What’s your secret?

Since joining the Daring Bakers 3 months ago, I have been challenged every month. This month was no exception. When I told hubby that the recipe for this month was a lemon meringue pie, his first response was “Oh my Mom makes a great lemon meringue pie.” Oh great! I have to compete with his mother.
Since we met, I have done a good job to not try to out-do her in any of his favorites. It’s just easier for everyone if he doesn’t have to choose me over her. His all time favorite dessert is blueberry pie and he loves mine, but I usually use a store-bought pie crust. This provides him with an easy out for why he likes his mom’s blueberry pie better since she makes her crusts. Well there will be no excuse with this pie. I’ll be making everything from scratch, the same way she does it (although with a different recipe). Talk about pressure…

Throughout the month, I’ve been trying to figure out when to make this pie. Hubby and I don’t need to eat an entire pie ourselves but with all the stories of weeping meringues and soggy crusts, I didn’t want to take it to work either… (Be sure to check out all the other Daring Baker‘s pies) I needed an event in the evening on the weekend. Then it dawned on me. I recently joined a group who meets once a month and everyone brings food and we watch a movie. They do a theme every month. This month’s theme is secret recipe. HOW PERFECT! While most people brought secret family recipes, I brought something that literally was a secret recipe. It was the best of both worlds. And since the potluck was the night before the big reveal, I figured it was ok to share the secret with a bunch of non-blogging friends. Sorry to break the rules about keeping the recipe a secret.

I decided to make cupcake sized pies to accommodate the potluck setting and the fact that I love cupcakes. Also, this way I’d be able to have one for pictures at home and not have to explain to my new acquaintances why I was taking pictures of the pie after the first piece was cut…


Now onto the baking of the cupcakes! As I mentioned, I’ve never made a crust before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. I do have a pastry cutter, so I was excited to use it! As usual, I got all my ingredients measured and ready to go prior to starting.

My dough was very crumbly after I turned it onto my Silpat. I shaped it into a disk they best I could, but I couldn’t pick it up to wrap it in plastic wrap. Instead, I just put plastic and a clean towel over the dough and put the Silpat onto a cookie sheet and stuck the whole thing in the fridge. I had to knead the dough quite a bit to be able to roll it out.
I used a prep-bowl that had a 4″ edge to cut my dough. I used a sharp knife and ran it along the outside of the overturned dough to cut my circles. Then I pressed each circle into the cupcake pan. The recipe made 12 cupcake crusts.

As you can see the crust got smaller as it baked. I think it’ll still turn out okay at this point. I prepped all my meringue and filling ingredients while the crust was baking (the 5 egg yolks go in the filling and the egg whites go in the meringue). I read that since you want to put the meringue onto the filling while it’s hot, it might be a good idea to actually make the meringue first so that it’s ready to go. So that’s what I did.
The meringue came together quite well. I followed the directions for the lemon curd exactly and it came out perfectly. It held up nicely and tasted AMAZING. Perfectly tart.

I had quite a bit of the lemon curd left since I wasn’t able to put very much into the cupcake pie crusts. I used an ice-cream scoop to put a big dollop of meringue on top of the filling. I made them look spikey cause it’s fun 🙂

I am very proud to admit that my filling held up nice and sturdy even after about 6 hours. These little guys were heavenly. Everyone at the potluck asked for the recipe.


Thanks to our host Jen for this lovely recipe! I really enjoyed making my lemon meringue cup-pies. Click HERE for the complete recipe (I figure this post is long enough already!)

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12 Responses to “Goat Cheese Cake with Peach and Blueberry Topping”

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    Fun and Fearless in Beantown — September 1, 2010 at 1:51 pm

    I’m like you and totally try out recipes based on photos! I think goat cheese and fruit are always a perfect combo. The goat cheesecake sounds intriguing!

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    Lauren — September 1, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    Looks and sounds amazing! I’m totally with you about photos of food – they are typically what tempt me to make a recipe.

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    Amanda — September 1, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    This cake looks DELICIOUS!

    I’d never heard of using goat cheese in a cheesecake, but I’m intrigued.

    I, too, much prefer pictures. Sometimes you just don’t put the ingredients together in your head the right way and it comes out looking totally different than you expected. I also flip through the book faster and I tend to not find recipes unless there are pics!

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    Beeb — September 1, 2010 at 8:10 pm

    i think trying something new without any idea what it should look like it rough. i love pictures but most cookbooks dont seem to have enough. i think thats why i love this blog so much, you take TONS! 🙂

    i am very intrigued by this recipe. but i dont eat blueberries or peaches. is it good by itself? or is the fruit greatly needed??

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    Jen — September 1, 2010 at 8:48 pm

    Beeb – It’s similar to any other cheesecake. It was good on it’s own, but the fruit really enhanced the flavor. Are there other fruits you like that you could top it with? Strawberries and blueberries would be great!

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    We Are Not Martha — September 1, 2010 at 11:31 pm

    Oh yum! I totally want to try this. I love goat cheese (and fruit) and bet this would make an amazing cake!

    I like photos too, but sometimes I get a little too into them. Like the other night when I forgot to add raisins to my cinnamon raisin bread because they weren’t in the photo 🙂

    Sues

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    Elina — September 2, 2010 at 3:40 pm

    I definitely prefer recipes with pictures but if a description is really good (or intriguing) or if an author points it out as a favorite… or lastly if it’s a source I trust, I go for it. With that said, I’m glad you made it and posted pictures. This cake looks (and sounds) absolutely fantastic!!!

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    flavourfulbounty — September 3, 2010 at 4:21 pm

    This looks really good. I agree that sometimes I eat with my eyes. I love photos, but not the ones that look almost fake since they are so perfect. That’s why I love food blogs – usually it is just the food as it will be served.

    I cook from a lot of different sources, and will try recipes that are appealing without any pics either. Sometimes it is more difficult when I am completely unfamiliar with the dish, though.

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    Ingrid — September 4, 2010 at 2:47 am

    Photos! I love yours…the “cake” looks so pretty with it’s white lip and fruit piled high.
    ~ingrid

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    Cara — September 4, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    Sounds wonderful. I can see how it would be more of a “cheesecake” than a “cheese cake” because there’s such a small amount of flour. As we move into fall, I bet it would be delicious with a topping of figs sauteed with honey… mmm… honey figs and goat cheese!

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    Shannon — September 15, 2010 at 1:45 am

    LOVE goat cheese cheesecake 🙂 peaches and blueberries seem like another good topper (i recently made one with figs and raspberries!)

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    Jay — February 21, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    i really have to bake that cake for my boyfriend who has a milk intolerance. thank you for posting this many recipes with goat cheese 🙂
    best wishes, jay, my blog: artandloveandme.blogspot.com

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