Nigella Lawson's Mini Key Lime Pie Tarts

I swear the plague has hit my humble abode. I started feeling a little funny a few days ago. Well- it came full force and not until tonight did I feel well enough to even leave a horizontal position. But I’m slightly getting better. In fact, I felt so well today that I decided to return all of the 7 Project Runway DVD’s back to the library and make Nigella Lawson’s Mini Key Lime Pie Tarts. Those two things were quite adventurous for not leaving the house in 2 days.

I slightly adjusted her recipe. I didn’t have key limes, so I just used the limes I purchased at my local public market. I like my key lime TANGY so I added a ½ lime extra for the juice portion in the recipe. I also added the zest to the “batter” as well as on the tops of each individual tart. I thought it was a good mix of tart and sweet. I think these might be the cure I was looking for. Thanks Nigella!

Recipe Follows:

Nigella's Mini Key Lime Pies

1/2 cup unsalted butter
9 ounces graham crackers
2 large eggs -- separated
(7-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 limes -- zested and juiced
pinch salt

Preheat oven to 325.

Melt the butter in a pan . Put the graham crackers, broken up roughly, in the processor, and blitz. Still processing, add the melted butter down the funnel and turn this wet sand onto a plate or into a bowl. Put a heaped teaspoonful of the biscuit base into each mini-muffin cup, press it around the edges and up the sides of the cup with your fingers, and let it harden in the refrigerator.
Beat the egg yolks until thick-I use an electric mixer for this- then add, still beating, the condensed milk and lime juice. If you;re making these the day before they're needed, keep the lime zest in an airtight bag.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks form and gently fold into the yolk mixture. Using a dessert spoon ( and a teaspoon for scraping), fill the cracker-crusted mini-muffin pans. Transfer to the oven and cook for 10 minutes. Remove, let cool in the pans, then refrigerate for a day.
Turn out the mini key lime pies: turn the pan upside down and gently tap on the bottom until the pies fall out. If they're well chilled this works fine. Using a very fine grater, dust with the lime zest.