This entire facelift of Joie De Vivre, and its attached trials and tribulations, have been significantly overwhelming. It seems like a whole new ballgame, a whole new language, a whole different – rather parallel – universe. It has been a humbling experience, with pressure mounting with very click. To a naked eye, the hours of work that shows in terms of absolute visual progress is incredibly underrated and impossible to comprehend. But yet, I am happy that the hours that have gone into it are now beginning to show their teeth.
On returning from The Great Grover Stomp, the realisation hit me that I had been separated from my kitchen all weekend, and I had all of Sunday evening to fix that little glitch. So after a little bit of light reading, picking this recipe was an obvious choice – it called out to me as a refreshing and citrusy pick-me-up, ideal to indulge in after a day of travelling and a weekend of stomping!
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup cornflour
- 1 cup butter (salted works well)
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 3 tbs agar agar flakes
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon tumeric powder
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 3 tablespoons corn flour
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest (from two large limes)
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2-3 tbs confectioners’ sugar, to dust the finished bars
- Preheat oven to 175*c and grease a 9" x 7" inch baking pan with cooking spray or butter.
- In a processor, pulse flour, powdered sugar and flour. Add in tablespoonfuls of the butter and pulse, 8 to 10 seconds, and then pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. This cane become softish in the beautiful Indian heat, so don't fret.
- Sprinkle/spread out the mixture into prepared baking pan and press firmly into an even layer with slightly raised sides to hold in the topping. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes and then bake for 40 minutes until golden and biscuity on top.
- Remove from oven and let cool. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.
- In a small saucepan, soak the agar agar flakes in the water for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, zest your limes and squeeze out the juice. Mix the cornflour into the lime juice to dissolve into a white slurry.
- When the agar has been soaking for 15 minutes, turn on the heat and bring to a boil. Boil for about 10 minutes, or until the agar is completely dissolved and the flakes are completely not visible.
- Add the sugar and tumeric and boil until dissolved, about 3 minutes.
- Lower the heat to medium and add the slurry, then add the zest and milk. Wisk constantly until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. It should not be rapidly boiling, but slowly bubbling.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared base, let cool for 20 minutes at room temperate and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until the filling is only slightly jiggly and set.
- Use a sifter or a fine mesh strainer for sprinkle the bars with powdered sugar.
- Slice into squares and serve.
- I found that the lime layer set in just over an hour. No need to wait longer!
- If lemons are available - 1. send me some; and 2. please use them instead of the limes for a more authentic flavour. If like me you don't have access to lemons, the limes work wonderfully well!
- Despite the amount of sugar in the biscuit base and the topping, this gorgeous piece of art has perfect balance- salt, sweet, tart and textured.
