Tuesdays with Dorie: Florida Pie

May 13, 2008 at 4:08 am | Posted in groups, pies & tarts, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 57 Comments

“What the heck is Florida Pie?” you ask.  It’s basically a key lime pie with a couple of coconutty embellishments, and it happens to the TWD pick o’ the week from Dianne of Dianne’s Dishes.  Dorie’s Florida Pie has the standard crumb crust and lime juice/condensed milk filling, but it also has a layer of coconut cream in between said crust and filling, and coconut folded into the meringue topping. I decided to go for mini pies, and half a recipe of filling gave me three babies.  Mini pies do have a higher crust to filling proportion than full size pies, so I probably used about 2/3 recipe of crust. 

I didn’t stray too far from Dorie’s instructions this time, but I did make a couple tweaks.  I used regular (not key) limes and condensed low fat milk in the filling, which worked nicely.  And for the coconut cream layer, I used way less cream than she called for, probably just a few tablespoons, and wound up with something more like a tasty goo.  I also toasted my coconuts (both the shredded stuff I used in the goo, and the fine desiccated stuff I folded into the meringue), because I think it really brings out the flavor of packaged coconut, which can be pretty lackluster as-is.

“How did it taste?” you ask.  Pretty darn good.  Next time, I’ll add a little lime zest to the filling.  I really like the combination of coconut and lime, but if you aren’t a coconut fan, just leave out the cream layer and keep your meringue unflavored.  You’ll still wind up with a fantastic key lime pie.  If you’d like to be transported via baking to Key West, Del Boca Vista, or the Floridian destination of your choice, put on your Lilly Pulitzer and check out the recipe here on Dianne’s Dishes, or in Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.  Don’t forget to go look at the TWD Blogroll!