sarea | I made pie!

Yesterday I was a total slug. I "worked from home," took a huge nap, and pretty much did nothing but played games on my iPad (and worked some). I was going to make a lemon meringue pie, because I have leaf lard and Meyer lemons, and I started the process of making the crust. Only I decided to triple the amount, because making pie crust is such a bitch, so that I could have a couple ready to go in the freezer, down the road.

I don't know if it was tripling it that caused the problems or what, but the crust never came together correctly. It was far too moist. I even weighed the ingredients rather than using volume measurement, so that it would be more accurate -- I don't know if there was something wrong with the recipe or if it wasn't meant to be tripled. I stuck the mess in the freezer and hoped that I could fix it the next day.

I made up for my slug-ness the day before by mowing the lawn (it's still not pretty, but at least it's less of an eyesore), giving Talis a bath, and finally making the pie.

There was no saving the lard crust. I don't know what went wrong. I "fixed" it a bit by adding more flour, but then when it came time to add ice water and cider vinegar it was just a soupy mess. I ended up throwing it all away, which was painful given the ingredients (all that beautiful leaf lard! It could have made so much soap!) and the time I had spent on it. :/ Rose Levy Beranbaum had said that a lard crust was better for savory pies, but I ignored her and this was the result. So instead, I used her cream cheese pie crust recipe, which is still the best crust I have ever had, and I only made enough for one pie.

I've never made a meringue pie before, despite lemon meringue being one of my favorites, because instinctively I knew it would be difficult. And it totally was, but mostly because there are three very distinct steps -- make the crust, make the filling, make the meringue -- and you're having to move very quickly from one thing to the next, and have a bunch of utensils at the ready, even though each step on its own isn't all that complicated.

Once the crust came together, everything else was fairly straightforward, even if I was racing around a little bit trying to get everything done quickly. I won't lie... I am pretty impressed with myself right now. It LOOKS great, exactly as I would want a lemon meringue pie to look. I won't get to taste it until the morning as it's still cooling right now, but at least it meets the visual mark.

I haven't challenged myself with a baking recipe in a really long time; after this experience it'll probably be awhile until I do it again, lol. This was also the first time I used my new stand mixer, and I was pleased with it, which is good because it's far too late to return it. :))

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