Gail’s Lime Farm Pie

Our friend Nevenka has 400 or so lime trees near the town of Vera– we call it the Lime Farm.  It is beautiful and until quite recently limes were quite hard to come by here and so she was lucky to have an entire grove of them!  Whenever Nevenka comes here or we go there, I come away with a bag full of the delicious things – my favourite cocktail is a Marguerita and so sometimes I juice up a load of limes and freeze it for future cocktail hours!  Other times, when I have been given kilos of frozen limes, I make marmalade.  But last week, with a basket full of fresh ones, I was keen to look up recipes that used a lot of fruit.  One of Mick’s favourite pud’s is Key Lime Pie.  So here is my take on the classic version – it works really well with the ginger biscuits instead of digestive, they are less fatty and compliment the zingyness of the limes. You can freeze them too, so I am going to get baking soon for Christmas time, as it is very light and refreshing after lunch or dinner, and since there will be 10 of us, it will be good to have a few things made up already to go.

To make enough for 8-10 slices

You will need a loose-based flan tin 9” in diameter lightly oiled – mine was a bit bigger and so if yours is you might want to increase the lime filling by half the recipe again.  The friends who ate it yesterday didn’t think it was necessary but if you like a deeper “pie” then feel free to do so.  The quantity for the  ingredients for the base was fine as it was.

For the base

95 G butter

225 ginger biscuits, smashed up to resemble crumbs

(if you have grape nut cereal in your cupboard, substitute 50g of the biscuits with them)

For the filling

Zest of 3 or 4 limes

150 ml freshly squeezed lime juice from 5 limes (depending on the size)

3 large egg yolks (when you have made the pie, immediately make some meringues and freeze those too!)

400 g tin of condensed milk (hence no additional sugar needed)

Small tub of whipping cream, whipped!

Grated dark chocolate (more for the look than the taste)

To serve

Some twists of lime dipped in sugar

Method

Pre heat the oven to Gas mark 4, 350 F or 180 C

Melt the butter and mix in the biscuits/grape nuts.  Empty into your flan case and then press down and make sure it goes up a bit at the sides to stop any leakage from the filling.  Place on a baking tray in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden

Then make up the filling.  Whisk the egg yolks and lime zest together with a hand whisk for 2 minutes.  Add the condensed milk and continue whisking for another 5 minutes or so to get some air into the mixture.  Add in the lime juice and give a final whisk. Pour onto the base and return immediately to the oven for around 20 minutes (a bit less in a fan oven).  Remove, cool and then cover in clingfilm and refrigerate, overnight if you like, but a couple of hours should do it. Then whip up the cream and spread or pipe it over your pie and put back in the fridge just to give a final chill.

To Serve

Grate good quality dark chocolate over the pie, decorate with a couple of lime twists and there you are.  It is a lovely easy pudding and really delicious.

Tags: key lime pie