Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie
Tags: , ,

A Little Personal History:

Ever since I vacationed as a kid with the family in Key Largo FL, I’ve always looked for key lime pie on a desert menu. Alas, it’s not often there.

One day, a friend, knowing my love of key lime pie, sent me a box of limes from his place in the Keys. Fortunately, it was a big box! After numerous trials and many graham cracker pie crusts later, here’s the mixture that finally satisfied my discerning taste buds.

Description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_lime_pie

Categories: Dessert
Servings: 8
Time: – Preparation:   30 minutes
– Resting:            1 hour (pie mixture and baked pie)
– Cooking:         30 minutes (pie crust and pie)
– Refrigeration:   3+ hours
Equipment: Measuring cups and spoons, 1 medium mixing bowl, grater, whisk, fork, 9″ pie pan, 1 small bowl, cooling rack
Difficulty: Medium

Ingredients (Pie Crust):

  • 16 graham crackers; crushed
  • 3 Tbs sugar
  • 8 Tbs butter

Ingredients (Pie Filling):

  • 2 teaspoon lime zest; grated – green portion only
  • ½ cup fresh key lime juice (approximately 12 Key limes or 3-4 regular limes)
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

Ingredients (Topping):

  • ½ cup whipping cream
  • 2 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Procedure (Pie Crust):

  1. In medium mixing bowl, crush graham crackers, add sugar and mix together. Add butter and stir with fork till well blended.
  2. Transfer mixture into 9″ pie pan and press the bottom and up the sides of pan. Use the flat bottom of a measuring cup or other utensil to ensure a firm crust on the bottom. Clean and dry mixing bowl to use for filling.
  3. Bake in a pre-heated 350°F oven for 12 – 15 minutes until lightly browned. Place on a rack to cool.

Procedure (Pie Filling & Baking):

  1. Grate limes for zest and add to medium mixing bowl.
  2. Squeeze limes for juice and set aside in small bowl. Remove all seeds and pulp.
  3. Separate egg yolks from whites and add yolks to mixing bowl. Save whites for other uses.
  4. Whisk the egg yolks and lime zest together in a bowl until tinted light green. This takes about 2 minutes
  5. Whisk in condensed milk, then lime juice and set aside at room temperature  for 30 minutes or until it thickens.
  6. Pre-heat oven to 325 °F.
  7. Pour the mixture into the pie crust shell and place in center rack of pre-heated oven. Bake 15-20 minutes to set the yolks and kill any salmonella in the eggs. The center should be set but still “wiggles” when “giggled”.
  8. Remove from oven and cool on rack for 30 minutes or to room temperature.
  9. Refrigerate till well chilled (3+ hours).

Procedure (Topping):

  1. In small mixing bowl, add whipping cream, sugar and vanilla. Whisk or use hand blender to whip to desired consistency.
  2. Serve each slice of pie with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

Advanced Preparation:

  • Pie needs to chill for at least 3 hours before serving so pie can be done the day before or even a couple days in advance.

Tips, Notes, and Variations:

  • Take care when grating lime for zest. More than once I’ve accidentally grated some of my thumb’s knuckle into the zest. There’s nothing worse, considering you’ve still got the lime juice to squeeze!
  • If you don’t want to go through the effort of making graham cracker pie crust, store bought works just as well 🙂
  • Rather than whipped cream on top or in addition, some like a light  meringue topping. Use the reserved eggs whites to make your meringue. In this case, you’ll want to spread the meringue on top of pie before baking and add 5 minutes to baking time.