St Patrick's Day came and went on Thursday, and nary one green thing was whipped up in my kitchen. So today, in lieu of baking humatashen for Purim, I baked a belated key lime tart for St Patrick. (Actually, St Pat requested a key lime cheesecake, but we will not even go there.)
Key limes are cute. They are much smaller than Persian limes and typically have a yellow rind when fully ripe. Most commercial growers tend to pick them on the green side, when the fruit is less mature and more tart.
My bag contained quite a few yellow limes, but the juice was still extremely tart. As a result, I added an additional 1/4 cup of sugar to my basic curd recipe.
I forgot to take a picture of the curd! But as you can see below, the curd is (sort of) green, despite all the egg yolks that are added.
For a change of pace, I decided to put a meringue on top of the tart. I used the meringue recipe from Martha Stewart's "Mile-High Lemon Meringue Pie".
The recipe calls for 8-12 egg whites and 6 Tbsp sugar*. I realized, in hindsight, that this ratio is off. David Lebovitz recommends 5 Tbsp of sugar to 2 egg whites. I will need to consult with my mother, the meringue guru, to see what she does.
Despite my misgivings about the meringue recipe, the tart come out fine. I apologize for the over exposed picture. Sunshine was pouring into the kitchen and my camera battery died just as I was about to reshoot the picture!
*I just looked up Martha's recipe online, and it has been significantly modified from her 1985 "Pies and Tarts" Cookbook (which I used). The online version recommends 3/4 cup sugar to 7 egg whites.
