key lime pie

I don't think I've talked about baking on here before, which actually rather surprised me as I've always been a fan of baking cakes, biscuits, pies, you name it. I'd like to introduce a few other kinds of post to this blog, I guess my book reviews are a start but although I read a lot most of them I don't think are worth reviewing. I don't want to be branded as purely a beauty blog, as truthfully food is a bigger part of my life than makeup will ever be (although I have to admit makeup is easier to talk about!).
Anyhoo, what I'm trying to get around to saying is that I recently found a book of recipes that I wrote when I was about nine years old, full of my favorite recipes copied out of recipe books. I remember the key lime pie being one of the tastiest so I decided to give it a go!

 Yeah it's a lime pie, and yeah that's a lemon. *I ran out of limes but don't tell anyone, shh it's a secret*

The recipe is adapted from one from a Delia Smith book (original recipe here) and here's my version:

Ingredients:

For the base - 120g butter & 225g digestive biscuits

For the filling - zest and juice of three limes, three egg yolks & 400g condensed milk.

You'll also need some kind of flan tin, the website suggests that it's nine inches in diameter.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 4).

Melt the butter and crush the digestives until they're almost crumbs. Mix together and press into the flan tin, so it's lining the edges and the bottom. Bung it in the oven for around ten minutes while you make the filling.

Using an electric whisk, mix the egg yolks and lime zest for two minutes, then add the condensed milk a whisk for about another four minutes. Then add the lime juice, give it a quick whisk then pour the mixture on top of the base. This should be in the oven for twenty minutes, and you ought be able to tell when it's ready as your whole kitchen will smell AMAZING. The best part is, it tastes as good as it smells. FYI, it goes surprisingly well with a bit of yogurt.

As the recipe only calls for egg yolks, I had three egg whites left over. I really don't like things going to waste, so... I made meringues. That's problem solving IRL kids, none of this stupid "John had twelve watermelons and he ate five, how many does he have left?" nonsense. Although I doubt kids read this blog. Or that John can manage to eat five watermelons.

Meringues are pretty simple to make (finally back on topic), for every egg white you have use 50g of sugar - so I used 150g of sugar. Using an electric hand mixer, whisk the egg whites for about a minute, then slowly start adding the sugar bit by bit while you're still whisking. Put dollops of the mixture on a tray with some greaseproof paper on it, then leave it in the oven overnight on a very low heat.

This post got a bit more chatty than usual...do you like it? Do you like baking posts? I honestly almost didn't end up publishing this, so please let me know what you think!
Oh, and my mum took these photos, thanks mum!

P.S Lina's got a giveaway running to help people vote for her friend to go to space! Click here to learn more.