This key lime pie is at once sweet, salty, citrusy, buttery, creamy, and tangy. With a thick and buttery crust, an easy-to-make filling that's custard-like and sweet, a refreshing and tangy lime flavor and a light and airy whipped cream, this pie is a great combination of everything you love coming together. So follow this detailed guide and make it yourself. Trust us, once you try it, you're going to keep coming back to this recipe, and it's going to become one of your favorites.
Ingredients:
For the graham cracker crust:
For the filling and topping:
For garnish:
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 177°C.
In a food processor or handheld mixer with a bowl, add the graham crackers and macadamia nuts. Blend until they form coarse crumbs.
Then add the sugar and melted butter and stir until fully combined. The mixture will be thick, coarse and sandy. There shouldn't be any large chunks.
Then transfer the mixture into a pan and pat it down with the palms of your hands. Also, stick the crumb mixture to the sides of the dish as a crust. Use the base of a small bowl to press the crust down and hold it in place. You want the crust to be smooth and level, but don't apply too much pressure, or the crust will have cracks and fall apart.
Bake the crust for about 10 minutes. Then remove and set aside. Leave the oven on.
In a bowl, add the condensed milk, lime juice and egg yolks. Whisk really well or use an electric blender. Then add the lime zest. You can add more lime zest if you want a more tangy flavor and a deeper color. Mix it all well together and then pour it into the warmed crust.
Now bake for about 20 minutes. Bake till it's set. The center will still be a bit jiggly. This is fine. Then remove and cool on a wire rack. Then chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Garnish as desired. You can top with whipped cream, a scoop of vanilla or lemon ice cream, lemon slices, macadamia nuts, graham cracker crumbs or anything else that you might want to top it with. You can also use contrasting flavors like chocolate or another zest like orange. Let your creativity fly free here.
Cut into slices and serve cold.
Leftover pie can be stored in the fridge for about 7 days. You can prepare the crust and prebake it up to 3 days in advance, and store it at room temperature. You can also mix in the filling up to 3 days in advance and store it in the fridge. Baked pies can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. Before using, thaw overnight in the fridge, then let it sit at room temperature before serving.
For the crust, instead of combining graham crackers and nuts in the mixture, you can also use only graham crackers and completely skip the nuts. Follow the recipe as is, pre-baking the graham cracker crust for 8 minutes.
If you don't have access to graham crackers, you can also use digestive biscuits instead. Use 180 grams of biscuits, about 12 biscuits in total, with the same amount of nuts and butter. Add one spoonful of extra sugar. And prebake for 10 minutes.
You can use the lime juice and lime zest from the regular limes you have lying around at home, if you don't have access to key limes.
For the key lime juice, if you don't want to juice so many limes that it fills a cup, you can also find store-bought key lime juice.
With the leftover egg whites, you can create meringue to top on top of the pie. Simply mix the egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in a bowl over a pan filled with hot water. Whisk until the mixture thins and the topping forms.