Strawberry Key Lime Pie

So there has been a gap in my regular baking schedule- but it's a good gap. I got a job! The blog got put on hold for a bit, while I got adjusted to the new schedule. So let's backtrack a bit to some recipes from my past. Today we're talking Strawberry Key Lime Pie.

 

 Below is the recipe I used:

Recipe source: http://www.pieaday.com/2009/may/may_4th-8th/strawberry_keylime.html#
Ingredients:

Graham Cracker Crust (don't prebake),

1 cup pureed organic strawberries (I added a splash of Coconut Rum to this because it was just lying around and coconut sounds great, right? However, I don't suggest the use of alcohol in this recipe..I'll explain below)

1/2 cup key lime juice

1 12 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

3 egg yolks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 1) Puree strawberries. (I used a blender and it worked fine). If it won't blend, add a little water.

 2) Squeeze your key limes. I found that 4 key limes= about 1/8 Cup, so I think I used 16. It's a bit tedious, but worth it.

  

3) Add sweetened condensed milk, strawberry puree, 3 egg yolks to the key lime juice and whisk until well-mixed. 

4) Pour into uncooked graham cracker shell. Bake for 20 minutes. 

5) Chill in the fridge for a couple hours before serving, in order to allow pie to set. 

 After chilling I sliced the rest of the fresh organic strawberries on the bias to place on top of the pie. You may ask why I bought organic strawberries- my answer is that I think your featured ingredient should be the best that you can find. In this case it's a strawberry-key lime pie, so I put in the extra effort to find organic strawberries for better flavor and sourcing. It also just makes me feel better to know the fresh ingredients didn't get slathered in pesticides.

After bringing this pie to a potluck and having people sample it, I heard a consensus it had an odd aftertaste that just didn't taste quite right for key lime pie. What went wrong? Then I remembered I put coconut rum in the strawberry puree on a whim. I think that is the aftertaste. Considering how little time the pie spends in the oven, I would say that the alcohol didn't bake off entirely, so instead of just getting a coconut flavor, you get the full coconut rum flavor, which is odd with key lime. Lesson of the story- reserve the alcohol for a cocktail later. ;-) Eventually I will remake this recipe sans-rum to see if that indeed is why it has an odd aftertaste.