Margarita Tarts

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I have been in a major creative rut, I'm blaming the weather, but I think the supermoon may be pulling me out of it and just in time for my favorite Mexican holiday! My friend is having a party tonight, and I decided to bake a sweet treat to bring with me. It's not a Cinco de Mayo party without some margaritas, so I whipped up some single serving margarita tarts!

Ingredients:

Crust - 

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup butter melted

1/4-1/2 cup unsweetened coconut

2 tbs sugar

Filling-

14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

1/2 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup tequila

2 large egg whites

1 tbs sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Here it is - you can see I substituted vegan butter for the regular, and I also ground up my own graham cracker crumbs in the food processor. 

Start by making the crust. Add the graham cracker crumbs, coconut and melted butter into the food processor(or a bowl blended by mixer or hand would work as well), and blend until it starts to come together a bit. 

Then put heaping spoonfuls into lined muffin tins and pat down into the bottom.

Next, juice the limes. I ended up using 4 limes and had a bit over the 1/2 cup of juice that the recipe calls for. I love limes, so I used all the juice anyways. And you can see, my favorite way to juice any citrus is to roll it on the counter to loosen it up then use a fork while squeezing to really get it all out. 

Mexican limes - keeping it authentic over here.

Now on to the filling. Mix together egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and tequila and set aside. It was at this point that I decided to put some lime zest in as well, though in retrospect, I wish I had blended it into the crust instead. 

In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites and sugar until it forms soft peaks. 

Then fold in about half of the egg, juice, tequila mixture. Once incorporated, add in the rest and fold until blended. 

Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, I portioned out the filling, leaving the cups about 2/3 full. They will rise a bit in the oven.

                                       

Bake for about 20 minutes or until they have risen and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a rack then chill until ready to serve. These taste like little fluffy key lime pies, and the tequila taste is very faint, so if you didn't want to add the tequila, it wouldn't matter too much. Or if you wanted a stronger flavor, add some more!

Then break out your mustaches and party like you're Mexican!

--Heather