Clean-out-the-pantry pie

SURPRISE PIE.  

¾ cup cookie dough, approximate

1 egg
3 tablespoons condensed milk
1 lemon
1 425g tin pitted dark sweet cherries in heavy syrup

This is a list of leftovers and items I had in the fridge and kitchen cupboard. The cookie dough was left over from the Daring Bakers sugar cookie challenge in September (it was kept in the freezer); the condensed milk was the last bit from yesterday after making the macaroon cookies; the lemon was skinless after I used the rind together with corn chips to coat some fish fillets (the recipe will be in a future post); and the tin of cherries I had bought a few months ago thinking I would make something but it ended up in the back of the cupboard until I discovered it a couple of days ago.

With nothing but the desire to use all of these items up before the end of the year, I turned them into a pie big enough for two or three servings. Here's what I did:

1. Spread cookie dough in base and up the sides of a 15cm fluted pie dish. Prick base and bake for 5 minutes in an oven preheated at 175°C. Cool.
2. Separate egg. Beat yolk with condensed milk and juice of half the lemon until frothy.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg white with juice of other half of the lemon and 1 tablespoon sugar until soft peaks form.
4. Fold ⅔ of the egg whites into egg yolk mixture. Pour into pastry case until three-quarters full (there will be some left over).
5. Open tin of cherries. Arrange as many cherries as possible (I managed 21) on the egg mixture.
6. Spread remaining meringue (egg white) on top of cherries and make ripples and swirls. Bake in a 175°C oven for 20 minutes or until top is golden.

I think this pie is best eaten cold. Here's a quarter of it:

Dust with icing sugar and serve

What to do with the leftover egg mixture: Place a few cherries in the base of a ramekin; spread the egg mixture over the top and bake along with the pie. Remove from oven when top of custard is firm and light golden, 10-12 minutes.

Dig in for the cherries

So that's what I did with leftovers and items that have been sitting around for a while. I gave some to Veggie Chick and Mz M to try and they seemed to like it so I guess I didn't too badly. Cheers, here's to more surprises next year!