Key Lime pie is an easy pie to make and barely involves any actual baking. A perfect summer treat!
Warm weather has finally arrived in my corner of the world, so for our weekend treat, I made a key lime pie.
When I was younger, we used to spend Christmas break at our condo in Florida. One year, we got a bottle of key lime juice and using my mom’s Maida Heatter cookbook, I set out to make a key lime pie. Boy was this pie easy and so delicious! It quickly became my signature dessert as a teenager. My recipe has altered a little bit from that time, because Maida Heatter’s recipe wasn’t cooked and I prefer to bake the pie to ensure there’s no salmonella present from the egg yolks. I also like the smooth custard texture of the baked filling. Even with the baking, it’s still an extremely easy pie to make and so refreshing! I use fresh lime juice now instead of bottled because it tastes much better. This pie is the perfect summer treat:)
I like to add a good bit of lime zest to the pie to offset the sweetness of the condensed milk and graham cracker crust, but you can adjust according to your taste. I also like to put 1/4 cup of chopped pecans in the crust, but you can just increase the graham cracker crumbs by 1/4 cup if you want to make this nut-free. This pie is fantastic served with whipped cream. If you want to stabilize your whipped cream like I did, so that it holds it’s shape for a day or two, I’ve included directions for that.
Easy Key Lime Pie
Key Lime Pie is delicious so easy to make with just a few key ingredients! Key limes are not necessary for this recipe but fresh limes are a must! If you want to omit the nuts in the crust, increase the graham cracker crumbs by 1/4 cup.
Ingredients
-
For the Crust
- For the Pie
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F
- Grease a 9-inch pie plate.
- In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, pecans, sugar and cinnamon. Pour melted butter over top and stir to combine.
- Press crumb mixture evenly on the bottom and up the sides of your prepared pan.
- Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on rack until filling is ready.
- In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and lime zest and lime juice until well combined.
- Stir in condensed milk and mix to combine. Mixture will thicken slightly.
- Pour into baked crust and bake for 20-25 minutes until mixture is set but still jiggles slightly in the centre.
- Let cool on rack for one hour then put in the fridge to cool completely, about 3 hours. Serve topped with whipped cream.
Stabilized Whipped Cream
This stabilized whipped cream is perfect for piping and will hold its shape for hours. This recipe make 2 cups.
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a small bowl sprinkle gelatin over top of water and let stand 5 minutes.
- Heat gelatin in microwave until dissolved, about 20 seconds. Let cool slightly.
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, whip cream, sugar and vanilla to soft peaks.
- With mixer on low, slowly pour in gelatin.
- Increase speed and whip to stiff peaks.
- Cream is now ready to either be pipped or spread over top of pie.
In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, pecans, sugar and cinnamon. Pour melted butter over top and stir to combine.
Pour melted butter over top and stir to combine.
Press crumb mixture evenly on the bottom and up the sides of your prepared pan. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden. Let stand on rack until filling is ready.
In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and lime zest and lime juice until well combined.
Stir in condensed milk and mix to combine. Mixture will thicken slightly.
Pour into baked crust and bake for 20-25 minutes until mixture is set but still jiggles slightly in the centre.
Serve with whipped cream.
What will you do with the 6 egg whites?
Sorry. I meant “What will you do with the 4 egg whites?”
Probably pavlova
Sometimes if I don’t want to do another dessert we make scrambled eggs with extra whites.
This sounds amazing
[…] As a teenager, I discovered Key Lime Pie and that became a signature dish. You can see my recipe here. But if I made other pies, I rarely made pie crust from scratch until the last few […]
[…] that I already have a recipe for Key Lime Pie, I figured I would use that recipe as a starting point. I made a reduced amount of graham cracker […]