27 | 52 Individual Key Lime Pies

If you've ever been to the Florida Keys, I'm sure you've had various different Key Lime Pies.

If not, I hope you were still able to taste a Key Lime Pie somewhere else.

Because it's delicious. And so perfect for a hot summer day.

I personally also really like Key Lime Cheesecake but this time I wanted to make the regular pie again but split into individual portions.

And pure = without a whipped cream or meringue topping.

So here we go:

Individual Key Lime Pies

Adapted from cook. eat. love.

Makes 6 small pies/ramequins

For the crust

170 g (6 oz) graham crackers

113 g (1 stick) butter, melted

2 tablespoons sugar

pinch of salt

For the filling

4 egg yolks

400 g (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk

160 ml (2/3 cup) lime juice

• Preheat oven to 160ºC (325ºF).
• For the crust, put graham crackers into food processor and pulse until in crumbs. Add melted butter, sugar, and salt and pulse until combined. Press the crust onto the bottom of your ramequins and bake for 10 minutes. Take out of oven and allow to cool.
• For the filling, beat the egg yolks with an electric mixer until fluffy. Gradually add the condensed milk and continue to mix until thick. Add the lime juice slowly and mix until combined. 
• Pour the mix over the crusts and bake for another 15 minutes.
• Let cool on wire rack. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

My modifications:

I halved the ingredients for the crust and it worked well for those 6 small pies.

I also omitted the lime zest that the original recipe called for because I didn't have any limes at hand (just bottled lime juice).

As I said, I also didn't use any topping (whipped cream in this case) and I didn't freeze the pies (my freezer is too small).

The taste:

Very good. The pies weren't as cold as would have been nice (because I couldn't put them in the freezer) but otherwise very limey and yummy. A perfect summer pie.

What is your favorite refreshing summer pie?

19 | 52 Lime Cake with Coconut

It's summer!

Well, not really. But the weather sure does suggest it!

And what's not to love about high temperatures. 

(Well, yes, a couple of things. But let's focus on the - literally - bright side, shall we?)

Limes and coconuts. There's few things that scream SUMMER right into your face than these.

So let's bake them into a cake:

Lime Cake with Coconut

From Living at Home

375 g ( 2 3/4 cups) flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla (or 2 packets vanilla sugar)

8 tablespoons coconut, shredded

salt

2 limes (zest of 1 lime and juice of 2 limes)

200 g (1 3/4 sticks) butter, room temperature

300 g (1 1/2 cups) sugar

6 eggs

200 ml (3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons) Batida de Coco (coconut liqueur) or coconut cream

200 g (1 1/2 cups) powdered sugar

shredded coconut, for sprinkling

• Preheat oven to 180ºC (355ºF).
• In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, shredded coconut and a pinch of salt.
• In a second bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time.
• Add coconut liqueur or cream and beat together.
• Add flour mix, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of lime juice and beat for another minute. Add lime zest.
• Pour batter into prepared loaf pan (about 30 x 10 cm / 12 x 4 in) and bake on second lowest rack for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and take out of pan.
• Combine powdered sugar with 4-5 tablespoons of lime juice. Glaze cake and sprinkle with shredded coconut.

My modifications:

I used half whole-grain flour and a bit less sugar (250 g instead of 300 g) which both worked very well. I made the non-alcoholic version and put a bit of the coconut cream into the glaze as well.

The taste:

Very good. Very moist and spongy. Could be a bit more limey and coconutty for my taste. But it is very good and summery.

What are your favorite summer flavors combined in a cake?

26*52 White Chocolate-Lime Cake

We had guests for dinner last night and I made a very yummy and refreshing lemon cream dessert. I thought that serving just the cream dessert would be a bit boring so I wanted to bake something to go with it. 

Why not with limes and maybe chocolate? So I stumbled upon this week's recipe.

Oh, and I originally wanted to cut the cake into rounds and serve them like that but when I took out my circle cutters in 3 different sizes, I was inspired to make mini 3 tiered cakes. 

And they looked very cute. Definitely something I should do more often.

White Chocolate-Lime Cake

Adapted from About.com

190 g (1 1/2 cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

160 g (3/4 cup) sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons lime juice

175 ml (2/3 cup) buttermilk

5 tablespoons white chocolate cocoa powder

Glaze

130 g (1 cup) powdered sugar

lime juice

• Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
• In another bowl, whisk together oil and sugar, add eggs, lime juice, and buttermilk.
• Fold in dry ingredients until just combined. Pour into prepared cake pan.
• Bake at 175°C (350°F) for about 20-25 minutes.
• Let cool completely and glaze.

My modifications:

I used oil instead of (the same amount of) butter. Cut down the flour and the sugar by 1/4 cup. Omitted the lime zest but doubled the juice. Replaced 1 cup of white chocolate chips with the white chocolate cocoa powder.

The taste:

Very citrussy. Not very chocolatey. Nothing out of the ordinary but yummy nonetheless.

What do you usually serve guests for dessert?