Chocolate Lime Pie

Once again, it has been far too long. I could apologise for ages and explain that Matt has started working in the caves where cheese is matured and has really started living his dream, and that I've been working hard to make this new city feel like home. I could ramble on about the fact that there are new friends here now, there has been lots of French spoken; a festival of lights; a lot of good wine; a lot of good cheese, and a surprising amount of tasty offal. 

Or, I could just say 'hey, I missed you guys, so I baked you a pie.'

The other week I ventured into one of Lyon's bizarrer shops. This is smack bang in the middle of the gorgeous old part of town. It faces out onto the cobbled streets. Inside are barrels piled high with sweets. It's like a cinema pick'n'mix gone berserk. Oh, and there's a life size statue of Captain Jack Sparrow, looking all piratical and inviting. Very strange.

Anyway, long story short I spent a frankly obscene amount of money on fried eggs and shrimps and fizzy cola bottles and sour laces and those giant fuzzy strawberry things and then ate them in front of Disney films. It was a good day.

But, there were some important sweet treats sadly lacking from this little cavern of oddities. Chiefly rhubarb and custards (oh how I miss them) and chocolate limes - those acid green and exceedingly weird little beauties.

The first, I shall keep searching for in their original boiled-sweety form. The second, I miss much less having discovered this recipe. Thank you Nigella. Deeply and truly!

Chocolate Lime Pie
(Adapted from Nigella's Kitchen)

I used speculoos biscuits instead of digestives and grated dark chocolate rather than chocolate chips in this version, but chiefly this was adapted because I don't have a food processor in my tiny tiny kitchen. I had to improvise and bash the biscuits and chocolate to hell and back with a rolling pin. It gives you a slightly chunkier crumb, but the chocolate flavour is definitely nice and intense. If you have a food processor and don't need to vent any frustration on some poor unsuspecting biscuits by hand, then it's probably easier to whizz the ingredients for the base together.


Ingredients:

300g speculoos biscuits
1 large tablespoon cocoa powder
50g melted butter
50g finely chopped or grated dark chocolate
400g condensed milk
4 limes
300ml double cream

Method:

1. Put the biscuits into a freezer bag with the dark chocolate and bash to a sandy consistency.
2. Add the cocoa powder and pour the mixture into a large bowl, then add the melted butter and stir until everything's combined.
3. Spoon the mixture into a fluted tart tin with a loose bottom and press it down firmly with the back of a spoon into a nice thick layer, then put the tin into the fridge.
4. Zest the limes and leave them to one side.
5. Put the condensed milk in a large bowl and whisk in the juice of all four limes.
6. Using an electric beater, add the double cream and whisk until it's nice and thick.
7. Spoon the filling into the chilled base, and spread it evenly, then put it back in the fridge to chill for at least four hours or preferably overnight.
8. Sprinkle over the lime zest and a bit more grated chocolate to finish your pie, and serve chilled.