Cooling Chocolate Lime Pie
Some friends went on vacation last week and emptied out their fridge for us, so suddenly we had a windfall of limes. Tony made a great avocado-tomatillo-lime salsa (Eli was eating it by the spoonful), and I made lime curd to spread on biscuits with blackberries (inspired somewhat by this Gourmet recipe). But there were still more! So I dug through my folder of recipes clipped from newspapers and magazines, and found this.
I know most of the country is still sweltering (and we’re back to unusually warm weather ourselves), so this dessert won’t make you break a sweat. No oven required, very little labor, and each bite is meltingly cool. All it takes is a bit of advance planning, since it needs to sit in the refrigerator for a couple hours (or overnight) to firm up. Maybe you can find room in your fridge to join it.
1 3/4 c graham cracker crumbs (from about 15 graham crackers)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
6 tbsp melted butter
4 limes
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 c heavy cream
1 one-oz square bittersweet chocolate
Combine graham cracker crumbs, cocoa and butter in a bowl. Press into a 9-inch springform pan, covering the bottom and pushing crumbs halfway up the side of the pan. Refrigerate until needed.
Grate 2 tbsp zest from the limes, then squeeze the juice (you should get about 3/4 c). Combine the juice and zest with the sweetened condensed milk and cream. Whisk until it thickens up a bit (the recipe says to keep whisking until it holds peaks, but I got tired way before that, and it all turned out ok). Pour the batter into the prepared crust and refrigerate at least 2 hours, or overnight.
To serve, remove the side of the springform pan and grate the bittersweet chocolate on top. Serve immediately, as the pie will melt away if you leave it at room temperature.
HA! This is definitely wonderful, just like a lime pie that I used to make in Brazil (most Brazilian desserts – if not all – have condensed milk in them), I never did it with a chocolate crust and topping, though, just a regular cracker based crust (we don’t have graham crackers in Brazil, but we’d use a “cookie/cracker” that’s similar to the “Maria” cracker, if you know what I’m talking about).
I think I *have* to try it!! And it looks GORGEOUS too!
I can testify: this is superb!
Yum. I made this Thursday night to serve yesterday and it was terrific. I scanted the butter a little bit and the crust was a bit too dry, but that was my fault. It tasted terrific!