By Dave Woods
dwoods@joplinglobe.com
Jason Lieberman knows why his lime tart is so popular with friends, family and those who buy his baked goods.
“It’s quick, easy and a crowd pleaser,” he said. “I think if people knew how easy it is to make, they would be making them all of the time.”
The 35-year-old Joplin native has recently returned to town after living in Chicago for almost a decade.
In Chicago, he landed the culinary director’s job at Bloomingdales and honed his skills hosting cooking and baking demonstrations for home cooks and big-city foodies.
Now, living in Joplin and contemplating his next move, he’s in his own kitchen refining some of favorite recipes he knows have commercial appeal. The lime tart is one of them.
“It’s a great dessert because it’s light,” he said, whipping topping for a tart. “They are popular for the holidays because they are easy to make and don’t require a lot of time.”
Any home cook can make them, he said. “As long as you know how to separate an egg, you can do this.”
Lieberman explained that a good lime tart starts with fresh, juicy limes.
While some people make a Key lime pie or tart, he prefers to use the common lime.
“Key limes are expensive and they can be hard to find,” he said. “They can be really limey and too tart.
“It just makes sense. It’s easier to squeeze two big limes than 20 small Key limes. That’s a lot of work.”
Lieberman said to use care when measuring the lime juice for the recipe, as it’s easy to use too much.
“I would use large limes to maximize the amount of juice you get,” he said. “It’s better to have too much than not enough.”
Lieberman’s tart starts with a graham-cracker crust, followed by a layer of lime tart filling. After baking and cooling, the tart is ready for a healthy layer of freshly whipped topping.
“In my opinion, the perfect tart will have three equal layers when you cut into it,” he stressed. “The crust, filling and topping should all be equal.”
He said that most cooks will have no trouble topping the tart.
“It’s basically just like icing a cake,” he said. “Be careful not to pull the graham-cracker crumbs from the crust onto the topping.”
Lieberman explained that there are two schools of thought when it comes to using lime zest in your tart filling.
“You can put lime zest into the filling, but a lot of people don’t like the texture,” he advised. “I opt to use the lime’s zest as a garnish, not in the filling, that way people can just push it aside if they don’t want to eat it.”
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Easy lime tart
What you need:
A 9-inch two-piece tart pan
Juice of two large limes
One can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks at room temperature
Zest of ½ lime for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk into a medium mixing bowl
Whisk the egg yolks into the milk one at a time. Slowly whisk the lime juice into the egg and milk mixture. Pour the mixture into the tart shell. Bake for 9 minutes or until the center of the tart is firm. Pull the tart out of the oven and let stand on the countertop for 15 minutes to cool. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Overnight is better. When ready to serve, spoon the whipped topping onto the tart and smooth with a spatula. Place the tart pan onto a bowl on the counter and drop the ring of the shell off. Place on a pie stand and slice into pie-shaped wedges. Garnish with lime zest.
Serves 8.
Whipped topping
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 to 3 tablespoons white sugar
In an ice-cold metal mixing bowl, whip on high for about 45 seconds or by hand until peaks form. When soft peaks start to form add in 1 to 3 tablespoons of white sugar and continue to whip. The whipped topping will cling to the whisk when done.
Graham cracker tart shell
1½ cups graham-cracker crumbs
6 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons white sugar
Pulse ingredients in a food processor until combined. Press mixture evenly into a pull-apart tart pan.
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Lime tarts and pies are not the only uses for the lime.
Cat Lockwood, a bartender at Club 609 in Joplin, offers up her take on a drink that’s great for dessert — or any other time — and is sure to pucker and please.
Lime martini
2.5 ounces vanilla vodka
1 ounce pineapple juice
½ ounce Roses Lime Juice
In a cocktail shaker, mix the ingredients over ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled martini glass rimmed in finely crushed graham cracker crumbs. Garnish with a sliced lime and serve.
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Cranberry limeade
1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
½ cup unsweetened cranberry juice (if you use sweetened cranberry juice, reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe a little bit)
Simple syrup made with 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water
Additional 1½ cups water
Heat 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil so that the sugar is completely dissolved, and remove from heat. Once the syrup has cooled, strain out the zest with a fine mesh strainer before using. While your simple syrup is cooling, juice the limes. Add lime juice, cranberry juice, 1½ cups of cold water, the simple syrup, and a few ice cubes to a serving pitcher. Makes about one quart.
Source: simplyrecipes.com
Fast fact
The lime is also famous for the role it played in 18th century English sailors becoming known as “limeys.” Scurvy was the plague of sailors until it was discovered that when they received a ration of one lime a day it stopped, and so they earned the nickname, “limeys.”
Source: tonytantillo.com
