Rebecca from Stevens Point, WI (2017 Week 6: Botanical)

Baker

Rebecca

Location

Stevens Point, WI

Baking Challenge

Citrus Meringue Pie

Give your botanical creation a clever name – and tell us about your recipe.

Lavender-crusted Lemon Meringue Pie. I used a classic lemon meringue pie recipe and added slightly dried lavender blossoms to the crust as an extra botanical flare. I topped the pie off with fresh viola flowers as a salute to Wisconsin’s state flower.

Any disasters? Did you take any risks? Proudest moment? Lessons learned the hard way? Tell us about it.

I attempted to candy the viola flowers with a technique that I found that used egg whites and powdered sugar. The sugar was not absorbed as the directions indicated and so the flowers were just caked with tried powered sugar. I ditched the batch and decided to just place fresh flowers on the pie. The lavender pie crust turned out to be one of the best crusts that I have made. The flavor of the lavender was just enough to add a pleasant accent without being over-bearing.

How did you add a Wisconsin twist to your flavors or decoration?

I used fresh lavender out of my garden for the pie crust. I also added violas, a member of the same botanical family as our state flower, the blue violet,as decoration to the pie. The blossoms were taken from plants that are growing in one of my flower beds.

How did you do?

Rocked it.