Desserts

Nothing is quite like fresh baked cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Over the years our simple Christmas continental breakfast has begun to look more like an all you can eat brunch buffet but it all began with the sweet aromatic smell of cinnamon rolls baking while waiting to see what Santa left by the tree. After the kids got a quick peak at what Santa had left them they would head to the kitchen for a gooey cinnamon roll before the games and playing could begin.

The addition of sour cream into the dough with heavy cream poured on top take these cinnamon rolls from good to by far the softest gooiest rolls you will ever sink your teeth into. I don’t know what it is about sour cream that makes me think I need to add it to every recipe…but the experiment certainly paid off here.

Try these rolls just once and you will soon see why they become the must have family favorite. The next best thing to how these rolls taste, is the fact that they can be made ahead. Make the dough, roll out the spirals and then refrigerate overnight or freeze until ready to use. This makes homemade cinnamon rolls a luxury you don’t have to plan ahead to enjoy…

L

emon Sour Cream Pie is my mom’s all-time favorite pie. When I was little she would take me on lunch dates to a local restaurant that served a similar, but layered pie. One Thanksgiving I wanted to surprise her and worked to replicate this pie as closely as I could. Now, I am of course biased but I think this version is better than the original. It isn’t layered like the one I had as a child…rather the sour cream is incorporated throughout the lemon. This pie is not too sweet, not too sour and creates the perfect compromise for everyone who loves lemon pie but hates the mounds of cooked egg whites on lemon meringue. This filling is so versatile that my daughter, Maddie has started making mini tarts with it. So, from our lemon lovin family to yours…ENJOY!!!

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K
ey lime pie is certainly a favorite at our  house. Today, as Grayson was downing his second piece of pie he asked, “mom, if this is lime pie…why isn’t it green”?  Why indeed. Grayson is a wealth of useless knowledge so I felt it my duty as his mother to add to this boys encyclopedia mind of rainy day facts…

Key limes were named after the Florida keys where they abundantly grow. But, unlike Persian limes, key limes are smaller, yellow and much more aromatic. They have a thinner yellow skin that makes them more perishable and harder to find in grocery stores year round (for this reason I often use Nellie & Joe’s bottled key lime juice). Key limes are more acidic. This acid is what created the chemical reaction in early key lime pies. In the early twentieth century sponge fishermen in Florida would live on boats for long periods of time. They often had limes, eggs, and canned milk. They learned that the acid in the limes would create a chemical reaction in the protein structure of the milk and eggs causing it to thicken without being cooked. Since they didn’t have a heat source to cook the mixture this was a very popular dessert.

Now, many people still use eggs yolks to thicken key lime pie. I however, don’t particularly feel comfortable feeding my family raw eggs so have come up with a recipe that thickens with very little cook time and has better flavor than its egg containing counterparts. I do zest regular green store bought Persian limes when I can’t find key limes in the store and you really can’t tell the difference.

We hope you enjoy this recipe and the useless knowledge of key limes that accompanies it!

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