Tuesday, March 10, 2009

KEY LIME TART

I can't remember the first time I had a key lime pie (that's how long it's been,) but what I can tell you is that once you've had one you're hooked for life. It's also one of my ,"Go to recipes", when I know that a light dessert is a must. Actually Ron makes the ULTIMATE key lime pie, but I'll let him blog his recipe at another time. Ron is coming home tonight (late) his plane only lands at 10:38, I know he isn't going to want a big meal so I made some chicken soup and should that be too much, I'm hoping that he will make some room for Key lime pie. The truth is that I had bought a bag of key lime last week and it was time to do something with them. I also wanted to make a lighter recipe and so decide to make a tart as opposed to a pie.


As you can see, Key limes are much smaller than Persian limes. Their skin is much more softer and they are more tart in flavour. I've included 2 Persian limes in the picture to show you the difference in size. The truth is the recipe called for 2/3 cups of lime juice and as we had used some of the key limes to flavour some coke and beer during the weekend, in truth it turned out that I needed to add the juice of the other 2 limes to get my required amount.



Instead of a pastry dough I decided to use up some graham cracker crumbs and some coconut. 1 cup of each. To that I added some melted 1/4 cup of butter. Mix together and press into a tart pan. Bake for 5 min. at 350.






Beat 3 egg yolks for 5 min. until creamy with around 2 teaspoons of grated lime. To this slowly add 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.Continue beating on medium speed until mixture is creamy and incorporated. Slowly to this mixture add the 2/3 cups of lime juice, continue to beat for a dew minutes, mixture will still be thick and creamy. Pour into partially baked tart, return to oven and continue baking at 350 for another 12-15 minutes. When done . remove from oven, cool on rack and then refrigerate, Serve with whipped cream.




Ready to go into the fridge. Won't make the whipped cream till Ron gets home.
8:05 the phone rings.
When Ron left Denver this morning the weather wasn't that great but he managed to get his flight and it left on time, but during the flight he got delayed and rerouted and it seems with only limited fuel left the flight landed late in Winnipeg, and by the time he got through customs he unfortunately missed his connecting flight to Ottawa. However, I think there is a conspiracy afloat...Ron was originally to have a 2 hour stopover in Winnipeg, his cousin Larry was going to meet him at the airport for coffee, catch up on news and help him pass the time. I heard that Larry brought the whole family entourage of cousins with him to the airport. Sounds more like my man has been kidnapped for the evening and he'll be returning to me tomorrow. That's OK Babe enjoy yourself.




One lonely slice for me. Wow that's tart...just the way I like it.




and plenty of pie left for tomorrow, just in time for a cup of coffee to share with my hubby.







Now doesn't that look great.
I know that most key lime pie has that smooth green color, and I could have added a few drops of food colouring to the lime mixture. I choose not to, but it's your choice. Would make a nice St. Patty's Day pie for next week's celebration.

2 comments:

Barbara said...

Hi Rita - thanks for dropping by winos and foodies. Jen's Kitchen Tours is going to be great fun. I'm so looking forward to seeing other bloggers kitchens. I was honoured to be asked to be involved. I hope you are well and enjoying retirement.

Africantapestry and Myfrenchkitchen said...

I adore key lime tart! Yours looks so delicious and what interesting info about the key lime and persian lime, thanks, I've learnt something!
ronell