Spiced Cookie Dough Cups With Key Lime Filling

It's that time of the year again!

Lately I've really been craving some key lime pie! So when the stores started selling spiced cookies ("Spekulatius" here in Germany) I figured I'd try to make mine a little different this time and give the key lime pie a seasonal taste!

Even though it technically is a key lime pie, the star of the show
is the crust today. We want the crust to taste like christmas and be a thick, crispy yet chewy, yummy situation. While you could go with graham crackers, I recommend going with Spekulatius, or spiced cookies in general.

Try it out and I promise you won't be disappointed! Perfect to serve guests, as each of those little pies is filling and makes for a really nice presentation when plated!

The following recipe is enough for about 5 little pies.

For the crust you will need:

• 8oz./ 220g Spekulatius/Spiced cookies
• Up to 1.5oz / 50g butter - this will depend on your cookies, more on that later
• 1.5oz. / 50g brown sugar
• A pinch of salt
• A muffin tray

For the filling you will need:

• 6oz. / 175g Cream cheese
• 6oz. / 175g Greek yoghurt
• 1 oz. / 30 g Powdered sugar
• 2 limes
• One vanilla bean
• A pinch of salt
• Optionally some green food coloring

You will also need some whipped cream or berries to plate everything up nicely, though this is totally up to you!

To make your pie crust, crush up the cookies as finely as you can. The goal here is to have no big pieces that can't be pressed into the mold later on, which will mess up our crust later on. Its easy to crush up everything without making a mess, if you fold the cookies into a clean kitchen towel and then use something like a hammer to crush them. Add the sugar, the cookies and about half a teaspoon of salt into a large mixing bowl. Melt your butter. Now with the butter it depends on how much fat your cookies are already bringing to the table. I would recommend starting with half the butter and later on adding more if necessary. Pour your melted butter into the mixing bowl and mix to combine. If your mixture is too dry, add more butter, if its too wet, add more cookie crumbs.

Preheat your oven to 350°F/ 180°C.

Use a metal muffin tray and fill in the dough. I used about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per crust. With a normal key lime pie we'd want it to be thin and even, but today the pie crust is the star of the show. Don't be afraid to have some thick pie crusts, I think they taste amazing! Use your fingers to push down and up the sides. If you want it to look uniformly, cut off any pieces that stick over. I didn't - again, because the crust is the star today!

Once your oven is hot, pop these little angels inside and bake for about 10-20 minutes or until the upper outside is starting to get a "visible crunch" / aka. turn brown. If you have too much butter in your dough it will seep out and pool at the bottom. If that happens, use a paper towel to get rid of the excess butter dont worry it'll turn out fine.

When they're done, take them out and LET COOL COMPLETELY. Maybe even pop them in the fridge at some point. Only then you'll be able to remove them from the tray in one piece. I used a knife to loosen the sides and carefully lifted them out onto a plate.

The filling is really simple to make.

Zest your limes and add into a mixing bowl, together with the cream cheese, sugar, yoghurt and the juice of one of the previously zested limes. Slice in half a vanilla bean and scrape out the inside using something dull, for example a spoon. Add to the mixing bowl. Combine until you have a smooth and fluffy mixture. Now, add about half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of salt. You might want to start with a little bit and add more to taste. Depending on how much you like lime you can now decide to add the juice of one more lime.

That's it, you're done! You'll notice that the zest and the lemon juice have given the mixture a slight green tint. If you want to, you can add some green food coloring to bring out the green more. I chose to do that, as it's a nice contrast to the berries I'll use for plating later on!

Immediately after you're done with the filling, fill it into the little cups we've made. Fill them up and place them onto a plate so we dont have to move them around too much. Find a nice place in the fridge for them and cool at least one hour. The goal is to get the filling to firm up a little bit, so we can enjoy it safely later.

That's it! You're done!

Take your little cutiepies out of the fridge and garnish them with fruit of your liking! The filling should be firm enough for you to press everything in there a little bit. Plate them up and enjoy!