Rev: Key Lime Tart J/F 05

[Grace]

I threw this together this afternoon and it was surprisingly quick and easy! It was delicious too. I would definitely make it again.

One caveat - I don't know if there is a mistake in the recipe or something, but the crust is outrageously thin and difficult to work with. It seems like there is only half as much crust as there should be. If I weren't really, really proficient with pastry, I highly doubt I would have been able to make the crust work. I also checked out the photo in the mag to see how thick their crust looked, and it looks to be of normal thickness (not paper thin like mine was). I could not roll it thinly enough, so I had to do the best I could to push it into the pan to cover the whole surface and up the sides. You could see through it (literally). But that said, it tastes great and if it is wrong, then I just ate fewer calories than they intended which is just fine by me!

I did use pasteurized eggs and it looks just as pretty as the photo in the magazine. I think it took me an hour from start to finish including the cooling time, plus it uses simple ingredients. Good stuff.

[SueK]

Grace- thanks for the review, and the tip about the pastry. This is definitely on me "To Make" list because we love key lime anything. Glad to hear it tastes great!

[Grace]

Oh, I forgot to mention - this tart, even though titled "key lime", uses regular limes? Not a key lime anywhere in the recipe. Which was a good thing though, IMO, since key limes are hard to find and a pain to juice - although now that I'm sitting here thinking about it, I do have a half a bottle of key lime juice in the fridge needing to be used up..... But fresh juice is always good - just know that it's regular lime juice that's called for, not key lime juice. I'm quite sure key limes could be substituted, no problem though!

[SueK]

I noticed that, too, when I first saw the recipe. Key Limes are nowhere to be found around here at this time of year. Then I looked through the recipe and couldn't see where it specifically called for them. Good to know regular limes will work, as that is what I was planning on using.

[hrk]

Grace-
Wjere do you find pasteurized eggs? I found pasteurized egg whites for the topping, but it is my understanding that you use pasteruized egg yolks for the filling- where did you find those?
Heather

[Grace]

I found actual pasteurized whole eggs in my grocery store. I'm not sure why you need pasteurized yolks though since you do bake the filling?? The whites don't really get baked - they go in a hot oven for 4 minutes just to brown the top a little, but the whites never get really cooked. So I would imagine you could use regular eggs for the yolks and just get the pasteurized whites if you wanted.

[hrk]

Well I tried to make this last night-
Doubled the recipe for the crust and it was still thin so I can only imagine how thin it must be when made as printed. However kept the baking times the same and the crust came out thin and flaky and very good.
Made the filling using regular limes for the zest and 1/2 key lime juice and 1/2 fresh lime juice for the filling. Easy to make and set very nicely.
The meringue however never happened. You can't use liquid egg whites for meringue, it just never gets stiff when you add the suger, it just gets very liquidy.
So DH and I are enjoying the tart, minus the meringue, and I will try and infd whole pasteurized eggs to try again this weeekend.
Heather

[Grace]

I made this yet again last weekend (my 4th one!! ), and I'm making it again tomorrow for our Super Bowl party. I love this recipe. But making it so many times, I've had a couple of problems. I thought I'd share and then post what I'm doing to make this even better.

While the pie tastes sooo great (I really love this recipe), the meringue weeps and shrinks terribly. So I did a search for the Cook's Illustrated way to do meringue to avoid those problems. I came up with a "modified" recipe that I plan to try tomorrow. I have high hopes for it! Also, my modified recipe includes the doubling of the ingredients for the crust.

CookWare(tm) from Cooking Light(r)

Key Lime Tart

SOURCE: Cooking Light YEAR: Jan/Feb PAGE: 149

INGREDIENTS FOR 8 SERVINGS:
For Crust:
1-1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. sugar
dash of salt
4 Tblsp. chilled butter, cut into small pieces
2 Tblsp Olive oil
4 Tblsp. ice water
1 tsp. cider vinegar
Filling:
4 tsp. grated lime rind
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 4 limes)
4 large pasteurized egg yolks
1 can (14-ounce) fat-free sweetened condensed milk
Meringue
2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
3 large pasteurized egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS:
To prepare crust, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Place flour, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, and salt in a food processor; pulse 2 times or until combined. Add butter and oil; pulse 5 times or until mixture resembles coarse meal. Drizzle flour mixture with water and vinegar; pulse 10 times or just until combined. Gently press mixture into a 3-inch circle on plastic wrap, and cover and chill for 30 minutes.Preheat oven to 425°.

Slightly overlap 2 sheets of plastic wrap on a slightly damp surface. Unwrap and place chilled dough on plastic wrap. Cover with 2 additional sheets of overlapping plastic wrap. Roll dough, still covered, into a 10-inch circle. Fit dough, plastic wrap side up, into a 9-inch round removable-bottom tart pan. Remove remaining plastic wrap. Press dough against bottom and sides of pan. Pierce bottom of dough with a fork. Line bottom of dough with a piece of parchment paper; arrange pie weights on paper. Bake at 425° for 16 minutes or
until edge is lightly browned. Remove pie weights and parchment paper; bake an additional 5 minutes or until bottom of crust is lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°.

To prepare filling, combine rind, juice, egg yolks, and milk, stirring with a whisk until well blended. Pour into prepared crust. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until set. Remove tart from oven; place on a wire rack.

For the meringue, mix cornstarch with 1/4 cup water in small saucepan; bring to simmer, whisking occasionally at beginning and more frequently as mixture thickens. When mixture starts to simmer and turn translucent, remove from heat. Let cool while beating egg whites.

Reduce oven to 325 degrees. Mix cream of tartar and sugar together. Beat egg whites and vanilla until frothy. Beat in sugar mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time; until sugar is incorporated and mixture forms soft peaks. Add cornstarch mixture, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue to beat meringue to stiff peaks.

Using a rubber spatula, immediately distribute meringue evenly around edge then center of pie to keep it from sinking into filling. Make sure meringue attaches to pie crust to prevent shrinking. Use spoon to create peaks all over meringue. Bake pie until meringue is golden brown, about 20 minutes (my notes: I'm not sure it will take this long - I'll just keep checking it until it's golden). Transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature. Serve.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:

[akushner]

I made this yesterday because I actually found key limes at Trader Joe's!!

I do not agree that is easy to whip up...from making the pie crust, to baking the pie custard...then finally putting the merguine...it takes well over 1.5 hours to make! BUT...it was so worth it! Great flavor :-) My merguine thickened up quite nicely, but I just used regular ol' eggs...my mom used to make coconut creme pies every week while I was growing and I never died from not using pasurtized egg whites lol.

Definitely will make this again. I thought the pie crust, though it was thin..was perfect. too much pie crust will take away from the filling IMO!

Enjoy!