I grew up eating green lemon meringue pie. Pastry crust, lime green custard, baked meringue topping. It wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I figured out that particular construction was for lemon meringue, but since we didn’t have lemons in Nicaragua, it was made with limes. We don’t even have a word for lemon: a lime is a limón and when you need a lemon you say you want a limón…amarillo. Semantics.

Yes, I had had Key lime pie, with its Graham cracker crust and whipped cream beret, but I thought it was a instant Jell-O or 1950s inspired quickie dessert, not A Thing.  I know better now and love the real thing.  

There’s a recipe baseline for Key lime pie—sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, egg yolks—and then there are the variations. For instance, some are no-bake, thickened with gelatin or cream cheese, others, like this one do oven time, and the ratios of lime juice, the type of lime used (note Key limes are more often than not from Central America — we call the tiny things limones criollos), and whether or not you use zest (you must!) change.

This version has a thick crust — any cracker crust I make is usually augmented because it’s my favorite part — made with brown butter and the filling has a big dose of lime juice and finely grated lime zest. It’s easy. If you don’t like to bake, this is a good recipe to work with.

#AYearInDinners

PASTEL DE LIMON / KEY LIME PIE

Makes 1 pie / 8 servings

For the Crust

14 Graham cracker rectangles (2 1/4- by 4 3/4 inches)
1 stick (4 ounces/8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt

• Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F.
  
• Break up the crackers and pulse them in a food processor until they become fine crumbs.
  
• Cut the butter into 8 pieces and cook over medium heat in a small saucepan. The butter will melt and start to froth. Don’t stir it, just swirl the pan gently from time to time. After 6 to 8 minutes, it’ll begin to smell nutty and you’ll see the solids become at the bottom of the pan (best to use a metal pan so you can monitor the color). Immediately pour the butter over the crumbs, scraping the bottom of the pan to get all the good bits.
  

• Add the sugar and salt and pulse until the mixture is cohesive. Dump it into a 9-inch round pie plate and pat it into the bottom and up the sides of the plate. You can use the base of a measuring cup or your fingertips. I like a casual look, so don’t really bother with leveling out the edges of the crust.
  
• Bake for 10 minutes and remove from the oven (leave it on!).
  

Make the Filling

1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
2/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (strained of seeds)
1/4 teaspoon salt

• In a medium bowl, whisk together the condensed milk and egg yolks. Whisk in the remaining ingredients and scrape into the pie shell. Bake for 10 minutes: the pie will look set but will jiggle a bit.
  
• Cool the pie to room temperature, then refrigerated it for at least 2 hours to finish setting and chill through.  Serve, and, if you like, top with whipped cream: 
  

1/2 cup heavy cream, chilled
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, sifted Pinch salt

• Whisk together in a large chilled bowl with a chilled whisk. You really don’t need an electric mixer here—the cream will form soft peaks in about 2 minutes. Plop over the center of the pie.
  

The romanticized version is that I used to love reading the “Little House” books as well as “The Hobbit” and that their incessant talk of food made me ravenous—bread items in particular. Although it was bookworming that inspired the obsession, what drove me to action was more pedestrian: I needed to make biscuits just like Kentucky Fried Chicken’s.  And so I started baking recipe after recipe as soon as I was allowed to leave the sidelines, grating orange zest for my mamá’s pudín Mary.

Years later, successes and flops documented in a nerdy child’s precise handwriting, I put together a dough that yielded tall biscuits with a fluffy and flaky crumb, and a crisp exterior. I’ve published the recipe here and there, and here it is again, except that it’s in loaf form—more surface area for butter (or whipped cream) spreading.

This recipe and others to come are part of A Year in Dinners, a book I’m currently working on. 

BISCUIT LOAF 

 Makes 1 loaf 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces lard or butter, chilled and thinly sliced
3/4 cup buttermilk*, chilledAdjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

 *If you don’t have buttermilk, use regular milk, substituting 1 tablespoon with distilled white vinegar.

• In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Add the lard and use 2 dinner knives to cut it into the flour, or, use your fingertips to quickly work it in: the mixture should be shaggy and coarse. Add the buttermilk and stir with a rubber spatula, just until a dough forms. 
  
• Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead 2 to 4 times, just to form a dough. Flatten the dough out, then roll it and pat it into a loaf (approximately 10- by 6-inches). Transfer to the prepared baking sheet and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until golden. 
  
• Cool 10 minutes before serving with butter or whipped cream.
  

I’m forever tinkering with my professional portfolio, planning a recipe or a shoot for a client or for a personal project, but somehow, there’s always more. This section is about things in progress — one day it might be about a trip and the next about a recipe invented just before dinner or a doodle that maps out a new collaboration. 

Expect bits and bobs and loose ends, but also, follow my progress as I tinker with “A Year in Dinners,” a documentation of what I plan to turn into a book of simple dinners (and breakfasts and lunches).