Citrus Chiffon

Anyone know what Chiffon is?  For me it sounds like something that has to do with dresses... Well that's one definition; but when used in terms of cooking Chiffon refers to a light frothy texture that is typically brought about by using beaten egg whites.  The funny thing about Citrus Chiffon, instead of using egg WHITES you use egg YOKES.  Whatever part of the egg it is that you're using this pie is DELICIOUS!  It also happens to be the easiest pie I have made so far this semester.

Now what is it that makes this pie so easy?  Well for starters, this pie is made with a cookie crumb crust.  To make things even better the crust is made from gingersnaps which are some of the yummiest cookies in the world.  So just a recap on making cookie crumb crusts...  Step one, use a food processor to make the cookies into crumbs:

Simple enough.  Then you add the butter and sugar and mix so that the crust pulls together:

And then you just have to dump it into your pie tin and pat it down:

Now this is the part where I would typically go ahead and bake the pie crust so it will be nice and firm...  My oven had different ideas.  It refused to bake, at all.  It pretty much turned into a war... me against the oven; and I lost big time.  In the end I had no choice but to admit defeat.  Fortunately the pie itself didn't have to be baked (the filling just needed to be cooked on the stovetop) so I just skipped baking the crust completely.  This resulted in a softer than usual crust; but it still tasted great!

Filling time!  Like I just mentioned, one of the great things about this pie was that all it needed was to be cooked on the stovetop, and then refrigerated in the pie shell for several hours.  The other really fun thing about this pie was that I got to use and ICE BATH!  I've never actually had to do that for a pie before...  So starting out you take cold water and put it in a saucepan and sprinkle it with gelatin.

Gelatin works a lot like tapioca... it's a thickening agent.  Like tapioca gelatin is odorless, colorless, and tasteless.  Unlike tapioca, gelatin does not come from a toxic root.  Gelatin is derived from the collagen that can be extracted from the bones of animals... typically cows.  So take your pick: a thickener derived from a toxic root, or a thickener extracted from cow bones.  It's easier if you just don't think about it.

Well, the gelatin soaked up the water for about 5-10 minutes and then you go ahead and add your sugar, salt, lemon juice (you're supposed to use fresh but I didn't quite have time so instead I just used bottled stuff... it really didn't end up making the pie taste any different), orange zest (I've gotten really good at zesting things), and lightly beaten egg yokes.  With all of these things mixed together you have this lovely mixture:

Well that goes ahead and cooks over medium heat for 6-8 minutes while the gelatin (which has kinda formed a clump in there) melts and the mixture thickens.  For some reason this step took FOREVER for me.  At least, it did if you consider forever to be around 20 minutes.  I think I might have had me heat a little too low and maybe I cooked it a little bast thickening... But in the end all was well.  After that was done cooking I got to the fun part.  ICE BATH!!! (I really have no idea why this amused me so much, probably just because I've never had to do it before.)

Now if you'll think back to the beginning of this post you will recall that I explained what Chiffon is... light and frothy right?  Yeah, well this mixture you see right here was NOT light OR frothy.  It was just the opposite.  What you see here is quite thick and EXTREMELY STRONG.  I got a little drop on my hand and when I licked it off I actually puckered up!  So why on earth is this pie called a Citrus Chiffon Pie?!  Well... I'm not quite done yet.  This was only half of the filling.  The rest would be the heavy cream and confectioners' sugar that I mixed in our mixer until it formed thick soft peaks:

Now THAT looks light and frothy.  So you take this light frothy thing and mix it with that other EXTREMELY STRONG tasting thing... and you get this:

I would like to point out the major color change between the initial mixture and this one... It surprised me just how much it had changed.  Of course the color wasn't the only change that took place by adding the whipped up cream and sugar... The taste took a dramatic turn.  The first mixture was all lemon and EXTREME, the second mixture was all sugary and LIGHT, so the combination of the two resulted in this delicious filling that was light and frothy, but also had a very defined lemon taste.  It really was just amazing!  When it took it into ELI everyone seemed to enjoy it (even with the too soft crust) and I LOED it!  Unfortunately I failed to take a final picture of this pie so all I can say is that it looked just like you would imagine that filling poured into the cookie crumb crust would look like...  At the moment I'm actually considering making a huge batch of this pie in several cake pans for my ELI presentation.  I'm certain everyone in the audience would love it!