Chocolate Lime Coconut Meringue Tart

A classic turned on its head: Chocolate Lime Coconut Meringue Tart made up of an easy homemade crisp chocolate coconut crust, an amped up lime filling and a super whipped coconut infused meringue. Ready for summer with every bright flavor available…

Lime Dreams

Sometimes you dream up something big. Something unique. A shot in the dark spaces of your brain waves that hits you in the middle of a deep sleep. Tarts always on the mind, and now. Now–there is a deep dish tart pan sitting in the kitchen cabinet. I have been haunted by the thing even since it arrived at my door. Seven inches around, just a little guy. But deep–whatever delightful dessert concoction I placed in this crown jewel had to be GOOD.

In the middle of the night, I dreamed of chocolate and lime. Not just any lime tart. First off, not a key lime. A lime. The thing I love about lime, lemon’s rougher cousin, is that it isn’t like lemon. You can add a touch of lemon zest to anything from fried dough to yellow cake and it just does that wonderful thing with an overused term: “brighten.”

Lime the Loner

Not the independent lime. The lime is a loner. He doesn’t pair with just anyone. Could I have paired the lime tart filling with another flavor? Sure. Instead, I took the unequaled Key Lime Pie filling from Joe’s Stone Crab, replaced the more gentle key limes with its Persian sibling, the one found in most grocery stores. This tart pan deserves all the strong flavors you can build into it.

In the daylight, I made my plans. I couldn’t let a piece of this deep dish puzzle exist outside of my creative hands. I would make the cookie crust myself out of a cocoa enriched, chocolate crispy cookie. The best part is, you can make them in advance, freeze them, and forget about them until you make the tart. These cookies took me 10 minutes to make and 10 minutes to bake. Because their sole purpose was to act as the buttery sweet chocolate base of this lime tart, I didn’t even care about their shape in the oven.

Homemade Doesn’t Mean Difficult

These un-photogenic little flavor delivery systems were immediately packed away to the freezer. I then left them out to further harden their already crisp textures. When ready, they would take a trip to the food processor with some butter and sugar and transform into the most crumbly cookie crust imaginable.

I then set my mind to the filling. I love the creaminess of Joe’s Stone Crab pie recipe, thanks to the condensed milk and egg yolks. I added a little touch of coconut extract and Malibu rum to the mix to keep infusing that sweet coconut back note of flavor to the one-two punch of lime and chocolate. I also doubled the lime zest used. What a bright, pretty picture it made.

The steps seem many, but each one takes less than 15 minutes to achieve. This is not a difficult recipe. As my lime filling cooled, I packed the tart pan with the cookie crumb crust. My deep dish pan was ready for its close-up.

Once the tart shell is pre-baked for 8-10 minutes, the filled tart only takes another 10-12 (you want to look for that slightest of jiggles in the middle of the tart.) Then, it’s onto meringue.

A good, stiff, marshmellowy meringue spiked with a little more coconut flavor gets piled high as a John Waters character’s beehive atop your lime tart. I was going to pipe it, but meringue is at its best when you play with it. It will move and bend in ways that whipped cream only dreams of. That’s it. If you’re a weirdo like me and bought a small torch on Amazon like this one, you can then have further fun by torching the tips and sprinkling more lime zest and coconut atop the moutain range of meringue.

Summer Limes

The end result is a rich, tart, and billowy summer dessert which requires oven use only for a few very short intervals in between crushing cookies, chilling creamy fillings, and whipping meringue. The Chocolate Lime Coconut Meringue Tart of summer is here for you. It freezes well too, but it is difficult not to eat this one all at once. May your next nighttime dreams yield the most beautiful tarts imaginable. And may they be deep dish. You might never go back.

One bite gives you everything: crunchy cookie chocolate cocoa crust, tart Real lime filling equally as creamy, and mountains of toasted coconut meringue. What more could you ask for this summer?

Chocolate Lime Coconut Meringue Tart

Mimi

Chocolate Lime Coconut Meringue Tart made up of an easy homemade crisp chocolate coconut crust, an amped up lime filling and a super whipped coconut infused meringue.

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Cookie dough resting time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Servings 8 people

Equipment

• Tart shell with removable bottom–I used a 7 inch deep dish pan.

Ingredients

  

Chocolate Cookie Crust

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• ½ cup cocoa powder 
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp coconut rum (like Malibu) or rum extract
• 1 egg white
• ½ cup shredded coconut (pulsed in food processor)

For Crust

• 22-26 chocolate cookies
• 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

Lime Filling adapted from Joe's Stone Crab Key Lime Pie

• 3 egg yolks
• 4 limes, zest
• 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
• ¾ cup lime juice

Coconut Meringue

• 4 egg whites
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp cream of tartar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp coconut rum (like Malibu)

Instructions

 

For the Chocolate Cookie Crust

• Combine the dry ingredients and set aside. 
• In a mixer, beat the butter, sugars, and vanilla extract on higher speed until light and creamy.
• Beat in the egg white. Lower the speed and slowly add in the flour mixture spoon by spoon until fully incorporated.
• By hand, add in the coconut and mix in. 
• Take the dough and form a log shape about 8-10 inches long (these cookies are solely for the tart crust, so don't worry too much about how they look. I didn't.) Wrap tightly in wax or parchment paper and twist the two ends. Refrigerate or freeze until firm, at least two hours. 
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On two cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, slice thin rounds from the log of dough, less than 1/2 an inch, and place an inch apart.
• Bake for 10 minutes, until the edges are crisp and the cookie tops are slightly cracked.
• Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes about 30-32 cookies. I made them large because, well, tart.
• You can freeze the cookies in a ziplock bag until ready to make the tart if preferred. When making the tart, add 24-26 cookies to a food processor. Pulse until they are pulverized into an even crumb. Add the butter and sugar and pulse until the crumb looks evenly coated.
• Preheat oven or keep oven on 350 degrees.
• When ready, pack the chocolate crumbs into a greased tart shell with removable bottom. Mine is deep dish so I used most of the crumb mix, but adjust to the size and depth of your tart shell. Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of the shell, pressing the bottom corners so the mix reaches all the way up to the tops of the sides (you can pack down the extra that rises tightly too.) 
• Bake the tart shell for 8-10 minutes, until it appears to "set." Set aside to cool on wire rack while you prepare the lime filling.

For the Lime Filling

• In a mixer, beat the egg yolks and lime zest at a medium/high speed for 3-5 minutes, until they are one light and creamy ingredient.
• Slowly add the condensed milk and continue to beat for an additional few minutes.
• Lower the speed and add lime juice, only mixing in for 10 seconds or so. 
• Pour the lime filling into the tart shell and bake for 10 minutes, until the top can lightly be touched and yet there is a slight jiggle to the center portion. 
• Let sit on a wire rack until completely cooled. Use a container or object at least a foot tall on which to place the tart pan, so that the sides loosen. After a time, loosen and carefully giggle the sides yourself (I even resorted to loosening a few tight bits of crust with a thin blade). Soon, all sides will loosen and you can gently let the side of the tart pan come away from the crust (fingers crossed!). 
• You can leave the tart on the removable bottom and store in refrigerator until it's meringue time. 

For the Coconut Meringue

• In a mixer, and using room temperature eggs, whisk the egg whites, along with the vanilla extract, rum, and cream of tartar until they move from a translucent foam to a thicker foam to an opaque white mixture of soft peaks with slightly foamy sides. This may take a minute or two, or longer.
• Very slowly add in the sugar, allowing at least 30 seconds in between each spoonful. Once the sugar is in and the meringue is glossy, allow it to mix for a minute or two longer, making sure to test the stiffness of its peaks. Don't take it out prematurely. I let it go, and don't regret it. 
• Carefully spoon the meringue over the cold lime chocolate tart. Try not to let it hit the crust (unless, like me, you need to cover up a crust boo boo when removing the tart pan!). Then, the fun part. Use the back of a spoon or a spatula (or a knife) and form the meringue into peaks or whatever shapes you like. I prefer this method to piping, but if you prefer that, do it!
• I happen to have a little baking torch and was raring to use it. If using, torch the tops for a little texture of color and add additional coconut flakes and/or lime zest. 
• Before eating, it's a good idea to freeze the tart for 10-15 minutes or so, but it can happily live in the freezer for a week. 
  

Keyword chocolate, cocoa, coconut, lime, lime tart, limes, meringue, rum, summer, tart, tarts