Happy Pi(e) Day

March 14th: sandwiched between Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, my favorite holiday of the year, Pi Day.

Pi Day has had special meaning for me since AP US History in my junior year of high school. This is when I first encountered the nineteenth century movement referred to as the "cult of domesticity." Its proponents argued that a woman's place is in the home, and that domestic virtues were superior to all others. Struck by the ridiculousness of the idea and the very catchy name, my friends and I formed our own branch, a society loosely dedicated to the protection and preservation of the domestic arts. "Meetings," which we still have whenever enough of us are in the same place, mostly involve getting together to make pie and the "prostitute pasta" (pasta puttanesca) from TBS' Dinner and a Movie for Pretty Woman. Our Cult of Domesticity has had a long and storied life so far, and Pi Day is its anniversary of sorts.

Over the last eight years, some things have changed - our members have been scattered across the country in med school, law school, and various forms of gainful employment, and we can use real wine in the pasta sauce instead of sour-tasting Heinz cooking wine - but some things have not. My grandma's key lime pie, the pie that started it all, is still my favorite in the world. And good friends are still the best people to share it with.

So as an anniversary present for us all, here is the pie recipe that always makes an appearance at our gatherings. It's simple, straightforward, and can be made in about five minutes flat, including washing the dishes. You do have to let the filled pie chill for a few hours to set up, but if you get impatient or are in a hurry, you can always pop it in the freezer to accelerate the process.

At home I usually made this with a store-bought graham cracker crust, but you can easily make your own with some crushed up graham crackers and a bit of melted butter - just mix and press into a pie dish, then bake at 350 or so for about 10 minutes to set. Cool before pouring in your filling.

Grandma's Key Lime Pie

1 9" graham cracker crust, storebought or homemade

8 oz./ 1 c. sour cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk (my grandma's recipe specifies Eagle Brand, but substitutions should be fine)

1/2 c. key lime juice, fresh or bottled (fresh is more tangy, but allow a LOT of time to juice all the little key limes)

2 heaping tbsp. Cool Whip - I tend to interpret "heaping" very liberally, but I like Cool Whip.

Combine all ingredients, mixing until smooth. Don't worry if it looks curdled or weepy at any point, just keep mixing and it will all come together nicely. Pour filling into crust, chill for several hours, enjoy!

Leftovers (if there are any!) are best within the next 48 hours; the crust tends to get soggy after that.

best slice and bake cookies ever

Slice-and-bake cookies, to some people, are shorthand for lazy cooking and a Sandra Lee-esque approach to the kitchen. But these cookies, officially Mocha Latte bars, are head and shoulders above anything in the refrigerator aisle. I first made these during school last year, as an accompaniment to our creme brulees in a plated dessert unit. Their dense chocolate and slightly bitter mocha edge was a perfect foil for the silky cream of the brulee, but when I've made them since I've discovered that they stand very nicely on their own or with a cup of coffee or tea.

There is a little bit of work required before you get to the "slice and bake" part, but the recipe makes a lot of dough, which can be refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for several months. If you're planning to freeze it, I might slice it before freezing, but refrigerated dough can be cut and thrown straight into the oven. A log of refrigerated dough can travel well - I brought it on the subway to a friend's house and was feted as a hero when we enjoyed straight-out-of-the- oven cookies for dessert. It could also make a nice hostess or holiday gift for someone who loves baked goods but doesn't love the prep work.

I've made a few small changes to the original recipe - substituting a variety of chocolates for the gianduja, using Medaglia d'Oro powder - so my version appears below. enjoy!

Mocha Latte Bars (original recipe Vicki Wells, distributed at FCI)

250 grams butter (room temperature)

300 grams granulated sugar

1 egg and 1 yolk

1 1/2 tbsp. vanilla

325 grams all-purpose flour

115 grams unsweetened cocoa powder (I like Dutch processed here)

1 tbsp. kosher salt

1 tbsp. baking powder

2 tbsp. Medaglio d'Oro espresso powder

4 1/2 c. chopped chocolate (I like a mix of white, milk and semisweet or bittersweet)

Sift the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Cream the butter and granulated sugar until light and airy. Add the egg, then the yolk, mixing well to incorporate after each. Add the vanilla, slowly. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. Add dry ingredients, mix only until almost incorporated, then add chocolate in two or three batches. Separate the dough into two or three logs - these can be round, square, rectangular, or any other shape you like. Chill at least until firm (two or three hours), or up to a week.

When you're ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice your logs - I like these cookies between 1/4 and a 1/2 inch thick, and think a serrated or very sharp chef's knife works best - and arrange on parchment paper or a silpat on a cookie sheet.

Bake 10-15 minutes, or until cookies look firm and matte.

Let cool (or not - they're great warm!) and enjoy. Great with a glass of milk.

martha saves the day

A certificate in pastry arts may not seem like the most useful education, but on occasion, a chef can be a real hero. A few weeks ago I got a panicked voice mail from my sister. "Liz," she said. "It's a baking emergency. I need your help." I called her back, did some phone triage, and determined that somewhere in her attempt to bake cookies for a friend, something had gone horribly wrong. I knew from the tone of her voice that it was bad, but I still wasn't quite prepared for the sight that met my eyes when I entered our kitchen 20 minutes later.

These cookies, ostensibly Toll House chocolate chip, were probably the saddest I'd ever seen - completely flat, burnished dark brown, so thin they were almost transparent. There was still some dough left, so I performed the very scientific experiment of tasting a spoonful. The taste was fine, but the texture seemed soft and a little greasy. I quizzed Laura - did she follow the recipe? did she add a leavener? did she add flour? The answers were all as they should be, but they didn't tally up to the final product. I made the executive decision to mix in some more flour and chuck the dough in the freezer while we made a new kind of cookie for her friend, who had failed his driving exam and was in need of culinary comfort.

Wanting something foolproof and brown sugar-less (Laura had used the last in her ill-fated previous attempt), I pulled out Martha Stewart's Cookies, which I got for my last birthday. Martha offered up Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies, which looked big and sweet enough to assuage most major life disasters. We must not have made our cookies quite as giant as Martha did, because we got about 50% more than the recipe suggested, but they turned out quite nicely. The slightly sticky dough baked into dark, crinkly rounds of chocolatey goodness, just the thing for soothing a friend's wounded ego or re-building confidence in the kitchen.

In case you were wondering about the disaster cookies, the rehabbed dough turned out just fine. Laura was able to bring a few of them to her friend, and for the first time in a while, I felt like a kitchen hero and stud of a sister. I think the moral of the story is: trust Martha to steer you straight. (Unless, of course, you're looking for a hot stock tip.)

Giant Chocolate Sugar Cookies (adapted slightly from Martha Stewart's Cookies)

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 tsp. kosher salt

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/2 c. vegetable shortening (or butter), melted and cooled

1 large egg

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and granulated sugar until light, soft, and aerated. Add melted shortening, mix thoroughly. Add egg, then vanilla, beating thoroughly after each. Mix until creamy.

Reduce mixer speed, then gradually add flour mixture. Mix until just combined.

Drop dough onto prepared baking sheet. Martha suggests using a 2 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, which holds about 1/4 c. of dough. Space the cookies about 4 inches apart (if making this size). Bake until edges are firm, 18-20 minutes, and let cool on sheets on wire rack.

me = bad blogger

A real blogger probably would have had something catchy to post on the one year anniversary of their blog's beginnings... I am clearly not a real blogger, since I just realized my first post was over a year ago. I've been very occupied by non-Web-y things (like writing for grad school applications instead of this blog) for the last few months, but I do have a few delicious posts lined up to come your way very soon.

It's funny to think how much some things have changed since I started this blog (my location, occupation, and general life plan) but more important to think about all the things that haven't. I still love playing around in the kitchen, love sitting down to write about it, and am glad some people have read this and been inspired to play themselves.

see you soon!