Chocolate, Banana Meringue Pie

A twist on the traditional banoffee pie, my love of chocolate combined with banana's, strawberries and topped with luscious meringue.

1x Pie Shell
100g Cream
200g dark Chocolate, broken into pieces.
2x Bananas, sliced
1 handful of Strawberries, sliced
Cinnamon
Brown Sugar
4x Egg whites
4 Tbs Sugar

Heat cream and pour over chocolate in a bowl, stir until chocolate is melted, cool.
Whip chocolate ganache until light, spread in pie shell.
Place sliced banana and strawberries on chocolate ganache, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
Whip egg whites and sugar until stiff peaks, spread over pie.
Bake for 10min at 220C or until meringue is golden.

Lemon and Sugar Crepe Pie

Page 3 in the pie idea notebook. I love crepes with lemon and sugar, so the challenge of making a pie version of that was a pleasure! This may seem like a lot of effort, but it did not take long at all, I made it during one of my weeks where I am out every night, one step at a time. The crepes can be made a day or so ahead, the pie dish can be lined with pastry and frozen a week before hand. Then all that remains is making the filling and assembling the pie.

Crepe Pie

1x Pie shell, in cake tin or deep pie dish
9x Crepes
4 Tbs Caster Sugar
3 Eggs, Seperated
3 Tbs Lemon Curd
zest 1 Lemon, keep lemon for juice
250g Mascarpone

Bake pie shell for 15min at 180C, let cool.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, add sugar and beat until stiff.
In a separate bowl beat mascarpone until light and creamy, beat in egg yolks, lemon curd and zest.
Fold egg whites into mascarpone mix 1/3 at a time. Chill for 30min before using.
Spread a layer of mousse into base of pie shell, top with a crepe and a squeeze of lemon.
Repeat layers of mousse, crepes and lemon juice until all used up, or top of pie shell is reached.
Finish with a crepe (I leave the best looking one for the top) and sprinkle with demarera sugar, caramelize sugar with a blow torch or with a spoon (heat a large metal spoon over a gas flame and run the back of the spoon over the sugar. Be careful, the spoon can get very hot)
Leave in the fridge to set, at least a few hours, overnight works well.

I made this without the squeeze of lemon between the layers and felt that it needed a little more tart lemon flavour.

Crepes

2 C Standard Flour
2 Eggs
2 C Milk
1 tsp Cinnamon (Feel free to adjust to taste, ditto with vanilla)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Tbs Sugar
Extra milk

If making these for crepe pie aim to use a pan that will give you crepes to snugly fit the diameter of the pie shell, excess pieces can be trimmed.

Mix all ingredients together, it will need extra milk to make a thin batter (appx 1/4-1/2 cup)
Heat a pan and melt a small slice of butter before adding crepe batter and swirling around to fill pan.
Should make about 12 crepes, these can be kept for a few days or frozen.

Tropical Pie

A fruity little number that is refreshing on a light summers evening.

1x Pie Shell
3Tbs Passionfruit Curd
2 cups Fruit, chopped (Plums, Nectarines, Berries, Peaches, Bananas, Melon)
4x Egg Whites
2 Tbs Sugar
1/2 cup coconut, thread

Mix fruit with passionfruit curd, spread in pre-baked pie shell.
Whip egg whites with sugar until stiff peaks form, fold in coconut thread.
Spread onto pie and bake for 10min at 200C or until golden.

Plum & Chocolate Mousse Pie

The weather has chilled this week, Autumn is well on the way. Plums are ample and I thought 5-spice would work wonderfully with plums and apples paired with dark chocolate mousse.

1 x Pie Shell
8 x Plums (I used Omega), chopped
1 x Apple, chopped
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Sugar (any type)
1 x Vanilla Pod, seeds
200g 70%+ Chocolate, broken into pieces
2 x Egg Yolks
Pinch Salt
4 x Egg Whites
2 tsp Castor Sugar

Mix plums, apples, 5-spice, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla in an oven dish. Bake at 180C until soft (20min)
Melt chocolate in a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water, remove when 80% melted and stir till all chocolate is melted.
Whisk egg whites, when stiff add sugar and whisk until smooth.
Whisk in egg yolks and salt to melted chocolate. Add 1/3 egg whites and mix well.
Carefully fold in remaining egg whites.
Spread cooled plum mix into base of pie. Top with chocolate mousse and grate lemon zest/chocolate over pie! Chill for an hour or overnight to set mousse.

Feel free to vary the amount of fruit and mousse depending on the size of your pie, I used a 21cm pie shell.

Sad Red Strawberry Tart

After spending a weekend with a lovely man in Sydney I was returning home to Wellington, feeling rather bewildered and sad. I started thinking of strawberries, so fresh and romantic - crushed with the sadness of being apart....

1 x Pie Shell
150g Dark Chocolate
100g Cream
2 Cups Fresh Strawberries, chopped
1 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tbs Fresh Mint, chopped
1 Tbs Icing Sugar
2 Tbs Kirsch Liquor

Bake the pie shell for 15min at 180 C
Crush strawberries, balsamic, mint, icing sugar, and kirsch together.
Leave to mingle for 30min.
Melt chocolate and cream together. Smooth into pie shell to cover base and sides, refrigerate until set.
Drain strawberry mix in a sieve, retain liquid.
Spread strawberries over the pie base.
Reduce liquid to a syrup. Drizzle over tart.
Grate dark chocolate and sprinkle fresh mint over top of tart.

Enjoy with friends and a nice glass of wine!