Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #22: Lemon Meringue and Chocolate Cream Pies (Thanksgiving 2014)
I have two brothers who are quite younger than me. The youngest is a dad with twin daughters and the other one is biding his time looking for the lady who will light up his life. Anyway, I did a lot of baking with them when I was living at home. Mainly cookies and a few other things that our mother doesn’t cook. I’m the family weirdo, I suppose. For this past Thanksgiving my middle brother asked me to make a Lemon Meringue pie. I’ve made such a dessert before, but it had been a long time — at least ten years. Since I like him, I agreed.
I could have just bought a pie shell and then bought the filling and just slapped on some whipped cream and called it a day.
Go ahead and laugh. You know the drill.
Lemon Filling and the pie crust ready to bake.
Believe it or not things went along swimmingly and even the pie crust went off without a hitch. Maybe slightly under baked, but otherwise I had no trouble at all. I used my favorite bakery site for the recipes:
Woodland Bakery Lemon Curd Filling
Woodland Bakery Pie Crust
Lemon Meringue Pie (Meringue)
Pre baking. Perfect!
The pie crust shrank on one side just a wee bit. Minion #1 declared the lemon curd not sweet enough. Minion #2 ran off with the spoon.
My oven can be testy and I left it in just a hair too long.
It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it did what meringues do and shrunk and wept overnight (we were traveling the next day and my mom’s kitchen is just not big enough for a last minute extra cook). Plus we arrived late due to weather. I was told it was delicious. I was much too full of other food to sample a piece myself.
I was feeling cocky so I decided to make a second pie with the other half of the pie crust.
That first pie was just no trouble at all to make. “Self,” I said, “Let’s make a chocolate cream pie!” I answered, “Yes, let’s do so in all of our awesome glory.”
Woodland Bakery Chocolate Cream Pie
Woodland Bakery Vanilla Custard (Chocolate Variation)
Woodland Bakery Stabilized Whipped Cream
Use Child Labor whenever possible.
Minion #1 was delighted with using a fork to break the baker’s chocolate. She did get a nasty surprise when she stole a piece. I did tell her not to eat any, but she just couldn’t help herself. If you’ve never used or tasted baker’s chocolate, I encourage you to buy a bar and take a bite so that you have the full effect of what the five year old experienced. Consider it research.
Stupid, pain in the ass pie.
I tried THREE times to get that damn pie filling to set up and it just wasn’t working. I think it was okay and just need to cool only to have it stay liquid. To this day I have no idea why I couldn’t get it to work right the first two times. Luckily, I am used to stupid things happening for inexplicable reasons so I didn’t throw it out when it didn’t work the first time. However, when I finally was able to get it to set up I forgot to strain it! GAH!
It tasted really delectable, but was really grainy. No one wants a grainy chocolate cream pie! Having to chew bits in a custard is just not nice.
I hate you pie.
Looks pretty. At least the whipped creamed cooperated this time!
The whipped cream peaked and stabilized the way it was supposed to this time! If you haven’t read it yet, be sure to read my adventure with making a rainbow cake.
Why do desserts mock me?
My downfall really was being cocky. I know that somewhere out there in the universe the three fates are laughing their hind ends off when they watch me strut proudly and then promptly screw up something else.
Let this be a lesson to you all. Quit while you are ahead and don’t let your ego inflate your confidence because you will come crashing down from the clouds.
6 comments on “Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #22: Lemon Meringue and Chocolate Cream Pies (Thanksgiving 2014)”
Leave a Reply
E-mail Subscribe and Support
My Reviews
Email Subscribe and Support
Shop With Me!
Shop and Read My Reviews
Aspiring writer, wife, mother of two, owner two cats. Teacher, lover of science, books, science fiction, fantasy, and video games.
Top Posts & Pages
Visit My Fellowship
Laissez Faire 
Love your blog posts! They always make me laugh! Im sorry your chocolate cream pie was not what you had hoped it would be 😦
Thanks for the shout outs!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah well, it was chocolate so it was eaten anyway! Thanks for peeking in. I’ve got my eye on that molten red velvet cake you got going on over there.
LikeLike
Awesome post. You have talent!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s just a really good recipe and a lot of years of messing up. Haha
LikeLike
the pie looks yummy! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can only speak for the chocolate, but my brother said he approved of the lemon 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person