Lemon-Orange Meringue Pie

I have to admit- I'm not typically a very good pie baker but I did pretty good with this one. I am planning on taking it to my family's Easter dinner. Ok, it's not totally from scratch; I use a Pillsbury Pie crust. The filling and meringue, though, are my own. The filling is derived from an old Southern recipe for Ambrosia cake. The filling on this cake makes a perfect pie filling.

Filling Recipe:

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 c orange juice

1/4 c lemon juice

1/2 c water

3 egg yolks , beaten

1 tbsp grated orange peel

Mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a sauce pan. With medium heat, add both juices and water, stirring constantly until it bubbles and thickens. Temper the eggs by adding a little bit of the hot mixture into the eggs. Add egg mixture into pan and boil slowly for 1 minute. Add orange zest.

Prebake the pie crust,making sure to dock the dough before it bakes. 350 for 11 minutes.

Add filling into pie crust.

Meringue:

4 egg whites or 3/4 cup prepared egg whites

2 tbsp sugar

pinch cream of tartar

Whip the meringue until it forms firm peaks-about 10-15 minutes. Pour on top of filling and bake for 6 minutes at 325.

Chemistry of Meringues:

Meringues ( or egg foams) come from the whites of eggs. Egg whites contain four proteins: ovalbumin, conalbumin, globulin, and lysozyme. Proteins form tough networks of tissue- that's why they build muscle in animals. These protein networks are not as stable as we would like in baking. They form and they break apart again- kind of like playing the block game "Jinga". The lower the pH of these proteins, the more stablilized they are. Low pH means the environment is acidic. By adding cream of tartar ( mixture of tartaric acid and cornstarch ), the pH is lowered and your meringue will stay put. Any acid will lower the pH ( vinegar, citric fruit juice) but these acids can make your meringue taste sour. Cream of tartar powder has no noticeable taste in the meringue.

Banana Pudding Cupcakes

I'm from the South where no family reunion or summer get-together is complete without the standard go-to dessert. Yes, I'm talking about banana pudding. As a kid I could eat 1/2 casserole dish of the stuff. It's creamy, slightly sweet , crunchy from the Nila wafers and the bananas let you convince yourself and your parents that it's good for you.



Our banana pudding was made from Jell-O Vanilla Pudding, sliced bananas and topped with crumbs of Nila wafers. Every family has their own version of this. My elementary school best friend's Mom lined the bottom with whole vanilla wafers, giving it a cheesecake or tart like look.



Anyways, I've been on this cupcake baking frenzy for weeks now. I've been buying up different types of cake mix and a variety of frostings along with every kind of extract you can think of to spend relaxing evenings after school inventing new cupcake concoctions. I accidentally came up with the banana pudding cupcake. I was initially striving to make a pina-colada cupcake and this thing came out. I'm glad it did because I ate the entire batch ( my husband might have got a few too ) for breakfast, lunch, snack and dessert after dinner.



Make a batch for yourself and let me know what you think.



Banana Pudding Cupcakes ( yields 26 )

Ingredients for batter:

1 box of Pillsbury Pudding in the box, yellow cake mix

3 eggs

1/3 vegetable oil

1 cup of Pina Colada Mix

1 tsp banana extract

2 1/2 small bananas, over-ripened, diced very small



Ingredients for frosting:

1 container whipped white icing

1 tsp banana extract

1 banana, diced

Nila wafers



Slowly combine the cake mix with remaining batter ingredients. Over mixing will prevent the cupcakes from getting light and airey.

Line muffin tin with cup cake liners.

Pour in batter until 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until golden on top.



Let cook in pan for about 5 minutes then cool entirely on cookie rack.



Frost the cupcakes, topping each one with a Nila wafer. On a covered cake pedestal, cupcakes will keep for about 5-7 days.

Chemistry of Extracts:
Banana extract, aka isoamyl acetate, is a member of the organic chemical family known as esters. Esters can be made by combining an organic acid ( like vinegar) with an alcohol and then gently heating it. Concentrated sulfuric acid is added as a catalyst. This is not an experiment to be conducted in the kitchen but we do perform simple ester synthesis reactions in my chemistry class. So what is an ester? Any item that has been scented or flavored has had esters added to it. They are in food, candles, dryer sheets etc. Extracts can really bump a tired old dessert to a new level.