Since my one of desserts my dad particularly likes is key lime pie (Hi, Dad!)--and because I love it, too--I have tried a bunch of recipes over the years. In fact, a little over 2 years ago, I put my go-to recipe for key lime pie on this blog. Check it out if making a full-on pie is what you're after.
From simple to fancied up, pies are delicious. However, they can also be a little tricky to serve and people won't always take a whole piece of pie. The solution to this problem lines up with a time-honored Midwestern (and especially Minnesotan) tradition: make bars instead. Bars are a wonderful thing. Everyone can have as much or as little as they like, they are easy to transport and serve, and even if they are fancy-as-all-get-out they aren't intimidating.
Note: If you want to really impress people--not usually my goal, but maybe it's yours--DO NOT make bars for a party. They can look amazing and taste like heaven, but people will still say later, "Jenny brought some bars that were pretty good." All without any kind of tone of awe. Believe me. In my experience cakes, pies, and even cookies can be awe-inspiring, but bars are amongst the humblest of the baked-good brethren. They're right in there with cobblers/crumbles.
Anyway, a few weeks ago we had a tropical/island themed treat buffet at work as a farewell to a long-time employee. Rather than try to work on my own pie recipe and tweak it for bars on short notice, I did some searching and found a lovely recipe on Sally's Baking Addiction. I say lovely not just because they sounded tasty but also because her photos are absolutely mouthwatering. But she has a successful business based on her food blog, so I refuse to feel bad about my own photos. So there!
I changed the ingredients slightly by omitting the lime zest and using regular bottled lime juice. I also don't have a food processor and used a whisk and spoon instead of a mixer. But it turned out great! So good, in fact, that yesterday I made them again for a craft night with friends. I was told to "bring something that goes with lasagna." Dessert goes with everything, right? ;)
Here's the step-by-step:
Ingredients:
Crust
- 2 cups finely crushed, crunchy gingersnap cookies
- 3 Tbsp. melted salted butter or margarine (I used the latter)
Filling
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 4 large egg yolks
- 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (not fat free)
- 1/2 cup lime juice
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line a 9x9 baking pan with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang on the sides, and lightly spray with nonstick spray.
- If you haven't already, crush the gingersnaps. You can use a food processor if you have one. If not, just do what I do: put the cookies in a freezer bag and use a rolling pin, or a 2 liter bottle of soda...or a glass bottle of Bacardi. You know, whatever you have on hand :)
- Put crumbs in a medium bowl, pour in melted butter, and stir together
- Press crumb mixture evenly into pan. I used a nice solid metal measuring cup.
- Bake the crust for 10 minutes
- In a large bowl, stir and/or whisk the cream cheese until it is smooth
- Mix in the egg yolks
- Mix in sweetened condensed milk and lime juice and whisk until smooth.
- All that whisking likely left a ton of air bubbles in the mixture. Bang the bowl on the counter-top a few times to get rid of some of those. (I know that my filling mixture pretty much matches the color of my bowl, but see.... air bubbles!)
- Pour into warm crust.
- Drop the pan a few inches onto the counter-top a few times to get rid of more air bubbles
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the edges of the bars start to brown and the center is relatively solid. The edges will also be a bit puffy, like in the photo below.
- Allow bars to cool to room temperature
- Once at room temperature, refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until cold
- When you want to serve, lift foil out of pan, peal off sides of bars and cut.
Makes 16 bars
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