Lovely Limes – Lime Brulee Tart

Anyone who followed my Home building blog (https://debdjd.wordpress.com/) may recall that we planted two espalier citrus trees in our new garden. We were supposed to have a lemon and a lime tree, and we began to think that we had two lemon trees but   ………. we have two lime trees! :). I am delighted as I love limes and I use them frequently for my cooking, often substituting limes for lemons and for making my Mojitos – of course! We have a plentiful supply of mint from our vertical garden to help this process along! Drinking a Mojito whilst making a tart lime tart – just imagine!! 🙂

My little helper collecting essential supplies from the vertical garden.

Our lime trees have been producing a good crop of limes for the past month or so – thanks to my better half who has a green thumb or two. I decided that a lime brulee tart would be a good way to make use of these limes and it just happens to be one of my favourite desserts……

You could use any citrus combination you like for this dessert – mixing lemon, lime and orange is yummy.

 Lime  Brulee Tart

Pastry

2 cups plain flour

1/4 cup icing sugar

150g butter (chopped)

1 egg yolk

1-2 tablespoons cold water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Filling

3/4 cup caster sugar

2/3 cup lime juice or (lemon and orange, or combinations thereof)

2 teaspoons finely grated lime (or citrus) rind

1/4 cup thickened cream

5 eggs

(I often double the filling which would then serve 8-10 people)

Pastry Case

1. Sift flour and icing sugar together into food processor.
2. Add butter to the flour sugar mixture, and process until resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Keep the processor running and add yolk, water and vanilla.
4. Keep processing until the mixture forms a ball around the blade.
5.  Turn pastry on to a work surface and knead gently.
6. Wrap pastry in plastic and refrigerate for at least 20 mins.
7. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface, to fit a greased 25cm loose bottomed flan tin or flan dish.
8. Ease pasty into tin/dish and trim the edges.
9. Line the pastry with greaseproof or baking paper.
10. Fill with rice or baking beans.
11. Bake blind in a hot oven (200C) for 10 – 15 mins.
12. Remove paper and beans/rice. Allow the pastry to cool.

Filling

1. Whisk together sugar, juice and cream.
2. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Add finely grated rind.
4. Pour filling mixture into the prepared pastry case.
5. Bake in a moderate oven (180 C) for 20 mins (sometimes a little longer – the filling has a slight wobble to it when ready) If you double the filling quantities you will need to cook the tart for around 45 mins.
6. Allow to cool; and dust tart with icing sugar to taste.

Happy Cooking – Enjoy 🙂