Key Lime Pie at Cake Club

For those of you that read the blog regularly, you will know that I often refer to Nigella Lawsons recipes. I have been an avid fan of hers since watching her Nigella Bites tv series serveral years ago. Her recipes have always been reliably good and are often hard to improve on.

So when my friend Caroline and I chose to bake Key Lime Pie from her wonderful book 'How To Be A Domestic Goddess' at our Cake Club, i had no qualms about how well it would turn out.

The method was simple enough, a basic pie crust made of a mixture of digestive biscuits and butter. The filling involved abit of lime zesting and egg white whipping.

During the baking, the smell of limes tantilisingly enveloped the kitchen. When it came out of the oven alittle burnished on the top, we werent worried, because it was a Nigella recipe and it would be delicious.

As promising as the pie turned out in smell and appearance, taste-wise it did not live up to our Nigella expectations. The base was nice enough, very much like that of a cheesecake. However the filling was what i would imagine lime flavoured scrambled eggs to taste like. It was also difficult to eat without pulling a face from the sourness of the lime juice. We were very disappointed but these things happen occassionally at Cake Club.

I will always remain an advocate of Nigellas recipes, but i wont be recommending or revisiting this one.

Recipe - Key Lime Pie from Nigella Lawsons How To Be A Domestic Godddess

Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients:

For the base:

200g Digestive biscuits

50g softened unsalted butter

23cm springform tin

For the filling:

5 large egg yolks

397g can sweetened condensed milk

zest of 3 limes

150ml lime juice (of 4-5 limes)

3 large egg whites.

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C/gas mark 3 and put in a baking sheet. Put biscuits and butter into the food processor and blitz until it has all reduced to oily crumbs. Press these into the tin, lining the bottom and going a little way up the sides, and chill in the fridge.

Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolks until thick, add the can of condensed milk, grated zest and the lime juice. Pour into the lined tin and place on baking sheet in oven. Cook for 25 minutes, when the filling should be firm. It may puff up and then on cooling, fall. 

Leave to cool on a rack before unmoulding, and chill well.

Put the lime in the coconut

 

I made dinner for my sisters and their partners yesterday. Early on i had decided on mexican food for the main course but dessert required quite a lot of thought. You see, my sister Sarah and her fiance Ayaz dont like chocolate and that fact that it needed to be vegetarian also ruled out jelly or panna cotta. Which is why i am so glad i came across Shutterbeans recipe for Coconut Lime Semifreddo which she recently posted on her fabulous blog.

Semifreddos are great as they have all the qualities of ice cream without the need for churning and the use of a machine. I'm so glad i made this. Creamy and mildy coconutty, the lime zest adds a refreshing almost tropical quality to the dessert. Now i can understand why the lady put the lime in the coconut.

As it requires at least 6 hours of freezing time, it can be made well in advance, requiring nothing more than 20 minutes to defrost and the arranging of some sliced mango on top for serving.

Although the semifreddo turned out well, the same cannot be said of the photo. I was frustrated at not being able to get the lightining and camera settings right. The end result being that the mango was awkwardly draped on the semifreddo with too much light reflecting off the plate. Anyway, a good excuse to make it again and do a re-shoot. 

Recipe - Coconut-lime semifreddo from Shutterbean 

http://www.shutterbean.com/coconut-lime-semifreddo/

Notes:

• I used a 2lb loaf tin which was abit too big. Consequently the semifreddo wasnt as deep as it would have been with a smaller loaf tin. 

• When heating the mix the condensed milk started to solidify into small lumps but this didnt make any different to the consistency of the end result. 

•  I left out the shredded coconut

• Also the whipped cream didnt mix very well into the condensed milk and coconut milk mixture, possibly because i over whipped the cream. After whisking with a hand whisk, everything blended together without any problems.
  

Serves 12

• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk 400g
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk 397g
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 284mls double cream
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut, toasted
• 1 mango, thinly sliced

Line a 4 1/2 by 8 1/2 inch loaf pan with parchment paper leaving an overhang on each side. Prepare a large bowl of ice water, set aside. In a medium saucepan, combine the coconut milk and the sweetened condensed milk together and bring to a boil over high heat.  

Reduce heat and cook at a rapid simmer until the mixture starts to thicken, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt & lime zest. Place saucepan over the bowl of ice water and stir the mixture until it's cool, about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, beat cream with a hand held electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the coconut milk mixture. Pour into the loaf pan and top with coconut. Freeze until firm, 6 hours or overnight. When ready to serve, let the semifreddo sit at room temperature for 20 minutes. Invert on a platter, remove the parchment and top with the sliced mango.