Difficutly: very easy
Time: 5 Min
Portion: 1 serving
Ingredients:
Makes about 15 cupcakes
INGREDIENTS
For graham cracker cupcakes
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature*
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
* Original recipe calls for 3/4 cup butter, but I took Cheryl’s advice to cut it to 1/2 cup instead
For lime cream filling
1/2 cup sugar
Grated zest of 2 limes**
2 large eggs, preferably at room temp
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (from about 3 limes)
1/2 inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
1 teaspoons cornstarch
1/2 cup+2 tbsp (1-1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon size pieces, at room temp
** Can reduce this to 1 lime if you want less lime tang but I LOVE lime so I punched it up with 2 limes.
For the meringue
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
Directions:
To make cupcakes—
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with liners.
In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup of graham cracker crumbs and melted butter. Scoop a teaspoon++ into each cupcake liner, pressing down to cover the bottom. Set aside.
Whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
In stand mixer, fitted with a flat beater, beat butter on high speed until soft, about 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time. Combine milk and vanilla together. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk mixture in 2 additions, ending with the flour mixture. Beat until just combined.
Fill cupcake liners about 2/3-3/4 full. (Cupcakes do not rise that much.) Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before fill and frost.
To make lime cream filling—
Combine sugar and lime zest into a heatproof bowl (I prefer my metal KA bowl to a glass bowl for this.) Rub the sugar and zest between your fingertips for a few minutes, until the sugar is moist and the fragrance of lime is strong. Whisk in the eggs, then whisk in the juice, ginger and cornstarch.
Bring water to a simmer in a saucepan.
Set the bowl over the saucepan and stir with a whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid to the touch. Cook the lime cream until it reaches 180 degrees F, about 10 minutes. Whisk constantly to keep the eggs from scrambling – you’ll see that the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. When it starts to leave “tracks” the cream is almost done.
As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain the cream into the container of the blender (or food processor); discard the rest. Let it cool until it reaches 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.
Turn the blender to high speed (or food processor) and add the butter a few pieces at a time until butter incorporated. After all the butter is in, continue to blend the cream for another 3 minutes. If you find the machine is getting really hot, work in 1-minute intervals, giving the machine a little rest in between beats.
Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface and refrigerate the cream for at least 4 hours, or overnight. (The cream can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months; thaw overnight in the refrigerator.)
Optional: I thought it would be fun to dye the lime cream a light green color. I used Wilton kelly green until I got the color I wanted.
To make meringue—
In a stand mixer with a clean dry mixer bowl and whisk attachment, whip the egg whites at medium speed until opaque. With the mixer still running , add the sugar in a slow stream and continue to beat until the whites are glossy and form firm peaks.
To assemble cupcakes—
Remove center of the cupcake using the cone method. Fill cupcake with lime cream filling using piping bag+tip or spoon. (I used piping bag and Wilton 1A round tip.) Dollop generous amounts of meringue on top of cupcake and use the back of a spoon to make swirls.
Brown meringue by 1 of 2 options:
(1) Pop cupcakes in the oven under the broiler until the meringue is a golden brown. (This happens quickly so don’t walk away!) Let cool for 5 minutes then refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
or
(2) Use your blowtorch to brown the meringue. Refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.