Lime Almond Squares

Alot of people are passionate about lemon squares or lemon bars. It's understandable; the combination of tart, sweet, sort of gooey citrus filling and buttery, shortbread-like crust is good. Really good. There's almost nothing like the bright taste of a lemon bar to lift you out of the winter doldrums.

ALMOST nothing, because I have to inform you that this cookie is better. It's lime filling is not only a bit more unusual than lemon filling, but it has a more distinctive flavor and it stands up better to all the sugar in the filling and to the buttery crust. Plus the addition of toasted, slivered almonds to the crust not only adds another layer of flavor, but it also provides a nice crunch. Besides, this cookie happens to be one of my husband's favorites.

I'm not sure where I got this recipe. I thought I got it from my mom, but when I asked her about it she claimed she got it from me. Regardless of its provenance (sorry about the lack of attribution), I promise you that lime almond squares will become one of your favorites too.

Lime Almond Squares
Makes 16

Crust
1 cup flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons well chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds

Filling
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon grated lime zest
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Powdered sugar and lime curls, for garnish

For crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line 8-inch baking pan with tin foil; butter foil.

2. Mix together flour, brown sugar and salt. Add butter and nuts, and blend together until a fine meal forms.

3. Press evenly into the bottom of the greased, foiled pan and bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

For filling
1. Blend together sugar, eggs,lime juice, lime zest, baking powder and salt until smooth.

2. Pour filling onto hot crust and bake until filling is slightly browned and just springy to the touch, about 20 minutes.

3. Cool completely.  Lift foil from pan, peel off foil and cut into 16 squares. Dust with powder sugar and garnish with lime curls.

Mud Pie

I don't know for sure if mud pie originated in Mississippi (and apparently either does anyone else), but I do know it's one of my husband's favorite desserts. He used to get his mud pie fix from Starbucks, which, for an all-too-brief while, made a sort of ice cream sandwich version that was really great. I still search grocery freezer sections for their mud pies, but I haven't seen them for more than a year. So, when my husband's birthday came around last week, I decided to make a mud pie.

This recipe, based on one my mom used to make, is an ice cream pie as opposed to a gooey chocolate-filled pie also called mud pie. My mom made it the easy way; she just bought already-made coffee ice cream and chocolate sauce, adding kahlua to the sauce, then made a pie crust and put it together. Still in the midst of ice cream-making mania, I decided to make everything from scratch, but, to be honest, next time I'll probably skip the homemade ice cream and just mix in a couple of tablespoons of kahlua into a softened pint of Haagen-Dazs.


Mud Pie

For the crust:
1-1/4 cup chocolate wafer crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter

For the fudge sauce:
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon kahlua

For the coffee ice cream filling:
3/4 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup dark-roasted coffee beans
1-3/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon finely grinded espresso powder
1 tablespoon kahlua

1. Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate wafers and butter, stir until well blended. Press into 9-inch pie pan and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.

2. Fudge Sauce: Combine in a bowl over hot (not boiling) water 1-1/2 C chocolate chips, heavy cream, and butter. Stir until chips are melted and mixture is smooth. Remover from heat, stir in kahlua or other coffee liquor. Chill 10 minutes. Spread 1/3 cup sauce on bottom of chocolate wafer crust. Chill 15 minutes. Reserve remaining fudge sauce for the top of the pie.

3. Coffee Ice Cream: Combine Milk and coffee beans in a heavy saucepan and heat over medium heat to a simmer. Pour hot mixture into a bowl, cover and set aside for an hour. In a large bowl, use a mixer to beat sugar and egg yolks until mixture is thick and pale yellow, about four minutes. Beat flour and salt into egg mixture. Reheat coffee mixture until bubbles form at the side, remove from heat and remove coffee beans from milk with slotted spoon. Slowly pour hot milk into eggs, whisking constantly, to temper eggs. Pour entire mixture back into the saucepan and place over low heat, whisking constantly until custard thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat and pour coffee cusard through a strainer into a large bowl. Cool 5 minutes, then mix in cream, vanilla, espresso powder and kahlua. Chill, covered, at least 4 hours. Stir and freeze in ice cream machine according to manufacturer instructions. When done, pour ice cream into pie crust and freeze until hard. Remove from freezer and cover with remaining fudge sauce. Return to freezer until set.