Recipe Girl®

Key Lime Pie

November 13, 2019

Key Lime Pie is the most wonderful classic pie. It’s the perfect blend of sweet and sour.

Key Lime Pie

If you ever visit the southern states, you’ll see this pie on every dessert menu. Key Lime is also a pie that any good Southern cook has in their collection of recipes. And for good reason– this pie is delicious!

A Key Lime Pie is made up of egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and key lime juice.  No thickening agent is needed in baking this pie. A natural chemical reaction occurs between the egg yolks, key lime juice and sweetened condensed milk, allowing it to thicken on its own. It’s baked for a short amount of time in a graham cracker crust.

Key Lime Pie

History of Key Lime Pie:

Roots of this pie have been traced back to the early 20th century in the Key West area of Florida. Exact origins are unknown, but it’s believed that it may have been concocted by the cook for Key West’s first millionaire, William Curry. In 2006, the Key Lime Pie was voted in as the official pie of the state of Florida! If you’re really a fan of the key lime flavor, you can go to the annual Key Lime Festival every year over Fourth of July weekend.

The popularity of key lime pie has spread to the whole southern region of the United States. It’s now a beloved favorite.

Key Lime Pie

How to make a Key Lime Pie:

First you’ll make a simple graham cracker crust. It’s a blend of graham cracker crumbs and butter. No need to crush your own graham crackers– you can buy a box of the crumbs near the regular graham crackers. The mix is pressed into a pie plate, and then it’s baked for just five minutes.

The filling is a blend of egg yolks, key lime zest, key lime zest and sweetened condensed milk. The pie is baked for only 15 minutes, and then it’s refrigerated until it’s nice and thick and ready for slicing. If you’d like to add garnish, add whipped cream and key lime slices.

slice of Key Lime Pie

A note about key lime juice:

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If you know anything about key limes, then you know that they’re tiny. If you squeeze them to get juice, you’ll be squeezing all day long! You need a cup of key lime juice for this recipe. Instead of squeezing fresh limes, I recommend using Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice. You can buy it on Amazon, or you should be able to locate it in the juice aisle of a good grocery store.

RecipeGirl with Key Lime Pie

Bake this pretty, classic pie, and let me know what you think.  Enjoy!

Here are a few more pie recipes you might like to try:

Key Lime Pie

A southern classic!

CRUST:

  • 8 tablespoons salted butter, (melted)
  • 2 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs

FILLING:

  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated key lime zest
  • 1 cup key lime juice ((see notes below))
  • 2 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk

GARNISH:

  • whipped cream and key lime slices

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

PREPARE THE CRUST:

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the butter and crumbs. Press the crust mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake the crust for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool while you prepare the filling.

PREPARE THE FILLING:

  1. In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the egg yolks. Add the zest, juice and condensed milk. Blend well, scraping the sides and the bottom, until all of the ingredients are incorporated and smooth.

  2. Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 15 minutes. Refrigerate the pie for several hours (or overnight) before serving. It will thicken more as it chills. Serve with whipped cream and lime slices for garnish.

  • *For the key lime juice, I like to use Nellie & Joe’s bottled lime juice. It can usually be found in the juice aisle of your grocery store.

slice of Key Lime Pie

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