Lime and raspberry tart: an easy and refreshing Summer dessert
This lime and raspberry tart is a lovely, refreshing Summer dessert. It is great for afternoon tea when the raspberries are fresh and sweet. It is also impressive enough to serve as dessert for a dinner party and goes particularly well with spicy Asian dishes.
One of Mum’s favourites
Mum loved this recipe. Citrus and raspberries were two of her favourite things – she would even choose them over chocolate. Well, sometimes she would, especially if it was Eton Mess with citrus (which is a great idea for a recipe to share at some stage).
She loved key lime tart, although it is seldom available in Australia. For her, this was like key lime pie, only better because it has raspberries.
This recipe is definitely suitable for taking tea with Mum. Especially if you are looking for a simple and refreshing Summer dessert, then it’s perfect!
(That also gives me an idea: can I used this as inspiration and make a lime and raspberry cupcake? Would that be a good thing?)
Source of the lime and raspberry tart recipe
It is based on a recipe by one of my favourite food editors, Donna Hay. (“Classics Book 2”). I have made it countless times over the years and it always goes down well with our guests. It is a refreshing version of key lime pie – not as sweet and with a simple raspberry twist.
Tips for making your own raspberry lime tart
The recipe is simple. However, if you are making your own pastry (which I have to do because I can’t find decent shortcrust pasty here in Germany), it is reasonably time-consuming. This is because you need to let the pastry chill before blind baking.
What is blind baking? Blind baking is pre-baking a pie or tart crust without a filling. This helps prevent soggy pastry and pastry shrinkage. Basically, the oven heat causes the fat in the pastry to melt, resulting in steam which causes the bubbles in the pastry. To blind bake, line the pie or tart crust with baking paper and then fill the form with weights. These can be special pie weights, such as these, or just some dry beans, pasta, rice or lentils or even coins. I have some antique pie weights that belonged to one of my Mum’s special friends. The crust is pre-baked in the oven before the weights are removed and the filling added.
Use lime juice from a squeeze bottle. If you wish to use fresh lime juice (who knows, maybe you have a lime tree in your yard), strain it so that none of the flesh is in the juice.
Make sure you use fresh raspberries for this recipe. Frozen raspberries, even when thawed, will make your tart soggy. No one wants a tart with a soggy middle.
On the upside, don’t worry about the tart cracking in the oven. A crack is a good sign that it is cooked (get it out now before it dries out). The raspberries will also help hide any cracks or other disasters.
Finally, be careful when you are taking the tart out of the oven. If you can see in the picture (bottom right), I accidentally got my oven mitt in the filling. Luckily, the raspberries help camouflage my mistake, but the oven mitt needs a wash.
A refreshing Summer dessert
This simple, refreshing Summer dessert is bound to be a hit at any barbeque, afternoon tea or dinner party. It’s quite simple (especially if you don’t have to make the shortcrust pastry) and looks more complicated than it actually. Best of all, this lime and raspberry tart is delicious!
Why not make some of this lime and raspberry tart for your next Summer get together?
Let me know if you want me to come up with a cupcake version and share my Eton Mess recipe.
A simple yet absolutely delicious summer favourite.
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour
- 3 teaspoons fine white (caster) sugar
- 150 g butter, chopped
- ice-cold water
- 1 1/2 cups cream
- 1/2 cup coconut cream
- 1/2 cup of fine white (caster) sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup lime juice
- a pinch of salt
- A punnet of fresh raspberries (approximately 150g)
- Icing sugar (if desired)
Instructions
- Place the flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar and butter into a bowl and then rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it forms a crumb consistency.
- Add just enough of the ice-cold water to the crumb mix to form a dough.
- Form a ball with the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour.
- Butter and flour a 23 cm (9 inch) flan tin.
- Roll out the pastry until it is approximately 3mm thick and use it to line the flan tin. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes.
- Line the pastry with baking paper and fill with weights. Blind bake in a pre-heated oven for 6 minutes.
- Remove the baking paper and weights and bake for another 6 minutes.
- Combine the cream, coconut cream, remaining sugar, eggs, salt and lime juice in a bowl. Mix until well combined.
- Pour into the pastry base and cook for 30 minutes or until the tart has just set.
- Refrigerate until cold.
- Top with raspberries.
- Dust with a little icing sugar, if desired
Notes
Use fresh raspberries – not frozen ones – and drain them well after washing. You don’t want them to make the middle of your tart soggy!
Don’t worry if your tart cracks during cooking: the raspberries will cover it up!
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