Food Craft: Lime Bars

Finally another food craft! These Lime Bars are not only super yummy, but super easy and are perfect to take to all your Summer get togethers! I made mine to take over to a friend's place for Gin and Tonic (G&T) night. Truth be told, I could have eaten the whole pan myself, they were that good. I am a very unselfish friend sometimes.

I found the original recipe at MarthaStewart.com but naturally tweaked it to my own personal taste, which my pals all seemed to agree with :) To make your own batch of tasty lime squares you will need:

For the crust:

half a sleeve of graham crackers (4.5-5 whole cracker "sheets"), about one cup
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 2 limes


For the filling:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh lime juice*

*Feel free to substitute lemon or other citrus in this recipe

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 8"x8" pan. I sprayed some non stick spray on the bottom and lined mine with parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine your graham crackers, pistachios, sugar and lime zest until finely ground and well combined. I pulsed mine until the graham crackers were very fine, but I still had some larger chunks of pistachios. I love pistachios. Add in your melted butter, mix together well and pour the mixture into your prepared pan.

Press mixture into pan and up the sides slightly, bake about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 30 minutes.

To make the filling, whisk together your sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks until well combined. Add your lime juice and whisk until smooth. Pour into cooled crust and spread evenly. Bake at 350 degrees about 15 minutes, until the filling has just set. Cool on cooling rack completely and refrigerate at least one hour before serving. I refrigerated mine overnight (it was a long night).

If you want to make a full 9"x13" pan of these (and why wouldn't you?), just double the recipe :)

Friday Food Craft: Pistachio Fudge

It's an easy sweet treat this week for the Friday Food Craft. This recipe can actually be switched up to become almost any flavor you would like. It's a great fudge recipe because it doesn't require any candy thermometer and hassle. Just a few easy ingredients and about 15 minutes of your time and you can have delicious fudge. Also, you can leave out the artificial food coloring if you like.


You will need:

A small baking dish (I used a pyrex dish that is roughly 9" x7", and 8"x 8" baking dish would also work, or double the recipe and use a 9" x 13" cake pan)

1/3 cup plus 1 Tablespoon evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter (half a stick)
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup pistachios, shelled and chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
4 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup marshmallow creme
1-3 drops green food coloring
1 pinch salt

This fudge comes together very quickly, so you will want to have a helper to stir while you add all of your ingredients, or make sure you have everything measured out before you begin and close at hand. Also, make you sure you have greased your baking dish ahead of time.

In a large saucepan, heat the evaporated milk, sugar and butter until bubbling, then continue to cook for 4 minutes while stirring continuously.

Remove from heat and add your white chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, vanilla, salt, pistachios and food coloring. You may add more or less green coloring depending how green you want your fudge. Fill your prepared baking dish, smooth out the top and let cool. You may add extra pistachios on top if you wish.

Enjoy!

This recipe is really easy, and to change your flavors just substitute out what type of nuts (if any) and the flavor of chocolate chips you use instead of white chocolate chips (I have used soft peppermint sticks around the holidays to make a great peppermint fudge, you could also use butterscotch, peanut butter chips, mint and dark chocolate).