Atlantic Beach Tart

This Atlantic Beach Tart has a Ritz cracker crust and is filled with lemon and key lime juice filling similar to a key lime pie.

I made this Atlantic Beach Tart in honor of the blog turning 17.

You read that right.

17.

As in years.

For 17 years I’ve been creating recipes, photographing them, writing posts, and talking food with whoever wanted to talk food.

However, this is the year I almost quit.

Food blogging used to be about sharing food you love.

And that’s why I still do it.

But the dirty secret they don’t tell you is that the majority food blogs don’t create food for the heck of it anymore.

What does that mean?

They don’t think of a fun new recipe anymore.

There is no spontaneous idea come to their heads and the rush to the kitchen to make it…which is my method. 🙂

What do they do then?

They research.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it?

Do they research a recipe they want to make?

No.

They look on Pinterest, Google, and Tik Tok and see what is trending.

Then they find the top recipes and try to recreate them.

Try to write posts with more keywords and SEO so that they can out rank the top people with that recipe.

Bloggers pay thousands a year (not me) to ranking sites so that they can figure out how to make a popular recipe and then out rank whoever made that recipe.

And for some people that’s all well and good.

But when I got into blogging 17 years ago it’s because I loved to bake and I wanted to connect with others who liked baking.

I belonged to the Daring Bakers…if you are old school you may remember that.

We commented on each others blogs (back when that was a thing).

And we discussed our baking successes and failures.

During the pandemic the world became flooded with new food blogs.

Not because of their desire to be creative and share their love of cooking.

But to make money from home.

And again, that’s fine.

However, we only need so many Best Banana Bread and Best Blueberry Muffin recipes in the world.

Don’t get me wrong.

There are still really creative and awesome bloggers out there.

Jessica (How Sweet Eats) and Heather (Sprinkle Bakes) are two who still inspire me weekly.

But overall, I can visit most blogs and find the same recipes over and over.

Last year I decided to play the game.

Since we take in special needs dogs we are at the vet a lot.

And well, that really adds up quickly.

Blog income is what we use to cover the cost of the dogs care.

So I wanted to make more income.

So I did some research ahead of time.

Only to discover anything I actually wanted to bake doesn’t rank anywhere on Google.

I tried not to ramble on in my post…like I am now.

And all that had me do was start to resent blogging.

A lot.

I’m sure just from this post you get a sense of my displeasure into what food blogging has become.

Just like most things in life…once money gets involved the soul of the activity gets drained.

So last week as the anniversary of the blog rolled around I really thought about if I was done.

And I am.

I’m done trying to play the game.

Because when I do, I don’t want to blog.

I’ve hardly blogged at all in 2022.

I’ve been thoroughly uninspired.

So I decided that it was better to be inspired and not rank in Google than it was to try and rank but make things I didn’t really want to make.

Now on to this pie….well, tart.

But you could make it as a pie.

In my cookbook Holy Sweet! I made Atlantic Beach Thumbprint Cookies.

I had a ton of egg yolks leftover after making creamsicle angel food cake (yes, that will be on the blog) so I thought key lime pie.

But I always make that.

So Atlantic Beach it was.

If you don’t know what it is, it’s a lemon lime pie with the texture of key lime pie.

The pie also does not use graham cracker crumbs.

Instead it uses salty crackers.

Usually Saltines but I love me some Ritz crackers so I used those.

It’s salty and sweet and tart and rather perfect.

Cheers to 17 years of blogging…which I’m sticking with for now. 🙂

Want More Pie/Tart Recipes?

Double Key Lime Pie

Mile High Key Lime Pie

Blackberry Key Lime Tart 

Raspberry Key Lime Pie 

Key Lime Pie Mini Cones

Ingredients

• Ritz Cracker Crust:
• 1 ¾ cups crushed Ritz cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 7-8 TBSP melted unsalted butter
• For the Filling:
• 1/3 cup lemon juice, fresh if possible
• 1/3 cup key lime juice, fresh if possible
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 5 egg yolks
• For the Whipped Cream:
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 TBSP lemon curd
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

1. For the crust:
2. In a large bowl add the Ritz cracker crumbs and powdered sugar.
3. Add about 7 TBSP melted butter.
4. Mix until combined.
5. If it seems like it needs more butter add the remaining TBSP (mine too the full 8 TBSP).
6. Pour contents into a tart  or pie pan and press to form a shell.
7. Bake crust for 15 minutes at 325F.
8. For the Filling:
9. Whisk sweetened condensed milk with the egg yolks.
10. Whisk in cream cheese.
11. Stir in whipping cream, lemon juice and lime juice.
12. Pour filling into the baked tart pan.
13. Bake at 325° for 15 to 20 minutes.
14. Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or overnight.
15. For the Whipped Cream:
16. Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment whisk the cream on high until soft peaks form.
17. Add the lemon curd and powdered sugar and whisk on high until stiff peaks form.
18. Spread whipped cream on tart when ready to serve.