Lime Slice

I recently had an abundance of limes, so made this delicious slice. You could use lemons, oranges or any other citrus, you might just want to adjust the sugar level depending on the sweetness of the juice. The dough can be soft and difficult to handle if you don’t refrigerate it first, and the slice is sticky to cut so dipping the knife into boiling water between cuts helps. I like to serve little squares of this with coffee and an amer (bitter) such as Maidenii Nocturne, but if you have a sweeter palate you may prefer something like Niepoort white port instead.

Makes 24 pieces

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
¾ cup strained lime juice
½ cup plain flour, sifted
Icing sugar, for dusting

Pastry

1½ cups plain flour
½ cup icing sugar, sifted
200g cold butter, diced

Method

Make Pastry: place flour, icing sugar and butter into a food processor and pulse to thoroughly combine.
Tip onto a clean dry work surface and form into a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C.
Place pastry between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and roll into a rectangle.
Transfer to a 30 x 22cm baking paper-lined lamington tin and press evenly into the base.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden.
Remove from oven and reduce oven temperature to 160°C.
Whisk eggs and castor sugar together for a few minutes, until pale and creamy.
Stir in zest and juice, then fold in flour.
Pour over pastry and return to oven for a further 20 minutes or so, until firm.
Set tin aside on a rack to cool completely, then use baking paper to lift slice onto a chopping board.
Cut into squares, dust with icing sugar and serve.