Red Currant Pie

I thought I'd break up all the travel talk with an actual recipe! Currently, we're staying at my parent's house in Germany, and they have a red currant bush in their yard. It recently bore fruit, and I looked for a recipe to use up thier crop. The little bush produced 1 1/2 cups of berries. This Currant Pie recipe from Allrecipes was the perfect use for them. I had to change it a little, including the directions, but I'll just write the recipe out below, the way I made it. The little blurb on Allrecipes says that it is a German recipe, and my mom says that is indeed very German.

This "pie" is more like a crumbly, melt-in-your mouth sugar cookie crust, accompanied by a sweet meringue with tart little berry explosions. It is very, very good, and I think some almond extract would make it taste even better. :)

Red Currant Pie

from Allrecipes.com

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
2 egg whites
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups fresh red currants, stemmed and rinsed

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly butter a 10-inch pie plate. To Make Dough: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. With electric mixer, mix in butter, sugar, egg yolks and lemon zest until mixture forms dough.

2. Pour dough into greased pie plate, and pat down into place with a fork. Bake in oven for 25 minutes, or until golden yellow. Remove pie plate from oven and allow to cool slightly. Turn up the oven heat to 400 degrees F (around 200 degrees Celcius).

3. To Make Filling: In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Gradually stir in sugar and cornstarch; beat for 5 minutes. Fold currants into mixture and pour into pie crust, spreading evenly. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, or until top of meringue is lightly browned.

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