Happy New Years Daring Baker's Style - Pucker up!

A new year for the Daring Baker's, with plenty of recipes ahead of us!

For this first recipe of the year, it was up to Jen from The Canadian Baker, to chose our path for us. Poor Jen. How could she have known that such a classic recipe would be controversial on the DB private blog? I mean honestly, it's Lemon Meringue Pie! How could that be controversial!

Well this recipe had its lovers and its haters among the Daring Bakers. It had it successes and its failures as well.

For me personally, I LOVED IT!!!

I loved it enough that I made it 3 times. And even though it is posting day today, I am thinking of making it again today.

Jen gave us the options of size, full pie or tarts, as well as a free form tart. I haven't done the free form yet, which is what I am thinking of making today. And as my family and neighbors enjoyed the pie as much as I did (a few of them more), how bad an idea could it be to make it again?

For my first attempt, I made 6 little, individual pies, using my mini pie pans. I was able to pile high the meringue and enjoy lots of its gooey marshmallowness over the tangy lemon curd and the buttery crust. The crust that has become my go to recipe for pie crust from now on. It came together in a flash, rolled easily and baked up beautifully. I liked it so much I may become a pie maker and make my grandmother (the pie maker in our family) proud!

The next time I made the pie, I swapped out the lemon for limes, and made a curd so flavorful we could have eaten it with a spoon! I mean look at all those flecks of lime zest in the thickened curd, doesn't it look great?

And the pie was amazingly good. The right balance of crust, curd and meringue, the sweet of the meringue against the tartness of the curd.

Sorry, this is the best I could do for a picture of that pie.

For my last attempt at the pie, I again went back to lemon, following the recipe exactly as written, and making one big pie, which I served to family and friends for a birthday dessert. One pie easily served 8 adults, with left overs. And I heard nothing but compliments on it.

I know some of my fellow DB'ers did not have as much fun with this month's challenge as I did. I know some did not have alot of luck getting the crust not to shrink, or the curd to stay thickened and set, or even the meringue to not shrink or weep. I don't know why they had those problems, which I never saw a sign of in any of my three attempts. I will make this pie again (maybe even today, as I said, but if not, in the near future.)

Thanks so much to Jen for such a wonderful recipe this month!

Don't forget to check out the other Daring Baker's, or be afraid to leave a message on a few posts. Head on over to the Blogroll for a full list of who made a pie this month.