The Baked guys are on tour! Today, September 18th at 5pm, Matt & Renato will appear at the Lenox Square Williams-Sonoma in GA. Also, Wednesday, September 19th at 12pm, they’ll be at King Street Kress Bldg Williams-Sonoma in SC and on Thursday, September 20th at 6:00pm, at the Annapolis Mall Williams-Sonoma in MD. Come for the pumpkin almond cake demo, giveaways, and more. Click here for more details.
BAKED ELEMENTS is finally here! In order to celebrate the third BAKED book, from our friends Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, the folks here at ABRAMS are whipping up some delicious goods. We have quite the staff of bakers, so make sure to check out last week’s blog by Matt Dinda (Crunchy Peanut Butter Banana Bread) and future blogs featuring cinnamon, pumpkin, booze, and more!
The element from the book I chose to sneak preview just for you is “Lemon and Lime.” As stated by the Baked boys themselves, “lemon and lime are the brightest and shiniest flavors in our bakery.” I could not agree more. Lemons are like sunshine exploding in your mouth, and limes add just the right amounts of tang and sour, which is a favorite flavor of mine.
From the second chapter, I gave the Sunrise Key Lime Tarts a whirl. I experienced a mini tragedy during crust production, which went a little like this: while making the pretzel crusts, I burned my arm on the stove, causing me to flail, followed by cracked crusts all over my kitchen. Tragic, right?
Alas, I did not give up! I continued into the wee hours of the morning whisking the filling and fluffing the cream topping. It was ALL WORTH IT. These key lime tarts are the perfect mix of tart and sweet, along with the buttery salty goodness from the pretzel crust. The whipped topping alone is scrumptious (my finger made a few guilty trips into the bowl after the pies were complete).
This recipe is a keeper, and I will undoubtedly be going back for round two, hopefully a little less klutzy. The Baked boys keep the recipe uncomplicated. All you’ll need are some eggs, pretzels, butter, dark brown sugar, limes, cream and condensed milk, and some sugar and tequila!
Before leaving you, and since we do not live in the Sunshine State, where key limes are pretty much everywhere, I will unleash my secret: a bottle of fresh-squeezed key lime juice from Whole Foods (its also organic, of course). It comes in under $5, and after you can use it in cocktails, sauces, and more key lime tarts! Plus, it’s much easier than squeezing tons of limes.
Stay tuned for more BAKED ELEMENTS recipes! And yes, those are Heather Ross Prints in the background. Cheers!
Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, photographs by Tina Rupp (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2012) is available now wherever books are sold!
Rachel Poloski is an Administrative Assistant for Production at ABRAMS.
