If you were around in the 1980s-1990s, you may remember the obsession with low-fat everything, and finding ways to make “sinful indulgences” into something “guilt-free“. Note the deliberate choice of words, and that we still use that type of psychological framing around food today (and have been for a long time, even prior to the era in question).
The “low-calorie swap” in 16-42: Easy Lime Pie is cottage cheese, which was all the rage in the 1970s as a “healthy” option, but could still be found in a lot of recipes throughout the 80s and 90s.
I feel like even Simply Delicious didn’t really know how to make this pie sound appealing–do you think halved grapes as a garnish can be considered something notable? You can definitely tell this particular recipe was aimed at the dieting/low-calorie crowd.
Take the advice offered in the TIPS section–I’ve made some of their weird cottage cheese desserts before, and it never ends well if you don’t blend the stuff down first.
Ingredients. I don’t have any grapes, so apparently this will not be a festive or appealing pie. I do have everything else, however.
This is the easiest way to make graham crackers into graham cracker crumbs. Food processor go brrrrrrr.
Grating the peel from ONE lime.
Mixed the melted butter into the graham cracker crumbs to make the crust.
I decided to make these somewhat-individual-sized (each one serves 2) for ease of serving and baking. Instead of putting all the crust mix into one big one, I split it amongst the 4 smaller ones.
Added the lime juice and zest into the (already blended) cottage cheese mixture.
Split the mixture amongst the 4 tart pans, and put them on a baking sheet to make it easier to get them in and out of the oven. Plus, if one goes over (for some reason), it’ll be less of a mess in the bottom of my oven.
After baking. This oven is a lot better about not overcooking the top of everything while leaving the insides raw.
I managed to find some non-dairy whip in the freezer that I topped my pie portions with instead of the suggested grapes. I know I’m violating the “low-fat” spirit of the recipe (even though this stuff isn’t terrible for you), but I’ll be okay with it.
Overall, the pie itself isn’t bad, and as long as you blend the cottage cheese, you won’t even know it’s there. It was easy, so I can’t fault them there either. This is good for a “eat it during the week after dinner” dessert (which is how we ate it), but I would stick to the big guns if you’re trying to impress.
Grade: B+
