan Tart and Chocolate Cuddle Cake. I had good intentions of baking them ahead of time but the Christmas busy-ness defeated me. I hope to bake them when we have catch-up weeks - particularly the chocolate cake which sounds absolutely delicious.

This week it's the Black and Blueberry Pie. Just like Faithy I'm most familiar with apple or apricot pie or a variation on those. Pies are popular here but don't have the same central place they have in North American cuisine. I was a bit suspicious of an all berry pie and thought it would probably be too glutinous and sweet for my taste.

The recipe started with the cream cheese pastry ingredients in the freezer (and the processor bowl in the fridge). This is definitely a recipe suited to my climate.

The pastry ingredients whizzed up quickly in the processor but looked impossibly dry. I added a little more cream although it didn't look much wetter. I took Rose at her word (slightly belatedly) and tipped it onto a pastry mat and kneaded it through gladwrap into two disks. (Mucking around with plastic bags is not for me) It turned out to be surprisingly moist.

After the resting period I rolled out the bottom crust. The pastry was very easy to work with. I spent time looking for something 12 inches round until I realised my new pastry mat had it marked. My circle is more conceptual than actual.

It was at this stage I discovered I didn't have a pie plate. I found a tart tin which would do. I'm not that confident with pastry or anything that needs to be rolled out so I was quite chuffed with the way things went. I'm never going to win a prize for perfection but no holes is pretty good.

 

I used a mix of fresh and frozen berries because the fresh ones were SO expensive. I had to buy a bag of frozen mixed berries and pick out the black and blueberries. Every berry in this pie has been lovingly touched by me. (Something I won't be passing on to the consumers of this pie. I hope they can't read.)

You may be able to spot a few rogue raspberries which were needed to make up the weight. 

I need to pause here and make a complaint about the blackberries available in my locale. I grew up picking wild blackberries (actually weeds) and they were sweet and delicious. The blackberries I can find fresh and frozen now bear no resemblance to those of my youth and are vastly inferior. Since they look different I can only assume someone is passing some other lesser berry off as blackberries. Hmmmff.

The berries are mixed with cornflour, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. I'm not a fan of cornflour thickened consistencies so I put a bit less in. The juice left in the bowl after I filled the pie was delicious lemony sugar syrup. I was surprised and my expectations for the pie rose.

Oh no, holes in the pastry! :-)

I put the lid on and was still chuffed with the the look of my pie.

I added some leaves because my 'berries' ended up a bit skew-whiff. It doesn't look too bad although I do wish I had more patience with pastry arrangement.

I put the pie in the oven. Unfortunately my oven has been playing up and I could only get it to about 180C before it turned itself off.  I put it on a higher shelf than recommended in the recipe and left it in for as long as I could before the oven gave up the ghost completely. It was slightly undercooked probably although I could see the fruit bubbling through the 'berries'.

I waited for a few hours before I cut a piece. The filling was a bit runny but I was happy with this, preferring it to a more jellied consistency. The colour of the pie filling was absolutely glorious. And the taste? Well with the addition of some pouring cream it was absolutely (and surprisingly) delicious. Rose triumphs again. The lemony juice ensured the pie was not too sweet and not at all cloying. Brava Rose!

Here follows a few too many photos of an imperfect but oh so pretty purply pink pie.

The next picture is a bit alarming. The squeamish may wish to scroll down quickly.

After a day in the fridge - a miracle! Despite using less cornflour, the filling held together, looking, if I do say so myself, a little like the picture in the book. As I write these smug little words I feel the likelihood of failure next week ratcheting towards the sky.

The bench.

Next week - Golden Orange Panettone and another excuse to buy more kitchen equipment.  I can report that Darwin is all out of Panettone baking papers...

*I'm not entirely sure this is how my boss sees it...