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!)
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
What a neat exchange! Your jam flavor sound delish!
oh YUMMMM!!! I love the color!! Peach with vanilla… I think I need to go peach picking this weekend 🙂 As for your Q I’ll answer it here and on my blog. The reason there is no pectin is because raspberries naturally have a very high level of it in them, when I make my raspberry jam (posted yesterday) I only use raspberries and sugar, that’s it! And it gels up without any problem 🙂 As for processing, I say jar it up and boil the jars for 10 minutes and then let them cool overnight like normal. Can’t wait to hear how it tastes!
That makes sense about the raspberries having pectin in them. Thanks for the help for a jam newbie!
Ohhh I want to make this!!
What a yummy jam! I bet it taste amazing:)
I really like the sound of a peach jam with vanilla bean and bourbon!
One day soon I really really want to make my own Jam! Yours looks fabulous!
Wow, what an amazing flavor combo, I’m completely impressed you made your own jam – it looks fabulous!
Thank you for the inspiration, it came out yummy!
Hello Jen! I found this blog in Foodista and followed it here. This is a actually cool Vanilla Peach Bourbon Jam recipe. Keep it up and I may see you on Food Network one day. By the way, did you know you can place more Foodista widget? A friend of mine placed proper Foodista widget at the end of her latest blogs and the numbers of her readers increased. Interesting isn’t it?
It’s too late for peaches (I made a batch of this with peaches, and wanted to make a second, but I waited too long), so I tried asian pears. It’s a little boozier tasting, but delicious!
Just made this with some fantastic peaches. Wow, winning recipe.
I made this jam last summer. My family has been begging for more. This is their all time favorite jam that I made. Can’t wait till the peaches are ripe to mix up a few batches. Thank you!!!
beantownbaker — June 11th, 2013 @ 8:20 pm
So glad you enjoyed the recipe. I make this jam every year when peaches are in season.
Just made this, and OMG is it good!! I used southern comfort, and scraped the seeds out of my vanilla bean into the jam. One of the best jams I have ever made! Thanks for the recipe! I put the used vanilla bean into 8oz of southern comfort, might be good in a couple of weeks! Just cant bear to throw away the rest of the vanilla bean.
beantownbaker — August 6th, 2013 @ 6:28 pm
So glad you enjoyed this! It’s one of my favorite jam recipes ever.
Hi! Can’t wait to try this jam! Is there a reason you used low-sugar pectin instead of regular?
beantownbaker — August 28th, 2013 @ 1:35 pm
That’s what the recipe called for. In general, when it comes to pectin, I follow the recipe and don’t deviate from what it says…
This recipe sounds great! I have to go out for a liquor run tomorrow(Son getting married) and peaches are still in the stores. I was looking for a good(and different) peach jam recipe. Thanks!
beantownbaker — October 29th, 2013 @ 6:22 pm
This is one of my favorite jam recipes. I make it every year at the end of summer while peaches are really ripe here in the midwest!
This is a fantastic recipe! Made it last year and the first batch disappeared so fast, two more got made right away 🙂 I’m just about to start on this year’s first batch. My only suggestion would be this: if you’re using a stockpot for canning the half-pints/pints and not a water-bath canner, put some butter knives on the bottom of the pot so the jars don’t make direct contact with the floor. The knives act in the same way as a rack does, to reduce the chance that a jar might crack or even break.
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:21 pm
Great tip. Thanks!
I made this last night, the best peach jam I have ever tasted. I brought a small jar to work and everyone has fallen in love!
I don’t drink but would love to try recipe, someone promised to share bourbon for recipe and at the last minute gave me Jim beam whisky instead. I reviewed how the spirits are made…thoughts about the substitution. Thank you love your site
Jim Beam would be fine – it’s a nuance, not a strong “flavor”. This is an amazing jam that won’t disappoint…
Wow! Just made this jam, & it is amazing. Will definitely be making this yearly.