There are times in life when you want to make something that is positively sinful, devilishly naughty and definitively not diet food. At times like this, a mascarpone lime torte fits the bill. It is a kind of fusion between a key lime pie and a cheesecake. This has become a much requested dessert in my house and everyone who tries it loves it. Lime and ginger is a devine combination of flavours. I defy anyone to resist the lure of the torte! Best of all it is such a simple dessert to make and it can be made in advance, therefore avoiding too much last minute preparation when you have guests.
If I was making it for a party (it has been the star attraction at a couple of my housewarmings!) I would make a large one but if you are making it for a dinner party, it is great to make small ones in ramekins (I use quite large ramekins around 8-9 cm and this recipe makes around 5 but with small 5-6 cm ramekins you could easily get 8 portions.
You might want to consider buying something like these if you don’t have anything suitable:
Ingredients
(Serves 5-8 depending on size of ramekins)
- 200g pack ginger snap biscuits, crushed
- 50g butter, melted
- 2 x 250g or 1 500g tub mascarpone cheese
- 40g (1.5 oz) icing sugar, sifted
- finely grated zest and juice of 3 limes
- 50 g fine high cocoa content chocolate
Method
- Mix together the crushed biscuits and melted butter and press into the base of either a base of a 18CM (7inch) spring sided or loose bottomed cake tin or 5-8 ramekins
- Place the mascarpone, icing sugar, lime zest and juice in a bowl and beat together. Spread over the biscuit base. Chill for 30 minutes
- To decorate there are two options, either grate the chocolate on top of the torte(s) or melt the chocolate and drizzle artistically on top. Quite fun to make each mini torte a little different, they can become individual culinary works of art :-).