Carlota de Limón (Cold Mexican Lime Tart)

Makes a 8x8 bake dish

This Mexican key lime chilled tart, known as Carlota de Limon, is the easiest no-bake dessert

you can make during the summer months. It only needs five ingredients to make and there’s

minimal cleaning to do. It’s a perfect Mexican dessert that you can serve all year long and

uses pantry staple ingredients.

I promise the first time you taste this tart, your tastebuds will explode with delight and your mind will

be blown away at the simplicity of this delicious dessert.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup limes juice, about 6 small key limes

12 oz evaporated milk

12 oz condensed milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 packs Maria cookies depending on the shape & size of your dish(es)

lime zest to taste

lime slices for decorating

Instructions:

Juice the limes then strain them through a fine sieve and pour into a blender. Pour in the evaporated

and condensed milks the add the vanilla extract. Blend for a couple of minutes or just until you achieve a

smooth mixture. Don’t over mix so you don’t end up with lots of air bubbles.

In a baking dish pour in a little bit of the sauce then arrange a single layer of Maria cookies. Next pour in

a bit of the milk mixture over the cookies to coat them and use a spoon or spatula to help smooth, then

add another layer of cookies and so on repeating until you have used up all the milk mixture. If you’d

like you can break up some cookies to use to fill in the small gaps of the others

I would suggest that you try not to do more than 4 or 5 layers of cookies so that they don’t overpower

the taste of the lime-milk mixture. The Maria cookies will soak up the liquid, so you also don’t want too

many of them because it’ll just end up being like a big soggy cookie.

The last or top layer should end with the milk mixture. Make sure you try to smooth it over as much as

possible. I also like to give the dish a gentle tap on the table to help with any air bubbles. Coat the top

layer with lime zest, if desired but will add an additional nice strong lime taste. Cover the baking dish

with plastic wrap or its own lid and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Is best to leave it in

the fridge overnight to make sure the dessert has solidified enough and the cookies have soaked up the

milk mixture.

When ready to serve slice into as many and whatever size square pieces you’d like. If you’re not

eating/serving the whole dessert at once, cover with plastic wrap and put it back in the refrigerator so it

stays solid.

You can also crumb the Marias Cookies using the crumbs instead of the whole cookies to make the Tart

as shown in the pictures.

This Carlota de limon will keep in the fridge for up to a week but preferably consume in 2 days.

* A 8x8 glass baking dish works best, your Carlota will have a good height with plenty of creamy

goodness

* What Are Maria Cookies? - Maria cookies or biscuits are a type of digestive cookie that is not too

sweet, so perfect for the very sweet, condensed milk.

They are very popular throughout Latin American and many other parts of the World. This makes it easy

to find them pretty much everywhere. You can check the foreign food aisle or a Hispanic market in your

area.

Chef Martin Lopez

ChefMartinLopez.com