Award-winning Key Lime Tarts
This recipe makes about 48 tartlets. These will refrigerate well if you need to make them early.
When making large numbers, bake the shells early and store them stacked in a sealed plastic container overnight. Then fill them just before needed. However, they will keep fresh for hours, if necessary, on trays.
Requires miniˆmuffin tins (four if made all at once), Pam nonˆstick spray, one gallonˆsized „Ziploc‰ bag and two pastry bags with one large and one small starˆshaped nozzle.
Shortbread Dough
1-1/2 cups flour
4 egg yolks
7 Tbsp. Sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Key Lime Filling
one 8 oz. Package cream cheese
one 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2-1/2 oz Floribbean Key Lime Juice (from WilliamsˆSonoma)
Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
small package Fresh Red Raspberries
The dough:
The pastry dough is from Anne Willan‚s Look & Cook Fruit Desserts and is listed in the Fresh Fruit Tartlets recipe. Here‚s my variation:
1) Sift 1-1/2 cups flour into a large mixing bowl and make a hole in the middle for the liquid ingredients.
2) Mix in 4 egg yolks, 7 Tbsp. sugar, 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract in the center of the flour.
3) Cut up 6 Tbsp. softened unsalted butter and spread it over the flour in the mixing bowl.
4) Work the ingredients together with your fingertips until thoroughly mixed.
5) Form the dough into a ball that can be kneaded.
6) Knead the dough on either a lightly floured work surface or in the mixing bowl.
7) Gather up the dough and put it in a gallonˆsized „Ziploc‰ bag. Roll the dough inside the bag until it is the shape of a cylinder that runs the length of the Ziploc bag and chill in the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes) or until needed (The dough keeps well overnight).
The Key Lime filling:
1) Let one 8 oz. package cream cheese warm to room temperature.
2) Then beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy. (It takes some time.)
3) Slowly add one 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk and beat until smooth.
4) Stir in 2-1/2 oz Floribbean Key Lime Juice and 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract until well mixed.
5) Chill until ready to fill tartlets. (I keep it in ZipLoc bags in the refrigerator if I need to keep it overnight.)
The Whipped Cream:
1) Pour 1 cup heavy cream into a chilled bowl.
2) Whip until very soft peaks form.
3) Add 3 Tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla extract and whip again until cream forms stiff peaks. (Underwhip and the cream will not keep its shape when pushed through the pastry bag. Overwhip and the cream will break up when pushed the pastry bag.)
Baking the Tartlets
1) Remove a dough cylinder from the refrigerator. Lightly flour the work surface. Spray the miniˆmuffin tins with Pam or similar spray. Preˆheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Note: Pampered Chef has a wooden tool with a rounded knob for pressing dough in miniˆmuffin tins. (It does an execellent job of producing thin shells quickly and easily and can make about 48 per batch. Using the hand to shape, I can only make half as many per batch.) If you are using such a tool, go to step 2a. Otherwise go to 2b.
2a) Slice the dough cylinder into quarters. Slice each quarter into thirds. Take each circular slice and cut into quarters.
3a) Roll each piece into a ball the size of a small walnut or large acorn. Fill the miniˆmuffin tins with the dough balls, one piece to a cup. This fills four 12-cup muffin tins with the recipe.
4a) Dip the end of the Pampered Chef dough tool in flour to keep it from sticking and mold each dough piece to the shape of the cup. The dough should reach about half way up the side of the cup.
Otherwise:
2b) Roll out the dough ball to a thickness of 1/8 inch or thinner, if possible˜as thin as can be handled without tearing.
3b) Cut circles in the dough using a 2ˆ1/4 inch cookie cutter. Lift each circle off the work surface using a thin metal spatula. (If you use regular, individual tartlet molds, the dough may be rolled out as for a pie crust, laid as a sheet across several molds at once, and cut to shape by rolling a rolling pin across the top of all the molds at once. I find the miniˆmuffin tins work better.)
4b) Place the circle on a miniˆmuffin pan. Using either your finger or a small, floured piece of dough, push the dough circle into the muffin cup. The dough circle should reach about halfway up the side of the cup. The sides of the dough will necessarily fold over to fit the shape of the cup. (Excess dough can be collected and rolled out again in the next batch of dough.)
Whichever method you have used, now:
5) Prick the bottom of the dough in each cup with a fork to keep the bottoms from bubbling as they are baked. Press a piece of foil into each tartlet to keep the dough from burning. Place the miniˆmuffin pans on a cookie sheet to keep the bottoms from burning.
6) Bake the shells in the heated oven until the pastry is set˜about 4 minutes. Remove the covering foils and continue baking until thoroughly cooked˜about 5 minutes longer.
7) When golden brown, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. When cool, remove the tartlets from the muffin tin.
Filling
1) Either snip a 1/4 to 1/2 inch corner off the Key Lime filling ZipLoc bag to use like a pastry bag or transfer the filling to a regular pastry bag with a large star tip. Transfer the whipped cream to a standard pastry bag with a small star tip. (Rewhip the cream if it has separated.)
2) Fill each tartlet leaving room for a bead of whipped cream around the outside.
3) Decorate the perimeter of the filled tartlet with rosettes of whipped cream.
4) Place one fresh red raspberry in a rosette of whipped cream on one side of each tartlet.
Enjoy!
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