Lime chiffon pie *

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Cookbook Challenge 2011: Fortnight 2
Theme: Citrus
Recipe: Lime chiffon pie
From: AWW Kitchen

Last year for the citrus theme I made a not entirely successfully rice and lemon rice soufflé. For this fortnight’s Cookbook Challenge, I’ve opted for a simple, no bake, lime chiffon pie. Yes, that’s right – no baking involved! Which makes it a perfect dessert to make on a hot summer’s day when you don’t want to turn the oven on.

The bottom of the pie is made from crushed biscuits and melted butter. I used some wheaten type biscuits languishing in the pantry, but any plain sweet biscuit will do. The other big plus for this pie is it only uses ingredients that I normally have in my fridge/pantry ie: no cream or cream cheese! The filling is made from first creating a lime custard with egg yolks, lime zest and juice, sugar and gelatine. After it has cooled, the left over egg whites are whipped into a meringue with more sugar, and then folded into the lime custard. This is poured on to the biscuit base and chilled for several hours until set.

The result is a pie with a light, tangy filling. It’s probably most similar to a chilled cheesecake, except for the lack of cheese (obviously), and it wasn’t quite as silky and fatty tasting. I did think that there was a smidge too much gelatine in the mixture – I would have liked the filling to be a little less set and softer – so if making it again I would try reducing the gelatine. Maybe down to two teaspoons? I’m not sure – I need to experiment to see whether it would still set. Hopefully we’ll get a proper summer again so I’ll have incentive to make no bake desserts for experimentation purposes!

Previous Cookbook Challenge posts can be found here.

And see what other Cookbook Challenge participants made for this theme at the Cookbook Challenge forum.

Lime chiffon pie

From: AWW Kitchen

250g plain sweet biscuits
125g butter, melted
4 eggs, separated
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
3 teaspoons gelatine
2 teaspoons finely grated lime rind
1/3 cup (80ml) lime juice
1/3 cup (80ml) water
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar, extra

Grease a deep 23cm pie dish or springform pan.

In a food processor, process the biscuits until they are fine crumbs. Add the melted butter and process to combine. Press the biscuit mixture firmly into the base and side of your greased dish/pie. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Place the egg yolks, sugar, gelatine, rind, juice and the water into a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl. Directly cover the surface of the custard with a piece of plastic wrap to stop a skin forming on top of it. Leave to cool.

Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the extra sugar, beating until the sugar dissolves. In two batches, fold the meringue into the custard mixture.

Spread the filling into the crumb crust. Refrigerate for 3 hours.