Mmmmm Florida…
Soft, sandy beaches.
Cool ocean breezes.
Sunshine. Sunshine. Sunshine…
And key lime pie.
I often think I should move to Florida. Some of my happiest childhood memories are from visiting my grandparents’ home in West Palm Beach. On those vacations, we did everything you’d typically associate with Florida living: splashed in the pool, drank freshly-squeezed orange juice (from freshly-picked oranges!), played in the sand and baked in the sun, chased after the lizards that crawled up Grandma and Grandpa’s porch screen…
And ate key lime pie.
Actually, I never ate key lime pie in Florida. (Even as a little kid, I had zero interest in the non-chocolate desserts!) But any mention of key lime pie reminds me of a particular restaurant at which we often dined during our Floridian visits. The restaurant was famous for this pie, and therefore someone at our table almost always ordered it. (Me? I went for the chocolate mousse. Every time.)
I figured it’d be fun to create a key-lime-pie—themed dessert for St. Patrick’s Day this year, since my blog is lacking in the lemon & lime department. (There’s a reason it’s not called Citrus-Covered Katie…) I was originally going for a pudding; however the results were a bit thinner than traditional pudding, so I’m calling it Key Lime Cream:
Key Lime Pie Cream
(Good for St. Patrick’s Day!)
Categorized here: Pudding and Dip Recipes.
- 2 cups milk of choice (for a richer result, try using canned coconut milk as some or all of your milk)
- 1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (Anyone want to try a gf flour and tell me how it goes?)
- 3 tablespoons evaporated cane juice (or regular sugar)
- 2 nunatural stevia packets (or 2 more tablespoons sugar)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup Mori-Nu silk-firm tofu (If you don’t like tofu, don’t worry… this is such a small amount that I promise you can’t taste it!)
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 to 2 tsp pure lemon extract
- 1/3 cup lime juice (key lime or regular lime)
- for the green: I was brave and used a few handfuls of spinach… and it paid off! I couldn’t taste the spinach at all!! But if you’re not brave, you can use a few drops food coloring instead.
Blend the tofu with 1 T of the milk. (If you don’t have a blender, you can try soft tofu… but I haven’t personally tried it in this recipe. I used a Magic Bullet short cup as my blender.) In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except extracts and optional spinach, and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat and continue to cook until desired thickness is reached. Then remove from heat and add the vanilla and lemon extracts. Chill in the fridge. When it’s cold, blend everything with the spinach. (Once again, you can skip this blending step if you must… but the texture is better if you don’t. And if you want a thicker pudding, maybe add more tofu? Let me know how it goes if you do!)
See the following for: Calories + Nutrition Facts.
I know people will ask about substitutions: I can only vouch for the results if you follow the recipe, and I can’t tell you if a substitution will work, because I’ve only tried it as written. But please feel free to experiment with substitutions, and be sure to report back so others can read about your results!
If desired, serve in mini glasses with: S’mores Graham Crackers.
And pretend that you are in Florida.
Unless you’re lucky enough to actually be there!
Question of the Day:
Have you ever been to Florida?
I went at least once a year when my grandparents lived in the sunshine state. We even decorated a palm tree one year with Christmas lights. I really miss those days…
Final note: winner of the $100 Shopping Spree Giveaway.
These look delicious! Key lime pie is always a summer favorite, loving that this is a healthy option!
i adore key lime pie, it reminds me of summer. 🙂 I recently came across a recipe for a key lime pie tart, but these look SO much easy and healthy to boot. it’s so warm where i am today, so a light parfait like this would be perfect. great recipe Katie!
Eeeeee little CCK is too cute! And the flamingo… awwww 🙂 🙂
P.S. Writing lime juice on the list. I am so making these for St. Patrick’s Day!
Make sure you get key lime juice. There is a difference..
FYI – I’m currently eating a cookie from my first batch of CCK hot chocolate cookies. So good!
Aww yay!! 🙂 🙂
Ohh key lime pie definitely reminds me of Florida and specifically Key West! I’ve only been there once and I too, was more interested in chocolate but a family member ordered Key Lime stuff wherever we went! They would love this and I would too! Love the idea of the crumbled graham crackers! And those glasses are too cute!
Oh boy, this looks major delish! My cousins live in Florida, so I go at least once a year. I do like it there, but I’d never want to live there! I am not a hot weather-with some hurricanes thrown in- type person. Nice for vacation though!
Lucky for me I don’t have to pretend, I live in Florida and not far from West Palm Beach.! Today is a beautiful day outside as well. To bad I’m at work and not by the pool or beach 🙁
I was born and raised in SW Florida about 10 minutes from the beach and now live in Orlando for school! This Florida baby LOVES key lime pie. So. Much. My favorite thing to do when I go home is to spend a day on the boat and to come home and eat grilled shrimp and veggies and a big ole slice of key lime pie. Although dont be fooled, not all of florida is paradise! So excited to try this recipe!
You read my mind! I just made frozen key lime pie the healthy way on the weekend! Hahaa. Interested on the recipe ? 🙂
Sure! 🙂
FROZEN LIME TART
Crust:
8 (24 g) low calorie sugar free bisquits ( I used a brand called Semper, they´re swedish and make food for babies and kids, their products are organic, sugar free and mostly vegan. So my 8 bisquits had 100 calories overall. Animal bisquits wohooo!)
1-2 tsp soy milk (you can use any other milk if you want to)
Filling:
3,5 tbsp plain (soy) yogurt
zest of half a lime
juice of half a lime
dash of cinnamon
dash of vanilla
sweetener to taste ( I used erythritol but you could use Stevia etc.)
1. Crush the bisquits
2. Mix in the milk of choise. I used 2 tsp, the mixture should be moist-ish, so you can mold it to the tin.
3. Press the crumbles to a mini pie- or tart tin tightly. I used baking sheet to help in this, otherwise the crumbles just stuck on my fingers haaha.
4. In a bowl mix all the ingredients of the filling. I bashed the lime zest a bit to get the most of the flavour, but it´s not a must.
5. Pour the filling on top of the crust and set the tart in the freezer. Let it freeze overnight.
6. When you want to have the tart, take it off the freezer to melt for about 30 minutes. Then just enjoy!
That sounds wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe :).
I spent a lot of my childhood in Florida too, or so it feels like! I’m from the Cayman Islands so Miami was our closest port of call in terms of ‘civilization’. We would go there for shopping weekends or up to Orlando and Tampa for holidays. Many fond memories! and many tacky pink flamingo magnets too :).
LOVE key lime pie, so this recipe super excites me – love the green too, so vibrant!
My mom LOVES Key Lime Pie! She actually fell in love with it in Florida when we took a trip to the Keys. Half of our family lives in Florida, so we’re there a lot.
Thanks for this!
Parfait? Everybody loves parfait!
We were in FL back in November and I have been CRAVING it ever since! I’m not a fan of high temps + humidity, but FL in the 70s-80s is lovely.
Love these pretty green key lime parfaits! So cute. 🙂
omg WOW! These look amazing, Katie! I lovelovelove key lime pie. A parfait sounds even better 😀
What a fun treat! I was actually just in Florida last week for a VERY quick trip. Drove down Monday to pick up a stray dog my sister had taken in. Stuck around and helped her out with her horses on Tuesday and drove back to VA with new puppy in tow on Wednesday. He is a super cute and sweet. Picture here: http://dinedashdeadlift.com/2012/03/08/the-key-to-good-health-owning-a-pet/ because I am a proud momma and love to show him off! 🙂
I’ve been to Florida many many times. My first time was when I was nine and went to Boynton Beach. My grandfather lives in Bradenton so spring spreaks were usually spent on the west coast. I haven’t been back in years so it would be fun to visit him again soon.