Strawberries with Key Lime Custard

May 28, 2010

Things have been a bit hectic around here, so my posting schedule has been a bit off lately. The chaos has been caused by all good things, like my husband being ordained as a rabbi and us preparing to move to California, but it still leaves little time for anything else. I will try to get better about posting more regularly but no promises. The next few months are going to be a bit of a whirlwind.

I couldn’t let Memorial Day weekend slip past without any desserts to welcome the summer, so here is one  of my newest creations. Strawberries with key lime custard. Summer for me is all about the bounty of fresh produce, and nothing celebrates that better than the fresh strawberries that are just coming into season around here. Since I love the combination of berries and citrus I decided to pair the berries with a key lime custard. The results are delicious. I took the simple route and spooned the custard over berries in a glass.  It can also be dressed up by using the berries and custard as a filling for biscuits to make a new kind of strawberry shortcake. The custard would also make a tasty filling for mini tart shells for a bite sized treat.

The custard is made with citrus curd. I used key lime juice to make the curd, but regular lime or even lemon juice would work as well. Depending on the flavor you may need to add a bit more curd to the custard. The curd can be made a week in advance making this a quick dessert to throw together at the last minute.

 

Strawberries with Key Lime Custard

Makes 4-6 servings

One large box strawberries
1 (8 oz) container tofutti cream cheese
3/4 cup key lime curd (see recipe below)

Chop the strawberries and divide them among the serving glasses. Combine the cream cheese and curd and beat on low speed until completely combined. Spoon custard over the berries and refrigerate until serving.

Key Lime Curd
grated rind of three limes
1/2 cup Key lime juice
2 yolks and 2 whole eggs
1 tablespoon cornstarch
a scant cup (7 oz) sugar
1 tablespoon neutral vegetable oil

Combine all the ingredients except oil in a saucepan. Whisk to combine. Cook, stirring constantly over medium-heat, until the curd thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain the mixture and stir in the oil. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours or until set. Can be made up to a week in advance.

Recipe Updates – Delivered Fresh!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Related Recipes

9 Comments

  1. Great minds must be thinking alike; I made parve (Key) Lime Cheesecake Ice Cream Pie for this shabbos, also with tofutti cream cheese. Didn’t have key limes, so I used the regular ones (Persian?). Only tasted the ice cream when I took it out of the machine, and I can’t say it tasted very cheesecake-y, but I’ll know more later.

  2. @Queenscook, Lime cheesecake ice cream pie sounds delicious. I have been meaning to try a cheesecake ice cream recipe, you have inspired me to bump it up on my list of things to make. Thanks.

  3. Finally, one I can recreate at home! No weird unavailable ingredients… yes, we have Tofutti stuff here. 🙂
    We have used Tofutti Cream Cheese for amazing frostings as well as Tiramisu.
    Thanks, and mazel tov to your dh!

  4. Here’s a follow-up on the Lime Cheesecake Ice Cream Pie: the recipe called for the juice of 4-5 limes and the zest of three of them. This made the ice cream extremely tart, which my husband liked a lot. I prefer sweeter things, but I tempered the tartness with some parve whipped cream (aerosol can variety bought for the first time) on my slice. And while the taste of the ice cream was fine, I wouldn’t say it tasted at all like cheesecake. Still, I’m sure I’ll make it again; it was really refreshing on a warm shabbos.

    Today I made another parve ice cream: corn!! This one is really good. I might make a sweet cornbread to serve with it, as the book from which I got the recipe suggests.

  5. @Queenscook, Thanks for sharing the follow-up. I love tart ice cream so I would probably love this. The corn sounds really interesting. Are you willing to share the recipe?

  6. First of all: Mazel tov! Wonderful news.

    Second of all: This looks delish. Mmm, I like the idea of combining the pareve cream cheese with lime curd to get a key lime effect. Love the presentation with the berries. Lovely!

    I made a pareve key lime pie with cream of coconut in place of the condensed milk. Not as good an idea as you would think. The flavor was nice, but the filling didn’t set up quite the same way and the bottom of the crust dissolved and floated to the top. The cream cheese idea is better.

    Good luck with the move!

  7. @Laura, Thanks for all the good wishes.

    I also tried to make a parve key lime pie using vegan sweetened condensed milk. Also not a great idea, it was a soggy mess. The cream cheese is absolutely the way to go.

  8. @ Shoshana
    Sure; the recipe is my parvification (!!) of the Corn Ice Cream recipe from “The Ultimate Ice Cream Book” by Bruce Weinstein.
    3/4 c. sugar
    4 large egg yolks
    1/2 c. maple syrup
    1 c. MimicCreme (original dairy version calls for half-and-half)
    1 1/2 c. canned cream-style corn (don’t bother to measure: it’s the whole 14.75 oz. can)
    1 c. MimicCreme (original dairy version calls for heavy cream)
    1 t. vanilla

    Beat sugar into the egg yolks until thickened and pale yellow. Beat in maple syrup. Set aside.
    Bring the first cup of MimicCreme to a simmer. Slowly beat into the eggs & sugar. Pour the entire mixture back into the pan and place over low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon until the custard thickens slightly. Be careful not to let mixture boil or the eggs will scramble. Remove from the heat and mix in the creamed corn. Pass the puree through a food mill to remove the skins. You may use a strainer, but the puree will be thick and will need to be “rubbed” through, using a large wooden spoon. If a chunky ice cream is desired, simply allow the custard to cool slightly, without straining. [NOTE: I did not strain it.]
    Stir in the (second) cup of MimicCreme and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until cold or overnight.
    Freeze in 1 or 2 batches in your ice cream machine.

    @ Laura & Shoshana re: parve sweetened condensed milk. I thought I might have once mentioned this here, but it was probably somewhere else. I found a parve substitute that works pretty well:

    Pareve substitute for sweetened condensed milk (equivalent of one can)
    1 cup instant soy milk powder
    2/3 cup white sugar
    3 T margarine
    1/3 cup boiling water

    Mix the soy milk powder and sugar in a bowl.
    Melt the margarine into the water.
    Add the wet ingredients to the dry and beat with an electric mixer 2 minutes. Refrigerate overnight.

    I’ve used it to make a Key Lime Pie and it worked out quite well, using the following recipe for the pie:
    Key Lime Pie
    1/4 c. key lime juice
    1 can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
    1/2 to 1 tub fat-free Cool Whip-type product
    graham cracker crust

    Mix the first three ingredients together and put into crust. Chill.
    (Original recipe calls for 1/2 tub of Cool Whip to be mixed in, and the rest to be spread on tip, but I preferred to mix it all in and not have a topping.)

  9. @Queenscook,
    Thanks for the recipes, they look great.
    Your recipe for parve condensed milk is similar to the one I use, but is made slightly differently. My problem with the pie was that I tried to make a baked version with eggs. Your recipe sounds much more successful. Thanks again for sharing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.