Sorry for being MIA for more than a month. I want to post new entries, but lately, I have not had much time to devote to baking. This is because a.) a new school year has started, b.) I am living off-campus for the first time, c.) I have no ingredients on me right now, as well as a whole bunch of reasons that I will not bore you with.
The Thanksgiving long weekend has just passed, and of course, I headed home. And guess what I did over the weekend? I'll give you three guesses...
I really had my heart set on doing something pumpkin-y. It was Thanksgiving, after all. However, when my mom told me that our family is only lukewarm about pumpkin (although I have a sneaking suspicion she just does not like it), so I decided to go with a kabocha squash tart. We had just bought 3 kabocha squashes (which were on sale for only 29 cents/pound, by the way), so off I went to create my tart.
I was really excited at the prospect of using my removeable tart pan, since I have not made much use of it yet. I made the tart dough, pre-baked it (this is supposed to prevent a soggy crust), and them made the filling while the crust was baking in the oven. It did not take much effort at all: just grate up some squash, throw in some honey, spices, cream, and eggs, and bake for about an hour. A nice, low-stress dessert. Even though there were gaps in my crust (I have not yet mastered the art of crust-making), the filling (surprisingly) did not spill out everywhere.
I did not really like this tart. The flavours were very muted. The squash still had a little bit of a bite to it, which I did not expect. I thought it would get nice and soft and mushy. I would have liked the spices to be more pronouced, and a little bit more brown sugar or honey was needed. But of course, my family dutifully ate their slice, making no faces or comments(except for my aunt and my mom).
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving everyone, and be thankful for good food, good family and friends, and for all that you have.
When I saw limes on sale for 10 for a $1, I suddenly found myself with a whole bunch of limes. I don't normally have limes around, since we never use them for anything. I have always wanted to make a lemon meringue pie, since it is one of my favourite desserts (although I think I just like the merigue topping). Settling for a lime meringue pie, I found a recipe in Caprial's Desserts. I decided to make tartlettes, just because I like the idea of having individual desserts. I made the crust and filled the tartlettes with the curd a day ahead, since I was working all day the next day. Just before serving, I whipped up the meringue and topped the tartlettes. I don't have one of those fancy propane blow torches, so I used the broiler (for the first time! We got a new stove, and so now we actually have a functioning broiler!). I have to say, the meringue topping carmelized extremely fast! The tarts were honestly in there for like, 5 seconds, and I had to take them out because some of them were already on the verge of burning! The recipe was originally for a 10-inch pie, but I had enough dough to make 15 individual tarlettes. I modified the recipe, which can be found at the end of this post (the modified version, not the original). I had a bit of leftover curd, and a whole ton of leftover meringue (which was turned into meringue cookies that didn't really turn out so well...). The meringue recipe was also for a brown sugar meringue (which I had never tried, or heard of before, so it was cool little venture), which gave the topping a caramel colour. It was a bit too sweet for me, so I'll probably cut back on the sugar the next time I make a meringue (nobody wants diabetes!). Overall, I was really happy with the results, and I like the fact that most of the dessert can be made ahead. The only problem was that I didn't roll out the dough thin enough, so the crust on the tartlettes were a bit on the thick side. But it tasted like a classic lime meringue tart, and they just looked so cute!
The filled tarts ready to be cooled. Don't they look like those Chinese egg tarts?
The final plated dessert! It looks better in real life, actually. My photography sucks.
Lime Meringue Tartlettes
Crust
Filling
5 egg yolks
1/2 freshly squeezed lime juice
finely grated zest of 1 lime
3/4 granulated sugar
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Brown Sugar Meringue
1. Make the crust: mix the flour with the salt in a medium bowl.
2. Cut in butter pieces with a pastry cutter, or with your fingers until it is well blended and resembles a coarse meal (kind of like the size of peas).
3. Add the water, starting off with 3 tablespoons and mix until the mixture comes together and is just moistened. If it is still crumbly, keep adding water. Try not to overmix the dough.
4. Form the dough into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degreees
6. Roll the dough out onto a well-floured surface and cut out circles that are big enough to fit into muffin tins (I used muffin tins because I didn't have little tart molds).
7. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork, and bake until it takes on a bit of colour (mine took almost 30 minutes!)
8. Let cool completely.
9. Meanwhile, make the filling: whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, lime juice, and lime zest in a metal bowl. Add the butter.
10. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (make sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl), and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture is very thick, and has a curd-like consistency (10-15 minutes).
11. Fill the cooled tart shells with the curd and refrigerate until cold and set.
12. Make the meringue: whip the egg whites on high speed until frothy.
13. Slowly add in the brown sugar, one tablespoon at a time (to give it time to dissolve), and whip until the egg whites are able to hold a stiff peak.
14. Generously top the tarlettes with the meringue and put it under the preheated broiler for 5 seconds, until the top is toasted and browned.
15. Dig in and enjoy!
Sorry for being MIA for more than a month. I want to post new entries, but lately, I have not had much time to devote to baking. This is because a.) a new school year has started, b.) I am living off-campus for the first time, c.) I have no ingredients on me right now, as well as a whole bunch of reasons that I will not bore you with. 
