Key Lime Cream Cuplets

Sometimes my eyes get me into trouble.

Walking through the market recently I eyed this tempting crate of key limes. They had such an intense and bright color that I instinctively scooped them into my shopping chart. I had this vague idea that I would make a key lime pie. Ok, now fast forward to yesterday – a full week and a half later. The crate of limes was still sitting on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Yikes!

I’m not sure where all of the enthusiasm went. Don’t get me wrong I love key lime pie but with all of the work (making the custard, baking the crust, allowing the custard to set) I was just never really able to muster up the energy to make it happen.

But yesterday I got a burst of energy and wondered to myself, what if I did a version of the pie that required less work…

…a version that didn’t require me to bake and/or mix a custard; a version that didn’t need to sit in the freezer for hours – taunting me to take a bite before it has completely set; a version that didn’t require me to make an entire pie (I’m on a diet…well at least I was for two days).

That’s when inspiration hit.

I’ll try my hand at a version that used a whipped cream base as opposed to the standard egg-based custard.

And instead of a whole pie, I would make tiny individual sized cuplets (Is ‘cuplet’ a word? My Micorsoft spell-check claims that it isn’t.)

It took some tweaking with the key lime cream but I like the final results. It has all of the flavor of a good key lime pie (tart and bright) but it’s a lighter version that isn’t weighed down with the cream and egg yolk of the standard version. And my ‘relaxed version’ uses only 6 ingredients. Yeah!

With all of that said, would I change anything? Yeap. The key lime cream is so light that the bold flavor of the graham crackers can overwhelm it. Next time I’ll use more key lime cream and less graham crackers.

I think that these little treats would be perfect for a cocktail party or even as a compliment to coffee or tea during a dinner party.

I hope you enjoy.

KEY LIME CREAM CUPLETS

For graham crackers cuplets:

¾ cup graham cracker crumbs

3 TBL sugar

3 TBL unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine crumbs, sugar and butter in a small bowl. Scoop a rounded tablespoon of a graham cracker mix into the cup of a 2” muffin tin. Using fingers, press the crumbs evenly on the bottom and the sides of each cup.

Bake for 12 minutes. Take out and allow to cool completely.

For lime cream:

6 TBL fresh key lime juice

4 TBL sweetened condensed milk

Zest from one lime

1 cup heavy cream

Stir together the lime juice, condensed milk and half of the lime zest in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped cream into the lime mixture.

Pipe whipped lime cream into the individual graham cuplets. Garnish with remaining lime zest.

Makes 12 cuplets

Tagged as: Citrus, Graham Crackers, limes