I channeled my inner Julia Child, and experimented with a savory-sweet combination– give it a shot, you might just love it.
I was a little hesitant at first, but with a few adjustments, the recipe came together nicely. The clove-like, sweet flavor of the basil nicely contrasts the tartness of the lime, which, me fall in love with the dessert more after each bite.
Lime Basil Tart – recipe adapted from Juila Child
[yields ~2 cups of lime basil mouselline curd, enough for ~ 10-5" tarts]
Ingredients:
(Lime Basil Mouselline Curd)
- 4 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp butter (45 gr)
- zest, and juice of 2 limes (50 gr juice, 2 gr zest)
- 5 basil leaves, chiffonade (5 gr)
- 1/4 cup sugar (55 gr)
(Whip Cream)
- 1 cup 35% cream; cold(225 gr)
- 1 tbsp sugar (15 gr)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla (1 gr)
(Pâte Sucrée – Tart Shell Dough)
- ingredients + directions linked here [requires full baked tarts]
Directions:
1. Prepare an ice-water bath, and set aside. In a heat proof (stainless steel, or glass) bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lime juice, lime zest, butter and sugar. Place over a double-boiler, and whisk gently until the mixture thickens (approx. 10 min).
2. Remove bowl from the double boiler, and place in the ice-water bath for 30 seconds. Whisk until cool to touch. Fold in the basil.
* Chiffonade is a cutting technique where herbs (or other leafy vegetables) are cut into thin strips, or ‘ribbons’. To simplest way to accomplish this, is to stack your herb (basil in this case) leaves, tightly rolling them together, and slice with a sharp knife.
3. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd, and refrigerate until completely cold. The reason why you place the plastic wrap directly on the surface is to prevent a skin from forming on the curd– if a skin develops, you’ll have an uneven texture.
4. While you’re curd is cooling, you can prepare the tart shells. This recipe calls for fully baked shells, because the curd is already cooked, and doesn’t need to return to the oven. Instructions and recipe for tart shell dough can be found here — allow the shells to fully cool down before filling them.
5. Whisk, or beat whip cream and sugar until semi-firm peaks until semi-hard peaks form. To get a better volume from your cream, whisk in a cold stainless steel bowl; generally, aged whip cream builds better volume.
6. Fold the whip cream into the chilled curd until smooth. Be careful not to over mix, or else you’ll deflate the whip cream, and lose the mouselline texture.
7. Pipe the mouselline curd into the shells, and garnish. Refrigerate for ~30 minutes before serving. The tarts need to be stored in the fridge, and will hold for 2 days in an airtight container.
This picture is my favorite of the lot because it made me feel giant… and everything mini is just that much more awesome.
February 28th, 2011 at 10:04 am
That curd is very interesting
tarts look really beautiful
March 1st, 2011 at 5:03 am
I rarely leave comments anywhere because I look at so many pictures of food, but I had to tell you that your pictures were quite stunning and really caught my attention.
March 1st, 2011 at 6:09 am
This sounds really interesting, I’d like to try! Beautiful pics.
March 1st, 2011 at 12:44 pm
This looks fabulous…. my kind of food! I’ll have to tip toe over to my neighbor’s lime tree today.
March 1st, 2011 at 4:23 pm
My two favorite flavors all rolled up into one recipe?! You rock. How come I didn’t think of this!
Awesome pictures too!
March 1st, 2011 at 5:39 pm
Congratulations for being on top 9 ! Awesome lime basil tarts, simply loved the refreshing combo of ingredients used especially the curled lime on the top, its looking gorgeous. Thanks for stopping by my space !
March 1st, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Nice presentation and photos. Congrats on your top 9 food buzz. These look great. I guess I need to pull my Julia Child book back down from the bookcase.
Cheers.
Stuart
March 1st, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Photos are beautiful and I love the idea of these 2 flavors together.
March 1st, 2011 at 11:22 pm
So pretty and yummy! Congrats on top 9
March 2nd, 2011 at 4:17 am
congrats!! this is a keeper – saving it to my online cookbook, http://cookmarked.com!
March 2nd, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Lime and basil….what an intriguing mix. Beautiful job.
March 5th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
I personally think this looks beyond delicious!
March 8th, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Some of my favourite flavours. I’m going to try these!
May 27th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
what do you do with the 3 tbsps of butter? i’m assuming it goes into step 1.
May 28th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Yes!! Good catch, I’ve update the recipe:)