Carlota de limón icebox cake?

[MelissaH]

I was catching up on my blog reading, and hit a post about icebox cakes. I've only ever made one icebox cake in my life, and it was delicious, using the classic chocolate wafers and whipped cream but flavored with Red Bird peppermint puffs. (I got the recipe from an article about the company that makes the candy.) Anyway, while the blog post itself was interesting, the first comment (at least as I currently see it) caught my attention, because it described a Mexican icebox cake that looked very different to me because it didn't use whipped cream. The commenter called this icebox cake a carlota de limón, and described it as being made from maria cookies, lime juice, and sweetened condensed milk. I adore limes!

 

So...I can find recipes on line, but has anyone made this cake before? Do you have a tried-and-true recipe that you'd be willing to share? Please?

 

Thanks!

[Darienne]

Is it lemon or is it lime?  And could you give your recipe please?  I'd love to try it.  And I've found that I can always sub lime for lemon in my current favorites.  Thanks. 

[MelissaH]

2 hours ago, Darienne said:

Is it lemon or is it lime?  And could you give your recipe please?  I'd love to try it.  And I've found that I can always sub lime for lemon in my current favorites.  Thanks. 

The comment on the blog said lime. As far as a recipe, all I have is what Google tells me. I could try a bunch, but I'd love something that I know has been tested.

[Kerry Beal]

It's certainly a mixture I've made before for the filling of a lime pie - don't see why it wouldn't work as the 'whipped cream' part of the icebox cake. 

[MelissaH]

7 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

It's certainly a mixture I've made before for the filling of a lime pie - don't see why it wouldn't work as the 'whipped cream' part of the icebox cake. 

Do you know your proportions, off the top of your head? Maria cookies aren't super-sweet, which is one reason why I think this combo appeals to me.

[Kerry Beal]

Can of milk and 1/2 cup lime juice sounds familiar. Add the lime zest too.

[Kerry Beal]

Another mixture that might work is what we used for a big fluffy lime pie when I was a kid. It had a graham crust on the bottom and nilla wafers around the sides. You chilled the can of evaporated milk in the bowl, along with the beaters -

 

• 1 can evaporated skimmed milk
• 1 pkg lime gelatin powder
• ½ cup boiling water
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup lemon juice and grated zest
• green food coloring

Make the jello with the boiling water, sugar and add the lemon juice. Chill. When it is starting to thicken fold into the beaten evaporated milk. 

[JohnT]

Ah, that is known as "fluff" here (and in the US, I think). I do the same but use a can of crushed pineapple and use the juice from the can to make the jello (called jelly here).

 

I made "icebox" cake using mock cream (Orly Whip), caramelised condensed milk and basically any flavour you can think of - especially chocolate mint. I use a local coconut cookie called a "tennis biscuit" for layering. Very popular dessert here in summer.

[MelissaH]

My midwestern family-in-law have any number of desserts that use Cool Whip or other brands of whipped topping: dirt cake, Ho-Ho bars, strawberry pretzel salad, and the like. Pumpkin pie always gets a glob of whipped topping on top. And I would rather go without than have to eat the fake stuff.

 

One reason I think the classic icebox cake, with the chocolate wafers and whipped cream, works so well is that the moisture in the whipped cream softens the cookies, and the cookies absorb the moisture so the whipped cream doesn't look or taste like it's weeping.

 

And now that I think about Kerry's pie filling, I can see that icebox cakes and many pies are close culinary cousins. The difference is that in a pie, you want the shell to stay crisp, whereas in an icebox cake, you'd prefer the filling to start out maybe a little wetter so the cookies soften.

[Kerry Beal]

Here is the translation from online -

 

6 pieces lime 
1 can of evaporated milk (360 ml) - my can was 300 ml
1 can of condensed milk (397 g)
2 packets of biscuit maria  (170 g) - I used 2 sleeves which is 400 grams 

 

Squeeze the limes and reserve the juice.

Blend the evaporated milk, condensed milk and juice until you get a cream.

In a medium bowl, place the biscuits and add the mixture above, look for layers of cookies and the mixture you prepared. Fill the mold perfectly.

Garnish with small pieces of cookie or lime wedges.

Refrigerate for 2 hours and serve.

Edited July 13, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[JohnT]

6 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Here is the translation from online -

 

6 pieces lime 
1 can of evaporated milk (360 ml) - my can was 300 ml
1 can of condensed milk (397 g)
2 packets of biscuit maria  (170 g) - I used 2 sleeves which is 400 grams 

 

Squeeze the limes and reserve the juice.

Blend the evaporated milk, condensed milk and juice until you get a cream.

In a medium bowl, place the biscuits and add the mixture above, look for layers of cookies and the mixture you prepared. Fill the mold perfectly.

Garnish with small pieces of cookie or lime wedges.

Refrigerate for 2 hours and serve.

 

 

I am supprised that the mixture was not airated to produce a less dense mixture, such as whipping the evaporated milk to a stiff foam and folding into the other ingredients. It will be interesting to read your feed-back on how it turned out.

[Darienne]

14 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Here is the translation from online -

 

6 pieces lime 
1 can of evaporated milk (360 ml) - my can was 300 ml
1 can of condensed milk (397 g)
2 packets of biscuit maria  (170 g) - I used 2 sleeves which is 400 grams 

 

Squeeze the limes and reserve the juice.

Blend the evaporated milk, condensed milk and juice until you get a cream.

In a medium bowl, place the biscuits and add the mixture above, look for layers of cookies and the mixture you prepared. Fill the mold perfectly.

Garnish with small pieces of cookie or lime wedges.

Refrigerate for 2 hours and serve.

 

I am assuming that 6 pieces of lime means 6 limes?  And the photo on Kicking Back in Manitoulin...did you cover the cake with whipping cream in the end?  Thanks.

[Kerry Beal]

Yup - 6 limes and it resulted in greater than 1 cup of juice with the limes I had. and decorated with lightly sweetened whipped cream with a touch of vanilla.

 

 

[Darienne]

I'm sending husband Ed to the grocery store tomorrow as part of his in-town errands, asking him to buy me 2 packages of Maria biscuits.  He's not the greatest finder of things which I ask for nor asker for help.  I'm not complaining...he's doing the grocery shopping... If he can't find these biscuits, what others might easily be a substitute for trying out this cake?  Thanks.  

[lindag]

18 minutes ago, Darienne said:

I'm sending husband Ed to the grocery store tomorrow as part of his in-town errands, asking him to buy me 2 packages of Maria biscuits.  He's not the greatest finder of things which I ask for nor asker for help.  I'm not complaining...he's doing the grocery shopping... If he can't find these biscuits, what others might easily be a substitute for trying out this cake?  Thanks.  

 

I know how that goes...I sent hubs to the store for something (can't remember what now, it was some time ago).

He called me on his cell, "They don't have any"

I said, "Yes they do, ask somebody where it is".

Of course, they did have it and he did then ask.

 

[Darienne]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

 

I know how that goes...I sent hubs to the store for something (can't remember what now, it was some time ago).

He called me on his cell, "They don't have any"

I said, "Yes they do, ask somebody where it is".

Of course, they did have it and he did then ask.

 

Ah a superior type who will ask.  To risk the mod's ire:  I have on Ed's wall:  

Real Men Don't Take Advice:  It is far better for a man to go down in flames of his own volition than to survive as a testimonial to someone else's superior wisdom

so sayeth Michael Ulmer   (I don't know who Michael Ulmer is but he is a wise man.)

 

(And Ed never remembers to call until he's on his way home.  What can I tell you?  Still he's a wonderful man and has put up with me for over 60 years.)

[Kerry Beal]

I've rarely seen a grocery store that doesn't have Maria biscuits. The ones I found here are no name - 800 gram box. If you had to substitute I'd get the Dare Simple Pleasures Social Tea. They are actually my favourite cookie for icebox cakes and for a dessert I used to make when we were sailing that had cubes of jello, broken up social teas and whipped cream. 

[chromedome]

I buy mine at Dollarama. I like them because they're not too sweet, and go equally well with coffee or tea. 

[Tri2Cook]

This discussion sent me looking at icebox cakes in general. No specific version in mind, just to see what sounded good. While cruising through a site that had a bunch of different versions, I stumbled upon an in-English version of the one being discussed here. Nothing different about it from what Kerry already tracked down other than instead of asking for 6 limes, it asks for 1/2 cup lime juice. I'd be inclined to side with Kerry on that one. Whenever I make key lime pie, I always use more lime than the recipes generally call for. There is one thing in the assembly instructions in the one I found that I think I would ignore. It says to put a layer of the filling in the bottom, dip each cookie individually in the filling as they're layered in the pan and then dump the remaining filling over the top. If I decided to make it someday, I see myself just doing layers of cookie and filling without messing around with all that dipping each cookie stuff.

[Darienne]

11 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

I've rarely seen a grocery store that doesn't have Maria biscuits. The ones I found here are no name - 800 gram box. If you had to substitute I'd get the Dare Simple Pleasures Social Tea. They are actually my favourite cookie for icebox cakes and for a dessert I used to make when we were sailing that had cubes of jello, broken up social teas and whipped cream. 

 

8 hours ago, chromedome said:

I buy mine at Dollarama. I like them because they're not too sweet, and go equally well with coffee or tea. 

Thanks, both of you.  We do have $ramas.  And DH will be under instructions to ASK at whatever grocery store he goes to.  Plus, for just in case, he'll have a note re Digestives, Arrowroots, Social Teas, etc, ...I can't lose.  (I guess. )

And, as per Tri2Cook, I always up the lime juice amount called for in any recipe.

[Darienne]

I'm looking at the recipe again and thinking to myself...what about a dark chocolate ganache poured on top of it all instead of whipped cream?  DH will be buying the cookies either today or tomorrow, so I'll report back about the chocolate addition.

[MelissaH]

Well, I have the ingredients for both the recipe from on line and Kerry's pie recipe. Things are busy around here this weekend, but I'm hoping to have a chance to try one or the other on Monday!

 

<gosh, what did I start?>

[JohnT]

3 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

Well, I have the ingredients for both the recipe from on line and Kerry's pie recipe. Things are busy around here this weekend, but I'm hoping to have a chance to try one or the other on Monday!

 

<gosh, what did I start?>

Oh, nothing other than food, beautiful food! (With a twist of lime)

[Tri2Cook]

Just put mine in the fridge. As I mentioned, I perused the internet checking out icebox cakes in general and found quite a lot of variations... some of which sounded tasty. But none of them sounded better suited to the sunny warm weekend we're having than the one being discussed here. So it's what I did. Somewhat. A trip to the store revealed Maria biscuits are not to be had here but the suggested Digestive and Rich Tea alternatives were there. After a moments hesitation while the little voice in my head said "just follow the recipe", I exited the store with gingersnaps instead. So we'll see how that goes.

[Darienne]

And mine also.  The Maria cookies came from the $rama.  Followed the recipe except that I whipped up the evaporated milk first before adding the condensed milk and the lime.  Did not dunk biscuits, but simply did the layer thing.  Then into the fridge with a later addition of a 54% ganache topping.  Looks good.  Tastes good.

I did have this other idea.  Our Annual Dog Weekend is coming up...thus trying out the new cake idea...and one of our traditions is the Saturday night Slushy Margaritas.  (Well, the dogs are all in bed, you know, by that hour.)  I've done Margarita Pie and Margarita Ice Cream also and how about the Ice Box cake a la Margarita?  I'd swap the chocolate for whipped cream in that case.  I might just try it.

Thanks Melissa H for starting this thread!