Key Lime Tiramisu
A No Bake Key Lime Silky Tiramisu: A multi-generation Florida Native takes the flavors of a key lime pie and turns it into layers of rum soaked lady fingers, tart custard and sweet mascarpone cream.
What is Key Lime and Rum Tiramisu?
If you are looking for a Key Lime dessert that isn’t key lime pie- look no further.
Key Lime Pie is easily my favorite dessert. I will pass on chocolate any day over Key Lime pie.
For this recipe, I wanted several things- a no bake/ make ahead dessert, key limes, but light, tart, sour and sweet. I started thinking about my favorite kinds of desserts and tiramisu kept popping into my mind. So I deconstructed a tiramisu and added Key Lime Pie components to come up with this amazing dessert. Instead of an espresso soaked lady finger, a drizzle of an amped up simple syrup with rum, ginger, sugar.
Ingredients for No Bake Key Lime Tiramisu:
- Key lime and Persian limes
- sweetened condensed milk
- white or light rum
- lady fingers- I like Alessi Brand
- heavy whipping cream
- mascarpone cheese
- egg yolks
- fresh ginger
How to assemble this recipe:
- Allow the mascarpone cheese to come to room temperature. Juice the limes. Set aside.
- Combine the juice, sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. Let chill and set up for 1 hour.
- Whip part of the heavy cream and mascarpone cheese. Chill.
- Make a simple syrup with water, sugar, lime zest, ginger and the rum. Let cool.
- Dip each lady finger in the simple syrup and layer in an 8 x 8 dish.
- Top lady fingers with key lime juice custard, a layer of mascarpone cream, and repeat.
- Finish with a layer whipped cream and garnish with lime zest.
- Chill overnight or for 8 hours.
Tips:
- Read the entire recipe through and build out each component before trying to assemble.
- You can make the simple syrup, juice the limes and make the Key lime filing in advance.
- Do not add the final layer of whipped cream until just before serving for the freshest finish. top with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar and extra lime juice and cookie crumbs for a garnish.
Equipment needed for this recipe:
I highly recommend a juicer for the limes.
Commonly Asked Questions-
Yes, just add the same amount of water as you would rum to increase your simple syrup.
The lime juice basically cooks the eggs, just like in a Ceviche recipe. I always buy pasteurized eggs just to be safe. Make certain there are no cracks in your eggs and they are fresh.
IF you have any leftovers, they will last about 3 days. After that, the lady finger are too mushy and the whipped cream falls apart.
You can use standard limes from the grocery store. Commonly called Persian limes.
There are many components in this dessert that have dairy: whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk and the mascarpone cheese. If you have low tolerance of lactose, you may want to skip this desert.
The simple syrup and other components would soak right through h soft lady fingers making the dessert a bit of a mess to serve. Stick to the firm lady fingers. If you cannot find them try using these two cookies for your layers: Ines Rosales Sweet olive oil torta or Stella D’oro Cookies
Other Citrus Desserts from Pine & Palm Kitchen
- Classic Key Lime Pie
- Calamondin Pie
- Florida Grapefruit & Cointreau Golden Cake
- Guava Grapefruit Cocktail
Ingredients
Key Lime custard
- 1 cup Key Lime Juice
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 2 unit large egg yolks
Whipped Cream layer
- 8 oz heavy whipping cream
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese softened
- 1 unit Simple syrup cookies
- 14 oz lady fingers- crisp style 2- 7oz packages
- 1 TBSP sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp lime zest
- 1 unit fresh ginger cut into a chunk, peeled
- 3 TBSP light rum
Whipped cream topping
- 6 oz heavy whipping cream whipped
- 1 TBSP Sugar
Garnish
- 1 TBSP Confectioner’s sugar sifted
- 1 TBSP lime zest
- 2 TBSP Lady finger crumbs
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and pasteurized eggs yolks. Cover and chill for 1 hour until thick and firm.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip 1 cup of heavy cream until soft peaks form, whisk in the mascarpone until light and well combined. Cover and chill.
- In a small saucepan, bring to a simmer the water, sugar, 1 tsp of lime zest and ginger. Off heat add rum. Return to the stove and let simmer until sugar is dissolved. Let cool. Pour into a shallow dish. Remove ginger.
- Whip remaining heavy cream and add 1 TBSP of sugar until sugar dissolves. Keep chilled until time to assemble the tiramisu.
- To Assemble: Place each cookie and gently dip it in the simple syrup for just a moment. Place in the bottom of an 8 x 8u0022 dish. You may need to break a few of the cookies to make them fit in a single layer.
- With an offset spatula, spread the mascarpone cream mixture over the top of the rum-simple syrup soaked biscotti.
- Add another layer of rum-simple syrup cookie on top of the mascarpone cream. Top with the Key Lime custard.
- For the topping, spoon the sweetened whipped cream over the top.
- Cover and chill 8 hours or overnight.
- To Serve: Dust with powdered sugar and sprinkle with lime zest and cookie crumbs. To serve, cut into squares and top each slice with a thinly sliced lime wedge.
