A Girl, A Granny & A Goal: lemon

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Lemon Icebox Torte

It's working!

I started blogging in hopes that I would some day be able to cook like Granny. She has a certain finesse for looking through cookbooks and finding two to three recipes to mishmash and usually ends up with a superb dish.

In trying to decide which dessert I was bringing to the family cookout I started thinking like Granny. I knew I wanted to make something cool and lemony (nothing says summer like a refreshing lemon dessert, right?). I thought of this recipe and that recipe and what if did this instead of that and somehow I came up with a delectable Lemon Torte that everyone loved, despite that I never found a Meyer's lemon even after driving all over the city of Nashville! (Yeah, yeah run on sentence -- I know!) I'm not really sure it qualifies as a torte but I'm still going to call it Lemon Icebox Torte....or maybe Lemon Icebox Torture since the piece I'm supposed to be saving for a friend is currently in the frige torturing me right now.

Unlike Granny I am able to recreate my recipe at any time because I took notes.

Lemon Torte

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Pecan Sandies

1/2 c. butter, melted

1 c. confectioners sugar

8 oz container whipped topping, divided

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

1 c. lemon juice

1 egg yolk

¼ c. pecans, optional

zest of 1 lemon

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°. Start by crushing the cookies.

Combine crushed cookies & melted butter in medium bowl and press into 9x13 dish. Bake for 15 minutes and let this layer cool completely (30-60 minutes).

Thoroughly combine cream cheese & sugar. Fold in half of the whipped topping. Spread the mixture on top of the cookie layer. Next, beat the egg yolk slightly and add milk and lemon juice and lemon zest. When thoroughly combined spread this layer on top of the cream cheese layer.

Cover and refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours. Before serving top with remaining whipped topping and pecans.

Granny and I came up with a few alternatives for the cookie crust. She suggest trying vanilla wafers, I'm leaning more towards Golden Oreos. I think both would be pretty tasty. And next time I will try it with Meyer's Lemons even if it means growing my own tree (that's how dedicated I am).

Thursday, May 17, 2012

When Life Hands You Lemons...

I have two things to share:

Since the whole goal of this blog is to learn to cook like Granny, I recently tried a few of her recipes without her being present.

Granny and my mom went to visit family in Denver so we were without her culinary skills for a few days including Sunday which is usually when we all gather around the table to delight in Granny’s cooking.

Being without our matriarch (and me with without my momma) may seem like a bowl of lemons, but it turned out pretty sweet. PawPaw fired up the grill and the rest of the family tossed up a wonderful salad and baked potatoes. But what dinner would be complete without dessert?

I've gotta have my dessert, so I decided our lack of dessert was a problem I would be happy to remedy. I knew of the perfect dish to make sans Granny. It's our family’s go-to quick dessert: Lemon Icebox Pie.

Honestly this is one I’ve been making for a while. I can’t remember if my mom taught me or Granny. But I’m delighted it is one recipe I can make without looking at a recipe.

Here is all that’s needed.

I've made this pie without the egg yolk several times. Turns out fine either way.

I added the zest of one lemon even though this pie is pretty tasty without it.

There’s no baking, frying, or rolling required for this. Just whisk it all up and pour it in a ready-made crust (homemade graham crust are fine too … just not as quick).

I put it in the fridge for a few hours until it was nice and firm. Then I headed to dinner with the family, pie in tow. Once at Granny’s house I put the pie in the freezer just to make sure it would be ready when we were. I forgot about it after a few hours, but once we remembered it, it didn’t last long.