Week One - Lemon Truffle Pie

I am a little worried about starting out with a pie requiring a traditional pastry crust.  I need to break myself in a little first. 

I picked this one that has a graham cracker crust because that sounded a lot easier than a pastry crust.  Also, this pie is intended for Sunday dinner with my side of the family and my mom specifically requested something to use up her cream cheese.  Beggars can be choosers. 

Graham Cracker Crust

16 graham cracker squares, crushed

3 T sugar

1/3 c butter

Basically, mix all ingredients and press into a 9 inch pie pan. 

Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

My graham cracker crust burned.  The nice thing is that even though it was a little burned it still tasted ok which is another great reason to start with this crust.  Note: my oven cooks fast.

Lemon Truffle Pie

3T Cornstarch
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c sugar
1 1/2 c water
Zest from 2 lemons
Juice from 1 lemon (about 5T)
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 T butter
1 c white choc chips
16 oz cream cheese, room temp
Whipped cream for topping

 

Stir Together cornstarch, 1/3 c sugar, and water in saucepan.  Add lemon zest and juice.  In a separate bowl, beat egg yolkswith 1/4 c sugar until well mixed.  Pour into saucepan with the first mixture and cook on medium heat stirring constantly until it boils for one minute.

Remove from heat and stir in butter.  Set aside 1 1/2 c of mixture for middle layer.  Add white chocolate chips and stir until melted.  Mix in cream cheese until smooth.

I had a little trouble with the cream cheese.  At first I tried to cube it, but it was too soft so I resorted to the electric mixer.  I mixed the cream cheese by itself first to smooth it out before adding in the lemon mixture.

Pour mixture into 9 in graham cracker pie crust.  Pour the 1 1/2 c of lemon mixture on top of the first layer and chill for 2 hours.  Top with whipped cream.

My mom said that she can't believe this pie had that 2 packages of cream cheese because it wasn't dense at all.  I was actually worried that whipping the cream cheese first was a bad idea since it made the bottom layer so thick, but maybe that's why it was so 'light'?  Would I make it again?  Yes.  It was pretty easy and definitely worth the time.  Maybe next time I'll only use 1 package of cream cheese and see how it turns out.  Then again, why mess with something that I know works?