Dr. Gonzo's Lemon Meringue Custard

"..how much is that lemon meringue pie?" "$.35" "No, honey, I meant for the whole pie."

DISCLAIMER: You lookin' for the crust? It ain't here!

FA Lemon Sicily is the lemon base, having it turned up helps it keep its presence as the juice steeps. FA Custard and CAP Vanilla Custard are the custard/pudding base. I like using two flavors for one aspect of a flavor profile that feels boring or one dimensional (creams, custards, etc), I think it can add a nice complexity without being over the top. I used more FA Custard here because of that slight lemony tone, and just a little bit of CAP Vanilla Custard for that layer and touch of vanilla. FA Cookie and TPA GCC make up the humble crust, both giving a little grit and baked presence, I'm totally out of Sugar Cookie so I've been playing with Cookie a lot more and enjoying.

TPA Banana Cream is what truly makes this a Gonzo recipe. It was thrown in at the last minute as I was writing out my recipe before mixing (which helps me so much), the muse struck me with the thought to throw a little banana cream in there for shits and gigs. I love this flavor and love working with it, it seems to have a sort of Dragonfruit-esque blending property, it bends so well in low doses in almost unexpected areas, here it actually just slips right in with the lemon custard in a really unique, complex and subtle way. I honestly can't taste any banana, it disappears as it blends with the lemon and it's creaminess just lends itself so well to the other custards. Don't let its small doseage deceive you, I think it's crucial to the flavor and texture of this profile.

The emphasis of this particular lemon meringue recipe is the lemon custard in the foreground with the meringue in the background and the crust as an intentional undertone.

This is a great as a SnV. This just got mixed a few days ago, but it honestly tastes so good already I'm comfortable posting it, so I'll update with some steep notes.

Gonzo journalism is a concept pioneered most famously by Hunter S. Thompson in which the journalist makes no claims of being objective, instead he presents himself as part of the situation, and in being honest about his lack of objectivity, in presenting his perspective as a perspective and not fact, his trust and validity increase. There are also no editors, proofreaders, rewrites or scratch outs (in theory), the character of the original piece is as important as the whole piece itself.

That being said, I'm going to be posting some more recipes in this vein, meaning no batch tests, no tweaks, these will be pure gonzo recipes, spontaneous, inspired, sporadic. No withholding and no prior planning while creating these recipes. The main cause for this project is I find that doubting or second-guessing myself while mixing/writing out my percentages before mixing creates such a huge negative impact in my mixes that they almost never work out because now I've over analyzed and questioned every possible dynamic, stifling most creative thoughts with logic based ones. This isn't to say there aren't some profiles worth chasing and tweaking for months, honestly, I've done/am doing it.

As always, thanks for any comments, feedback or ideas to help improve the recipe, they're beyond appreciated. Aren't we all here to make the world a tastier place? 😌✌️