Mascarpone Pie

Zok really views recipes as guidelines. He almost always remembers the dish from memory after the second time he makes the dish.
This pie came originally from a 'Strawberry and mascarpone tart' recipe.
The pie has gone through some different incarnations. We used whiskey the first time because we didn't have Drambuie, and although the whiskey worked, the Drambuie does enhance the flavors of the mascarpone and strawberries better than the whiskey did. However, if you found this dish too sweet, whiskey is an option.
Also the original recipe calls for a flour pie crust, Zok swears the first two had that crust, but I've no memory of those- and I actually can't imagine this pie without the most recent crust made of grated graham crackers. Of course graham crackers are hard to find in Australia so we made the crust once from what they call 'digestive' biscuits here. That crust is better than the flour crust but not nearly as good as the crust made from graham crackers.

FILLING:
500 g (1 lb 2 oz) fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbl. soft brown sugar
50 ml (1 3/4 fl. oz) Drambuie
300 ml (10 1/2 fl oz) whipping cream
250 g (9 oz) mascarpone cheese
2 tsp finely grated orange zest

Mix together the strawberries, vanilla, Drambuie and 1 tbl of the sugar in a bowl, refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Mix the mascarpone, cream, orange zest and remaining sugar, this can also be refrigerated but as the cream/cheese are already chilled this isn't as important.

Crust:
Zok has perfected the crust, mostly by now owning a spring form cake pan and using the baking beads.
Here is the recipe for the last (best) crust.

175 - 200 grams of Graham Cracker (one and one half packets of USA crackers)
20 cm. spring form was used.
110 grams of unsalted melted butter

Take the crackers and finely grate them.
Melt butter.
In a bowl combine grated crackers and butter-
Spoon out mixture into spring form, first the bottom about .5 cm max. and then the sides about the same-or basically using up the mixture
*blind bake crust:
Take baking paper and line on top of cracker mixture and secure the paper down with baking beads (or you can use rice)
Bake ten minutes at 120 celcius
Take out and cool to room temperature.
Spoon in cold cheese mixture
Top with strawberries
(Save the excess liquid to drizzle on top of each piece of pie as desired)

"Piece of my heart"

I have caused some trouble with the new pie book I bought Zok for Easter.  Before this book, he had been making his pies on trial and error.

This book (titled: Homestyle Pies and Tarts), which looks so pretty with its glossy photos, is badly written with vague instructions.  The reason I bought it was so Zok could try his hand at pies that he was unfamiliar with,  like this strawberry mascarpone.  This pie was very tasty, although I could almost see the calories, but I am always swayed by a boozy fruit, and these strawberries were marinated in vintage scotch whiskey and spices.

The lemon meringue was good fun, however, we went with the book instructions even though we talked over how we thought the baking instructions couldn't be correct, and the pie didn't set.

The small leftovers we had, became small tart sized pies, and those were nice, except that Zok only liked the top of the pie, and I thought that the meringue was too much, and I only ate the lemon base.

Even with the mishap, I have to state that on the scale of the good and bad of the last few days, Pie is definitely on the good end.

I love how Zok actually uses all his pie dishes, he favors one over the others for a week or so, but never settles.

Zok leaves in less than a week, and I leave in less than two.