Key Lime Pie Recipe
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This is a favorite of a lot of people around here, so we thought we’d share it. If you want to do it really fast, use a prepared graham-cracker crust.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 cups graham-cracker crumbs
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 cups sweetened condensed milk, from 2 (14-ounce) cans
- 8 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup freshly squeezed Key lime juice
- 2 tablespoons grated Key lime zest
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat oven to 375°F. Combine graham-cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar in a medium bowl; mix well. Press into a 9-1/2-inch deep-dish pie plate, and bake until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled.
- Lower oven to 325°F. In a medium bowl, gently whisk together condensed milk and egg yolks. Add Key lime juice and zest and mix until smooth. Pour into the prepared, cooled crust to the top edge. Shake to even if needed.
- Return pie to oven, and bake until the center is set but still quivers when the pan is nudged, 15 to 17 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
- Chill before serving, using the freezer to quick-chill for 10–15 minutes if in a hurry. Garnish with whipped cream (about 2 cups liquid).
Beverage Pairing: King Estate Vin Glace Pinot Gris, Oregon. Good Key lime pie is punchy, sharp, sweet, and fresh—thus the wine needs to match that. Those are all good adjectives to describe ice wine, and this one from cool Oregon has a nice mix of tropical fruit flavors and honeyed richness. The acidity and sweetness are astounding.
this recipe is WAY TOO SWEET! The condensed milk overpowers the lime flavor. yuck. will not make this one again
I just paid $1 for 40 key limes at El Rancho Super Mercado. WOW. key lime pie here i come!!
Is it ok to make the key lime pie two days ahead? Should it be kept in the refrigerator?
Let me tell you. if I had my last meal on earth I chose key lime pie for dessert.
1. you can sometimes find bags of Key limes at Walmart. $3-4 per bag. Or at Mexican grocers.
2. The ONLY way to juice these without driving yourself around the bend is a hand-held Mexican lime juicer. Much faster.
tip: after you juice, give it a quarter turn and juice again. There's a bit more in there.
You can get them at walmart or keep an eye out at Goodwill. The very basic metal ones really do work better than the fancy plastic ones. Cheapest are at Mexican groceries.
3. I tried a recipe -that of course I lost - where you whip 1/2 cup heavy cream into the filling before baking. it was gorgeous.
Now i want to try separating the eggs -beating up the egg whites semi-stiff - before baking.
4. Love the ice cream cone crumbs idea. I use ginger snaps alone or gingersnaps and shortbread or animal crackers. And a handful of pecans ground into it. It's just wonderful
this is my default St. Patrick's Day dessert after corned beef and cabbage. Made it one year, requested ever after.
-gala1
I ususally don't put sugar in my graham cracker crust. If it's too sweet, just don't put any sugar in it. I think the sweetness of the graham crackers is good enough for the crust. Also, I use my garlic press to juice the fresh key limes. Works like a gem!
I ususally don't put sugar in my graham cracker crust. If it's too sweet, just don't put any sugar in it. I think the sweetness of the graham crackers is good enough for the crust. Also, I use my garlic press to juice the fresh key limes. Works like a gem!
Can someone explain to me how to get the zest from a key lime without getting zest from your fingers as well?
Nellie &Joes is actually Persian Lime ... not Key Lime juice. Read the label ... it states Key West 'Lime Juice'. When I make my Key Lime Pie I like to use juice from a company called Florida Key West, Inc. They bottle authentic Key Lime Juice on the west coast of Florida.
adirao--using whole eggs will not give the soft custard texture of the original recipe. Egg whites contain lots of proteins which harden (think hard-boiled egg) when subjected to heat. So stick with egg yolks for the softest texture.
(The best quiches contain only egg yolks)
How sweet is the crust? Most key lime pies I've had, the crust has been my main problem. Usually too sweet.
How sweet is the crust? Most key lime pies I've had, the crust has been my main problem. Usually too sweet.
I made this recipe but, instead of 3/4 cup key lime juice, I used 3/4 cup of passion fruit puree (found frozen in the Latin foods section, I let it melt completely first). It worked deliciously to make a passion fruit custard.
If you're in a pinch and want a super-easy, delicious key lime pie, look at the recipe on the side of the bottle for "Nellie and Joe's Key Lime Juice," found in most grocery stores. It's 3 egg yolks, one can of sweetened condensed milk and 1/2 cup of Nellie and Joe's juice. I cheat and use a store-bought graham cracker crust (or even better yet - the little individual pie crusts) and bake it for 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Yum!!
we recently vactioned in the florida keys and brought home "Kermits' key lime juice. the recipe for the pie is on the label and i have to say it is my new favorite pie. I can't even imagine it being any better by using fresh limes.
I'm going to try the recipe with 8 egg yolks.
My standard recipe that I used to make many years ago only had 4 yolks. Think of how much richer it will be with 8 yolks!
Rat under paper, thanks for tip on the 8' square pan & dipping frozen into chocolate. I'm going to a Christmas party a week from today & am thinking about making this.
A question tho - once frozen & then dipped, do you put it back into the freezer til you are ready to eat it? How does it hold up once it's dipped in chocolate and sitting out while you're eating it?
The best ever key lime pie I ever had was at the now defunct Frangista in Destin, FL. The graham cracker crust was brushed with dark chocolate before being filled. Of course, the filling was really rich & very tart as well as the crust being perfect. Sorry to say I only had it once. Have no idea what happened to that pastry chef.
The second runner up goes to Chef Pete Vazquez of the former Marisol Restaurant in New Orleans. Now that I see this recipe I wonder if his secret was to use more yolks.
Have tried all variations and find fresh key limes worth the effort.
I made my pie according to Ina Garten's recipe for Frozen Key Lime Pie, except I used half brown-sugar in making the crust, and baked the the pie in an 8" square pan.
When the pie was frozen, I cut it into squares, each of which I dipped into melted dark chocolate. Wowie!
Have tried bottled key lime juice and find it to be an inadequate substitute for fresh key limes. If these are unavailable IMO a better choice is half fresh lemon/half fresh lime to equal total amount of key lime. I use a Rosle garlic press to squeeze the key lime halves.
One of these babies will make fast work of squeezing those limes:
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.co...
yes, LJS. "tall" should be "deep dish." i'll change it right now. thanks for noticing and sorry it affected your outcome!
I hold with those who think it's worth squeezing the limes by hand, even if it takes half the afternoon--the pie needs the tartness to stand up to the richness of the eggs and milk. To save time I'd use a prepared crust.
OK, made this pie this weekend... it does NOT fit into a "regular" (I.e. NOT a "deep dish" pie plate-is that what "tall" means?) nine-inch pie plate-we did an emergency transfer to a quiche dish and all worked well.
But the real point is, it is a terrifc recipe and well worth the finicky business of squishing those small limes! BTW, my gang was evenly split between the whipped cream topping and I only put it on half...rather odd looking but the side without turned out to be MY favourite.
I use a recipe that does indeed use half the sweetened condensed milk and only 3 eggs, but the difference is that my recipe also calls for beating the egg yolks till fluffy (as fluffy as yolks can get) and then adding the condensed milk and beating a bit more..so with less, it fills the pie but probably the air bubbles help...
the key lime juice is THE way to go if you can find it. it's actually not as bitter as the real thing and saves tons of time...i'm going to try the 8 eggs as my regular recipe uses 4 but then you do the meringue thing on top...which I'm not a fan of. I had the VERY best key lime pie last month in Seattle at the Brooklyn Oyster House OMG!!!
I have never cooked the eggs in my Key Lime pie recipe, whihc is very like HALF of the one above and never had a difficulty.Having said that, I would not serve it to a very elderly person, a very young child or anyone elsewho might be immune-compromised....same with my Caesar Salad recipe.
What happens if you add whole eggs, so 4 or 6 whole instead of 8 yolks? For those who dislike using half eggs...
This recipe is similar to, and roughly doubles the one I discovered in Saveur magazine a few years back. That recipe never filled the crust.
What I have discovered is that if you use good fresh limes (Here in Los Angeles, tiny yellow key limes are available seasonally at farmers markets,or failing that, tart, tart, tart local green limes
work) and fresh (not grocery store) eggs, folks will attack the pie and lick everything clean.
The few times I made it with old condensed milk, average limes, and grocery store eggs, the pie wasn't up to my standards.
I believe that simple recipes made with fresh ingredients are best.
I was just on Floribbean's website (they produce a fairly nice bottled key lime juice that has no preservatives... when key limes are hard to come by. I think William-Sonoma and King Arthur's Catalog sells it) and their key lime pie uses much less of everything... and is uncooked. Has anyone made a key lime pie with uncooked eggs? Do you feel they are using the same concept of chemically "cooking" the eggs, the way ceviche does fish, thereby making them safe to eat uncooked by heat? (They also use bloomed but unheated gelatin, which I think is strange, because gelatin is grainy when not unheated... again, is it the acidic juice that dissolves it by breaking down the granules? I must experiment.) It's not the first time I've seen a key lime recipe with uncooked eggs... there's a woman down in the Keys (I believe) who makes frozen pie wedges covered in chocolate-- she doesn't cook hers batter either.
Bottled key lime juice is a pretty decent substitute for the actual thing, but I think by the heating process, it kills some of the original flavor, as all things pasteurized don't taste exactly like the "real" thing. Another good substitute for key limes is regular limes (still hard suckers to juice) with a bit of lemon juice for the missing additional tartness. Insofar as crusts go, I've used a bit of crushed ginger cookies and some coconut (fresh, sweetened, unsweetened-- depends on one's preference really) mixed in with the graham crackers, and it gives it a nice twist.
Zenana, it's true that key limes are smaller, but they are a great deal more tart, and make a HUGE difference vs. regular limes in a key lime pie.
For me, I'd prefer bottled key lime juice vs. fresh standard limes, it's that important.
Nope, pepperminta. Just made this pie and 8 yolks fit perfectly in one 9 1/2-inch pie crust. BTW, it was delicious.
unless i'm reading this wrong, this is simply too much filling for one pie...even an 9 inch crust. 8 egg yolks in a single pie? i think this is doubled.
i usually make this w/ 4 egg yolks, 1 can condensed milk...the amount of zest and key lime juice is ok...maybe 1/2 - 2/3 cup key lime juice is better.
but if you make this recipe as listed, have 2 pie crusts on hand.
btw: key limes are seasonal --at least in los angeles! the only market i've found them at is a random Jons (not VONS..Jons) in the san fernando valley. they are very inexpensive there. otherwise, my usual markets/farmer's markets do NOT carry them.
they do have a different flavor than persian limes (if you are sensitive to that taste) so if you can find them, it's worth the trouble....just be wary of their size - it takes a while to squeeze all the juice from those tiny limes.
I make the pie this way too and it is delicious..bon appetit
I also like Emily Lucchetti's use of sugar cones instead of graham crackers for the crust in her book "A passion for ICE CREAM". Yum!
I always toss in some sea salt.
FUN AND AMAZING TRIVIA: the ORIGINAL original Key Lime Pie was made with Key Limes grown in the Florida Keys until being wiped out by a hurricane in the 1940s, sweetened condensed milk or plain condensed milk and sugar because that's all they could get and pelican eggs because that's all they had until someone started raising chickens for eggs in the Keys. I don't think they did the graham cracker thing, either.
Thanks for clearing that up for me! As you can see Im a biginner but tips like this are just what I was hoping for from Chow.
Im off to bake...
does Chow have reference page if I need any more explainations? Thanks again - Jan
For Jakotik:
Key lime zest is basically the outer green part of the lime. If you cut a lime in half you'll see (from outside to inside) the zest (less than a mm.), the rind (the thicker white portion), then the juicy flesh. Lime zest can either be obtained by cutting portions of the lime and removing the white pith. You can also use a fine shredder to get the zest. At all costs you should avoid getting any of the white part in your zest since it's bitter and takes away from whatever recipe.
Please, could someone tell me what the heck is key lime zest? I clicked on the link but only got a history of Limes (whih is nice). Can I make it myself? Can I buy it here in Europe?
this looks suspiciously like the Cook's Illustrated/America's test kitchen recipe, which is the one I always use. They say you don't have to use keylimes, there's no taste difference and their size makes them harder to handle.
Easy and delicious!