You are going to live a little when you eat this awesome custard! Its prepared like a creme brulee, but with key lime whipped cream instead of the carmelized crust.
Also good sprinkled with graham cracker crumbs instead of whipped cream.
Directions
Scald the cream, reduce heat to lowest setting, and temper the egg yolks into the cream.
Add the sugar, limes and salt to the cream mixture and mix well.
Divide the cream mixture equally among small ramekins so that each is about 2/3 full (about six 4-oz ramekins)
Bake the ramekins in a water bath. Place the ramekins in a glass baking dish with at least 2? sides. Fill the baking dish with boiling water so that the level of the water is above the level of the cream mixture in the ramekins, but below the lip of the ramekins (you don?t want water in the ramekins!)
Carefully place the baking dish with ramekins into the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 350-deg F.
Remove custards from the oven when centers are slightly jiggly, but not runny. Remove from water bath and let cool for 10 minutes or so before serving, or cover custards with saran wrap and keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Before serving, top the custards with whipped cream. In a bowl, whip until peaks form:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons key lime liqueur [optional]
- 1 teaspoon key lime zest
Spoon some whipped cream on top of the custards and sprinkle lightly with green sugar sprinkles.
Kids!
The kiddies can locate the ingredients, measure the cream and sugar and separate the egg yolks.
Notes...
This is a terrific custard, and is pretty straight forward to make. Be sure to temper at least a third of the cream into the eggs to equalize the temperature of the eggs and cream. When mixing the sugar and lime juice with the cream and egg mixture, don't overbeat or bubbles will form, preventing a smooth custard at the surface. The water bath should be a bit higher than the surface of the cream in the ramekins, or two layers will form in the custard, one above and one below the level of the water. The lower layer will taste great, but the upper layer will be overcooked. If you don't have Key Lime Liquer, use a small amount (say a teaspoon) of key lime juice. A little key lime juice goes a long ways ... they carry a lot more punch than a regular lime.