A Stab at Something New...

So, who likes to be bored? "'Not I,' said the pig."

I must say, I am in that category of people that just does not like to sit around with nothing to do. (Unless, of course I am enjoying a leisurely Sunday of drinking coffee and reading the Times.) But, I digress, as I am referring to those other times, when I am too tired to do anything that requires significant thinking, but still feel the need to do something productive with myself. Lately I have turned those hours of idle hands into evenings to dive into a new adventure: a brand spanking new baking recipe!

Now I've never really been much of a baker. I can whip up a mean stir fry, and I've never met someone who can beat my fresh and spicy gazpacho recipe. But, baking? Not so much. I have never felt shame in making a quick batch of Ghiradelli brownies from the box, or cookie dough from the tube. But now the time has come to branch out, enter the unknown world of true, no holds barred, baking from scratch!


I must admit that the recipe that got me going and inspired me to share my baking adventures was not, I confess, entirely from scratch. Last Sunday night I made a key lime pie, adapted from this recipe I found on AllRecipes.com. As you can see, the recipe calls for what I have decided to call "cheater crust." (a.k.a. store bought prepared graham cracker crust.) While I did use the pre-made crust  for my first go, I am swearing to the blogosphere here and now that I will not cut corners again.

Here is my adapted version of this recipe, as I found that some parts needed minor extra explanation, and I added a little extra flair at the end:

Ingredients:
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker (cheater) crust
3 cups sweetened condensed milk (this was pretty much exactly the amount I could get out of  two 14 oz cans since some of the milk sticks to the top and can also be hard to get out of the edges)
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice (it took approximately 20-25 key limes)
1 tablespoon grated lime zest (be careful, those little key limes are slippery, and I found it was very easy to accidentally grate your knuckles instead)
Thin circular slices of approximately 2-3 key limes. (Optional.)


Quick tip:  If you, like me, lack a juicer and thus must do all the juicing by hand, roll the whole limes in between your hand and a hard counter top, using your body weight to push down. This will bring out some of the juices so that you do not have to put so much effort into squeezing the limes once they are cut.


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. (If you haven't juiced your limes yet, you might want to do that first, as it will likely take longer to do that than it will for the oven to heat up.)
2. In a medium bowl, combine condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest. Mix well and pour into graham cracker crust.
3. Bake pie in the oven for 5 to 8 minutes, until tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface of the pie. Do NOT brown. (I found that I could never see any tiny pinhole bubbles, so I simply took my pie out after about 10 minutes. It came out fine.)
4. Chill the pie thoroughly before serving. 
5. (Optional) Before pie is served, place thin circular key lime slices around the outer edge of the pie, and one in the middle. In addition to adding color and visual texture to the pie, the slices also serve as an excellent guide for how large a slice should be. One lime = small slice. Two limes = BIG slice.
6. Enjoy! :)

I didn't take any pictures of the finished pie, or the pie in process last week, but I will be sure to this week!