My attempt at key lime tarts

Give me a dessert with lime/ lemon or anything zesty and citrusy, and I’m in sugar haven!  Of course, I love the occasional chocolate sweets but what really gets me going are the lemony types.

When we were in the States last year, I went sugar over-load savoring those key-lime pies for our desserts.  So this time round, I decided to try my hand at making some of these refreshing key lime tarts to satisfy those zesty-sugar cravings of mine.

Found a pretty simple recipe that a noob like me could follow closely for now, best part?  It doesn’t require any form of baking!  All I needed to get mini tart crusts that I got off the shelves from the supermarket.  The Man and I tried making the lime curd last week but followed the instructions wrongly, so I decided to re-do the whole batch of lime curd again.  And after slogging in the test kitchen for about 1.5hours, I popped these babies into the fridge to be chilled.  I’m pretty happy at how it turned out- both visually and in the taste department.

Refreshing whipped key lime tarts [Recipe slightly adapted from Barbara Bakes]

Makes about 12 tarts

Ingredients:

For the lime curd

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 whole egg
• 1 egg yolk
• The juice from 5 key limes
• The zest from 2 key limes
• 3 tablespoons of butter

For the key lime filling of the tarts

• 200ml key lime curd
• 200ml of whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar

Method:

1. To make the Lime Curd: Place the sugar, whole eggs, egg yolks, juice and zest in a medium pan and whisk to combine. Heat and continue to constantly whisk until the mixture turns pale and thickens (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and whisk in the butter. Sieve the lime curd if needed to remove the zest bits.  Let the mixture cool. You could store the mixture in jars or an airtight container for up to one month in the refrigerator.
2. To make the tart filling: Whip the cream until it thickens (about 5 minutes) then add the vanilla and sugar. Fold the lime curd in with a rubber spatula and fill desired shells. Chill 2 hours then top with additional whipped cream if desired. I decorated the tarts with a slice of lemon and blueberries. Allow tarts to come to room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

These tarts were simply refreshing and what I really needed to kick-start the week.  I couldn’t stop stuffing my face with them for it’s light and easy to eat!

OOH and update!  Probably inspired by these awesome food-bloggers – R from The Pleasure Monger and Sherie from Maameemoo – I’ve been playing around with my camera and attempting to take better stylised pictures with the food that I’ve been cooking.   Frustrated with a couple of failed submissions to Foodgawker and TasteSpotting, I decided to ‘suck’ in it and try harder at improving my styling skills and fooling around with the SLR that I loaned from the Man.  Also, thanks to the tips from R and online research, I’m finally happy with the shots that I took of the tarts.  Must have taken like 50 shots!  So, I submitted them to Foodgawker. It’s finally been accepted and published!!!!  It’s picture #10862! It’s also been featured on Tastelogie and Photograzing. 

So… at first you don’t succeed, you just keep on trying!

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