Sasha's Kitchen: Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

These may be one of my favorite batches of cupcakes yet. They taste *exactly* like a little bit of key lime pie, which from my point of view, is just a little bit of heaven packed into a cupcake. I've kind of gone onto this kick of making a lot of pies lately. Click here for my apple pie, and a strawberry rhubarb pie will be posted soon. But what if I could convert each of these delicious pies into bite sized cupcakes that had the essence of each pie? Stay tuned for more of these recipes, because I really think they work out well.  As weird as it sounds, there's nothing better than crust on a cupcake because it breaks up the cupcake so you don't have too much of the same thing, which is the whole point of eating cupcake (rather than cake) in the first place. I decorated some of the cupcakes by making two peas in a peapod out of fondant, but that really is not part of the key lime theme, as I was just having some fun. I can't wait to try out the Boston Cream Pie cupcakes after Passover ends to continue with the pie-as-cupcake trend.

Sasha's Key Lime Pie Cupcakes (makes about 15)
Graham Cracker Crust
3/4 cups pulverized graham crackers
2 T granulated sugar
3 T melted butter

Key Lime Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 T baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup of butter at room temperature (about 2/3 of a stick)
3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 T lime zest
2 T T key lime juice (you can buy Key Lime Juice at Whole Foods)

Key Lime Pie Pastry Filling
5 oz mascarpone cheese or regular cream cheese
3 oz key lime juice
3 oz sweetened condensed milk

Key Lime Frosting
1 1/2 sticks of butter at room temperature
1 small box of confectioner's sugar (about 3-4 cups)
3 T key lime juice
drop of green or yellow gel-based food coloring

Decorations (optional)
Green fondant
white fondant
black food marker

First, combine the ingredients for the crust and press about 1 Tablespoon of the graham cracker mixture into each mold in a cupcake tray filled with cupcake liners. Bake at 300 for about 12 minutes until slightly firm.  Next, prepare the key lime cupcake mixture. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat the butter and sugar on medium high speed in a stand mixer for about three minutes. Then beat in the eggs. Add the lime zest and mix throughout. Then alternate adding the buttermilk and dry ingredients, and finally add the key lime juice at then end. Divide among the cupcakes, filling each about 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake at 350 for about 25-30 minutes (this time depends on how hot your oven runs) until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

While the cupcakes are baking, make the key lime pastry cream, by blending the key lime juice, condensed milk and cream cheese or mascarpone. Chill for about 45 minutes before using. Then, once the cupcakes are cool, use a fine tip attached to a pastry bag to "inject" the key lime pastry cream into the center of each cupcake.

Next, beat together the ingredients for the frosting and dye the frosting with a gel base food coloring - generally either green or yellow. Use a frosting bag to apply the frosting to each cupcake.

Key lime pie coming up - and yes, they taste just like a little bite of the best key lime pie ever!

Sasha's Kitchen: Key Lime Pie Cupcakes

Sasha's Kitchen: Baby Key Lime Cheesecakes: Miniature Foods Part I

Miniature food can be such a delight.  There is a modern fascination with baby-sized food, from cupcakes ("baby cakes") to tapas or small plates, to everything else done on the miniature scale.  My posts for today and tomorrow are both going to focus on miniature scaled food - of the small bite variety.  Both projects are foods that are typically prepared in large sizes, but can be scaled down to make a dozen of the miniature version for a cute, picture perfect result.  Both of my baby-sized food recipes will be prepared the same way - by the dozen in silicon muffin trays.

All this miniature food can come together nicely as small plates for a brunch party with friends.  Thus, the inspiration behind my miniature food posts is that they would go nicely together for a mini-themed brunch.

Last night, my husband Brad and I prepared miniature (or little babies, as I call them, fondly) key lime cheesecakes.  The inspiration for this recipe was found in my newest (and quickly becoming one of my favorite) baking cookbooks - Rose Levy Beranbaum's cookbook, entitled Rose's Heavenly Cakes, which was just published in September 2009.

Rose Levy Beranbaum, who is pretty much the goddess of cake baking in the modern world, as far as I am concerned, has a recipe for Baby Lemon Cheesecakes with Lemon Curd.  I couldn't help but imagine what this would be like if it was instead flavored with key limes, so I adapted her recipe to make a key lime variation.  In addition to changing the citrus fruit, I decided that mini key lime cheesecakes would taste better with a graham cracker crust, rather than the biscuit crust that Rose used in her lemon baby cheesecakes.  Finally, I made mine a tad bit healthier than Rose suggests - I used substituted fat cream cheese and reduced fat sour cream.  Because if you are going to eat a dozen little cheesecakes, you might as well feel a little better about it . . .

Another note - if you cannot obtain fresh key lime juice, I don't advise squeezing from the tiny key limes without a juicer - you can freely substitute lime juice instead, as I have given the measurements for the lime variation as well.  You should make sure you have a silicon muffin tray (not a metal one) for this recipe, if you have aspirations of getting the cheesecakes out of the tray with ease.

Sasha's Baby Key Lime Cheesecakes (Loosely Adapted from Rose's Baby Lemon Cheesecakes)


5 T unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs (I bought a box of graham cracker crumbs)
8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
3 T key lime juice (you need more key lime juice than the lemon juice called for in Rose's recipe, because the lemon juice is much stronger and more acidic; use 1 1/2 T if using regular lime juice)
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups reduced fat sour cream

Sasha's Key Lime Curd (adapted from Rose's Lemon Curd)

3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup plus 1 T sugar
3 T unsalted butter
6 T key lime juice (or 4 1/2 T regular lime juice)
pinch of salt

First prepare the graham cracker crusts of the baby cheesecakes in the silicon 12-cup muffin tray.  Mix the graham cracker crust with the melted butter.  Put a little less than 1 T in each of the cups on the silicon mufffin tray, after spraying the tray with PAM.  Press down and bake at 300 degrees until set and lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Next, prepare Rose's Cheesecake mix, with our key lime variation.  Beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed in your stand mixer until creamy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the egg and egg yolks until smooth.  Add the key lime juice (or regular lime juice) and salt and beat.

Fill each of the cups with the graham crusts nearly to the top.  Put the cheesecakes in a roasting pan filled halfway up the sides with hot, near boiling water (just like when you prepare creme brulee).  Bake at 350 degrees until the internal temperature of the cheesecakes reaches 160/170 degrees F.  This is a bit tricky - you will need to use a candy thermometer to measure the internal temperature by sticking it inside one of the cheesecakes as it bakes.  The baking process took me about an hour, but it depends on your oven.  My husband was extremely helpful with this step - he deserves a lot of credit for being patient and making sure the cheesecakes came out just right.  They are done, when they bounce back when touched lightly on the top and are firm on top.

Allow the cheesecakes to cool while preparing the key lime curd, according to Rose's instructions but substituting key lime juice or lime juice, as I have indicated above.

To prepare the curd - whisk the egg yolks, sugar and melted butter well.  Add the key lime juice and the salt.  Cook over medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY so that the mixture doesn't boil.  It will thicken and it is done when it changes into a more translucent yellowish color and starts pooling thickly when a little is dropped back form the surface.

Top the baby cheesecakes with the key lime curd, and allow them to chill for at least 2-3 hours in the refrigerator.  Then jiggle from the bottom and gently remove from the silicon cupcake trays.

These tasted great - totally delicious.  Rose you are the cake goddess, but I think I took your recipe to another level.  Oh baby (pun intended).



To make Cindy's cheesecake, click here; to make My key lime bars, click here.

Cheesecake

Sasha's Kitchen: Baby Key Lime Cheesecakes: Miniature Foods Part I

Sasha's Kitchen: Key Lime Bars

As a kid, my family sometimes went on vacations to Sanibel Island, Florida, a haven for seashell enthusiasts. On these trips, I always loved ordering Florida's most famous desert at the restaurants we went to - key lime pie.

I have made key lime pie before, but tonight I made key lime bars. In my case, the bars were actually lime bars, since key lime is hard to come by in New York City (hint: if you are reading this in Florida and want to send me key lime juice, that would make me very happy). Even without the traditional key lime, these still taste delicious. I think the recipe could also be done with any citrus fruit by substituting the juice and zest of that fruit (lemon, and possibly tangerine, grapefruit or orange).

First, to make the crust, combine the following:

1 cup plus 2 T graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
5 T butter, melted

Mix well and press into a rectangular or square glass or ceramic baking dish (I used my Emile Henry lasagna dish).

Bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes until dry and golden brown, and then allow to cool completely.

To prepare the filling:

3 large egg yolks
zest of one key lime (or in my case a regular lime)
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2/3 cup key lime juice (or regular lime juice)

To make the filling, use your Kitchen aid artisan mixer (which you may have already figured out, is my favorite kitchen appliance. First put in the egg yolks and lime zest in the bowl of the mixer, and beat at high speed for 5 minutes. I intended on using three egg yolks, but I am not actually sure if I used three or four. One of the eggs I cracked open was actually a twin, meaning that it had two yolks! I think I have only seen this once in all of my years of egg-cracking. I am not exactly sure what to say about this, but since I was a biology major in college, I found this culinary oddity to be a combination of both freakishly weird and fascinating. I guess the chicken must have come before the egg?

At any rate, beat the egg yolks and zest at high speed for about five minutes until thick, and reduce to medium. Slowly add the condensed milk and mix for three minutes. Then reduce the speed to low and add the lime juice, just until mixed.

Spread over the graham cracker crust and refrigerate for at least four hours. Mine are currently in the fridge, and so pictures are not quite available yet (soon).

If you want to serve with whipped cream, you can beat 1/4 cup of heavy cream in your mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Another note - I am a planner so, like with vacations and other life plans, I think about my food a week in advance (with the occasional spur-of-the moment decision). The key lime bars were one of my last-minute baking decisions. However, upcoming planned cooking projects include: Baked Alaska, Thai stir fry, raisin-chicken tacos, Chocolate stout cupcakes, and tomorrow night's variation of Hanukkah potato latkes to mark the start of Hanukkah.

Sasha's Kitchen: Key Lime Bars