Pie number two of my newest pie odyssey was a success. I came across the recipe for a watermelon chiffon pie and thought that it was the perfect pie to make for the 4th of July. Ben and I went to a BBQ potluck hosted by a friend of his who has a roof top patio overlooking the Chicago skyline. The night was beautiful. From sundown until we left at midnight, the entire skyline in every direction was erupting in fireworks. I can safely say, that it was the best 4th of July I have had in a while. And the watermelon chiffon was a hit.
First off, it looked pretty. Fluffy and speckley pink with a slight jiggle, it kinda had that "oooh! what is that?!" quality to it. I originally topped it with a couple basil leaves because the grocery store by my house did not have any mint. But as we pulled up to the party, there was a huge mint bush growing right next to where we parked the car! So I ditched the basil leaf last minute and scavenged some urban mint to top the pie.
Although this pie was actually a "no bake" pie, it required many steps and pretty much my whole Thursday afternoon (when I really should have been working on my thesis). First I made the crust: I smashed 14 whole graham crackers (I actually used whole wheat graham crackers, the Midel brand you can get at specialty grocery stores or health food stores). Then I added 3/4 a stick of melted butter and two tablespoons of brown sugar to the crumbs with some vanilla extract, pressed this into a deep dish pie plate, and then stuck it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes while I pre-heated the oven. Then I baked the empty crust for about 10 minutes and stuck it back in the fridge to cool.
Meanwhile, I sliced open my watermelon and cubed it up, reserving 6 cups of cubed watermelon in a big glass bowl, and saving the rest to eat later. I added 1/3 cup of sugar to the 6 cups of cubes and then mashed them until they were really liquidy--then I let this sit for about 15 min to let the sugar really extract all the juice. Next, I strained the watermelon and reserved the juice--which made about 2 and 3/4 cups of juice. I threw out the pulp, and sprinkled 2 envelopes of gelatin over the watermelon juice and stuck that in the fridge.
Next I beat two egg whites to stiff peaks and set them aside. Then, I beat one cup of cream until soft peaks formed, then slowly added 1 cup of powdered sugar and continued to beat until the mixture was thick and creamy (I beat the cream in a glass bowl that was set inside another glass bowl full of ice--the key is to keep the whipped cream really cold so that it does not go floppy). I stuck the cream in the fridge and waited until the watermelon juice started to firm up and get jiggly.
Once the watermelon juice was thickened, I added about a quarter of the whipped cream into the watermelon juice and beat it in. Then I gently folded in the egg whites and remaining whipped cream and poured all this into the shell and then refrigerated it over night. And that was it!
The pie tasted like a watermelon cloud. It was so light and fluffy, but still had some bite to it because of the gelatin. Maybe it was more like fluffy creamy watermelon jell-o. Anyway, it was good nonetheless. I was thinking that it would be fun to make the same recipe but using lemonade, to make a lemonade chiffon pie. But that will have to wait for another fortnight. I am thinking that my next pie will be a summer fruit pie of some sort. I will see what bounty the farmer's market brings a fortnight from now.
ps...A funny side note: My roommate tells me that she just read an article that stated that watermelon is like natural Viagra. I don't know if that gives you more or less incentive to make this pie, but I just thought I would share that tidbit of information.
0 comments:
Post a Comment