TWD: creamiest lime cream meringue pie (aka butter pie)

I really wanted to like this pie. What isn’t to like with a graham cracker crust, lime and ginger filling and a meringue topping? But this pie and I were not destined to be great friends.

The lime cream filling process had no major problems except the length of time it took on the stove. My arm was super tired from all that whisking and after approximately 18 minutes or more I gave up despite the temperature only reaching 160. Seriously, it stuck at 160 for over ten minutes. I tasted the cream off the stove and found it to have the perfect flavor, limey but not face-puckering limey.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I messed up a graham cracker crust. Is that even possible? I’ve never made a graham cracker crust before (crazy I know) so I wasn’t quite sure what kind of consistency I needed. My main problem (which was totally my fault) was not measuring the amount of graham crackers. I guesstimated that one packet of graham crackers was 1 ¾ cups. I’m thinking I guesstimated wrong. Super crumbly. I mashed it into the pie plate and it stayed well enough.

I took my cream out of the fridge after being chilled overnight and tried my best to loosen it up. Yeah, not happening. My “cream” had the consistency of refrigerated butter which is not surprising considering it contains 2 ½ sticks. Here I am trying to get the cream out of the whisk.

I ended up patting into the pie shell. So attractive. Can you see my fingerprints?

Meringue was going fine until I put it in the oven. I know not to walk away from meringue but what did I do. I figured I would have a little time to put away some blueberries. Nope. Those few seconds I wasn’t paying attention were the critical ones. After burning my meringue I was bemoaning to Pete about how ugly the pie was. He informed me that I am not a baking multi-tasker, whenever I try to multi-task I end of screwing something up. He has a valid point but still, no pie for him.

I decided to make this for dinner with my brother and his wife before they move away to Idaho. I figured with five mouths I wouldn’t have a lot leftover. Wrong. It just wasn’t a huge hit. I asked if anyone wanted to take some home and I just heard a chorus of "No’s." My main problem with the pie was that I felt like I was eating lime flavored butter. It had the consistency of butter, was smooth like butter, probably because it was butter. It put me off enough that I won’t be making this again.

This pie was not a huge hit and Pete told me today that he couldn’t eat anymore of the leftovers because it reminded him too much of eating butter (FYI, I never told him how much butter was actually in it. I told a small lie and said only two tablespoons when he asked). Oh well, if we liked all the things I baked we would be waddling around the house like Charlie.

Thanks to Linda of Tender Crumb for picking out this week's recipe. Check out her blog for the recipe. Also check out what all the other bakers did with this pie at Tuesdays with Dorie. I'm going to go eat some more butter.