Pages

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Chocolate Covered Key Lime Bars

I most likely should start at the beginning and give you a bit of background before laying on the pictures and recipe. My mouth is watering.

I love Key Lime pie. It is my second favorite pie in the world right behind my momma’s apple pie. Several years ago, when we were on a family cruise, the ship stopped for a day in Key West. And there I had what can only be described as the most perfect summer afternoon treat. Never mind that it was January and the temp in Key West was a brisk 55F. These were, were, were….wonderful. Frozen Chocolate Covered Key Lime Pie on a stick. Lord. Have. Mercy. I figured that when I got home I could just order some.

And I could…..

$100 for 10 of them.

Idon’tthinksothankyouverymuch.

And so I let the dream go. Until I found this recipe. And then the dream was revived. And lives. And I am going to pass it along to you.

Hold onto your hats, and your waist lines.

This is what you are going to start out with. All beautiful things that love to be combined. Sorry, I forgot to label the different parts in the picture. I am a bear of very little brain. I love these eggs. They come from my Sister-in-law. Or more specifically it came from one of the chickens that my sister-in-law keeps. The blue ones and the green ones are my favorite. First you put the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar into a bowl. Then you add melted butter. Oh is there anything that isn’t made better with melted butter. Take the fork that you see in the corner of the picture above and stir everything around until all the crumbs and sugar are enrobed with the melted butter. Nom, Nom, Nom. Just a bit closer in. Of course, I didn’t get it very sharply focused. But sometimes things just need to be out of focus. We will just assume that I meant to be artsy fartsy. Smooth all the crumbs out and squish them down into a greased 8 in glass pan and bake in the oven. The smell, oh the smell.

Now it is time to start on the Key Lime part of this. The yolks and the lime zest go into the bowl of the mixer where you are going to beat the heck out of them with the whisk attachment.

The whisk attachment is going to fast that you can’t even see it.Oh yes, sweetened condensed milk. The recipe said to pour this is a slow and steady stream. Um, have you ever tried to pour this stuff in a steady stream. It wasn’t happening. It just glorped out in one gooey mess.
I let it.

After that you add the key lime juice. I forgot to take a picture of that. This is also where I remind you that regular lime juice is not Key Lime juice and cannot be substituted for it. And I can also tell you that I so wasn’t going to squeeze 23-25 little Key Limes. Buy the juice in a bottle. You can find it at your grocery store I am sure. Then the Key Lime portion gets poured over the graham cracker crust and put back into the oven for no more than 10 minutes. You want it to bake long enough to set the custard but you do not want it to brown.
And then you refrigerate it after it is baked. For at least 4 hours but 24 is better. And then you cut them up…….and if one breaks well you just have to test it. We wouldn’t want to hand out a bad product would we?

If you will notice I have the squares on a wire rack on a baking sheet. That is because they are going into the freezer now. It will be cold in there but it will be good for them. They will thank you.

Oooooooo Mommy.

So you put them in the freezer and go off to do something else, like maybe knit on a baby gift for someone…….
And then about 30 minutes before the freezer time is done you start on the chocolate ganache.There isn’t anything that also can’t be improved with the judicious application of chocolate and cream. You put the chocolate chips in a metal bowl. You heat the cream and butter just until boiling and then you pour it over the chips. That is why they need to be in a metal bowl.

And then you leave it for 5 minutes. Please stifle the urge to poke at the chips. They don’t like it and it doesn’t make anything go faster. Just leave them alone with their lover, the cream, and let them be together.

Good grief, have I been reading romance novels?

After the 5 minutes have passed then you add the vanilla and just dust some instant coffee powder over the mixture. Do not go overboard on the coffee dust.
And then you whisk it into shape. This is actually a really great recipe to know because you can cool it and whip it into the most decadent chocolate frosting. And then you can put the frosting on things like cupcakes or cake or your finger or…..
Oh yes, where was I. Then it is time to dip them in the ganache. Not a great picture but it was hard to take the picture with one hand and dip with the other. You get what I am doing. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it. When you are done you put the bars right back in the freezer until they are totally frozen. Then they can be put in an airtight container and kept in the freezer.

I have to honest and say that the first batch of these that I made never made it to the airtight container. We just ate them straight off the wire rack.

Gah! I can't wait to make these and I will now that i know I can buy the lime juice. I had no idea and have never made anything key lime because I wasn't about to buy all those little things and squeeze them.