Friday Favorite: Martha + Key Lime Bars Recipe

My mom bought me Martha Stewart’s Cookies cookbook for Christmas this year. I Love this book with a capital L. I wasn’t crazy about the 1st recipe I tried (Chocolate Sugar Cookies), but I just love to flip through the book looking at all the yummy recipes. So many to choose from!!!

I may have mentioned that I made Key lime bars for our church dessert auction. I love Key lime – one of my favorites is Cheesecake Factory’s Key Lime Cheesecake. Oh, yum! Heaven by the slice!

This recipe is pretty straight forward and simple – except for squeezing 23 key limes. That was a bit time consuming, but worth it in the end.

Key Lime Bars

Ingredients
For the Crust:

1 cup plus 2 1/2 tablespoons finely ground graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling:

3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (like Eagle Brand)
2/3 cup fresh Key lime juice (about 23 key limes total)

For the Garnish:

1/4 cup heavy cream
2 Key limes, thinly sliced into half-moons

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Make crust by stirring together the crust ingredients in a small bowl. Press evenly into the bottom of an 8” square glass baking dish. Bake until dry and golden brown, about ten minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

2. Make filling: Put egg yolks and lime zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on high speed until very thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add condensed milk in a slow, steady stream, mixing constantly. Raise speed to high; mix until thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add lime juice; mix until just combined.

3. Spread filling evenly over crust using a spatula. Bake about 10 minutes or just until filling is set, rotating halfway through, Let cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

4. Make garnish: cut into 2 inch squares. Put cream in clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the clean whisk attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. (I added some sugar here to make the whipped cream sweet.) Garnish bars with whipped cream and a slice of lime. Ungarnished bars can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Here my guys are crushing the graham crackers for me. Such helpful guys I have!

My laptop is going to visit the Dr. today... I don't know when we'll be reunited but hopefully, it wlil be a happier computer. So, I'll be behind on my blog reading and commenting. Boo! Guess I'll get a lot done while it's gone...