Perfect Potluck or Picnic Pastry

Key Lime Tarts

Picnics and potlucks…friends and family…stress over succulent selection (yes, I seem to be in an alliteration kind of mood!).  I love going to picnics because it always means a relaxed time with family and friends.  But I also get stressed because there are so many ways to go with choosing a dish to bring!  Even when we’re just talking dessert!  Do you bring a cake, a pie, cookies, petit fours?!  The stress of the selection!!!!  Lucky for me, I stumbled upon Paula Deen’s Key Lime Tarts recipe a couple of years ago and after just a few minor tweaks, it has easily become my go-to picnic and potluck sweet.  The tart lime flavor bursts in the mouth, but the creaminess from the cream cheese and the fluffiness of the whipped cream tame it to just the right level.  What makes it perfect for a picnic is that it is bite-sized, which means guests can try multiple desserts without the guilt!  A sampling of sweets = picnic perfection.

Ingredients

Crust
1 Package graham crackers

5 – 6 Tablespoons butter, melted

Filling

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 Egg

½ Cup sugar

1 Teaspoon lime zest

2½ Tablespoons key lime juice

Topping

½ Pint heavy whipping cream

Confectioner’s sugar

Lime zest

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  A single recipe will make 24 tarts, but the recipe can be easily multiplied to make as many as you need.  Place mini cupcake wrappers in your mini muffin tins.  Save yourself some gray hairs and use the wrappers!  For the sake of the photos, I did not use them and they were a BEAST to get out in one piece!  So please learn from my mistake! J  Lightly spray the wrappers with cooking spray.

Step 2

Fine Cracker Crumbs

Adding Butter

Perfect Consistency

A food processor makes a graham cracker crust super simple, but if you don’t have one, you can just put the crackers in a plastic zip bag and crush them with a rolling pin.  I pulsed them in the processor until they were fine crumbs.  Then I melted the butter and poured the butter in until the crumbs would stick together when I pressed them.  It will take 5 – 6 tablespoons.  When it is perfect, place about a teaspoon of crust mixture into each muffin tin and pack it down.  When they are all pressed down, bake the crusts for 8 minutes.

Step 3

Key lime juice.  The first time I made a key lime pie, I bought a bag of key limes and juiced them by hand.  If you have never seen key limes, they are about the size of a ping pong ball and are a little tough to juice.  My hand was so cramped and tired by the time I had enough for the pie!  The second time, I bought a bag of key limes and made my husband juice them for me.  That was the last time we juiced key limes.  We discovered Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice and have never looked back.  If you aren’t hankering for your hand to look like a claw for an hour, do yourself a favor and pick up some Nellie & Joe’s.

The filling is really simple.  Go ahead and zest your lime so it’s ready to go.  Then just beat the cream cheese, egg, sugar, lime juice and zest until it is fluffy (about 3 minutes).  Fill your tart wrappers about 2/3 full with the filling mixture.  The tarts need to bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until the tarts are set.

Step 4

Let your tarts cool in the muffin tins or they will fall apart when you try to remove them.  When they are cool, whip the heavy whipping cream.  When it is almost whipped, add confectioner’s sugar to your own taste.  Then let it finish whipping.  You can pipe the freshly whipped cream onto your tarts using a pastry bag or a zipper plastic bag.  I like to top them with some lime zest, so people know what they will be eating before they even take a bite.  Plus, it just looks so darn pretty.

Keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat them...or just eat them and don't worry about them making it to the fridge!  They're small, so they don't count in the calorie department, right? :-)