Key Lime Pie
Key lime pie is a graham cracker crust filled with a baked custard of egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and tart lime juice, chilled until firm and finished with whipped cream. Real key limes are small, fussy little things, which is exactly why most people, including most Florida kitchens, use bottled key lime juice instead and nobody notices the difference. This one’s rich, genuinely tart, and doesn’t need a special trip for hard-to-find limes to make it right. For another no-fuss make-ahead dessert, try our lemon posset.
Quick answer: Key lime pie is a graham cracker crust filled with a baked custard of egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and key lime juice, chilled until firm and topped with whipped cream. It takes about 45 minutes of hands-on time plus a few hours to chill, and serves 8.
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350F (175C). Combine the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and sugar in a bowl until evenly moistened. Press firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until just set, then let cool while you make the filling.
Reduce the oven temperature to 325F (163C). In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks until light and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the sweetened condensed milk and whisk until smooth, then whisk in the lime juice and zest just until combined.
Pour the filling into the cooled crust and bake for 15 minutes, until the edges are set but the center still has a slight jiggle. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
When ready to serve, whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar together to soft peaks. Spread or pipe over the chilled pie, slice, and serve cold.
Questions people actually ask
Key limes are smaller, more aromatic, and more tart than the Persian limes sold in most grocery stores. They're also more work to juice, since you need quite a few to get half a cup. Bottled key lime juice, or even regular lime juice, are both completely normal substitutes and what most home versions actually use.
No. Meringue is actually one of the more traditional toppings, believed to have carried over from lemon meringue pie recipes, but whipped cream is just as common and popular today. If you want a meringue topping instead, whip 4 egg whites with 1/2 cup sugar to stiff, glossy peaks and bake it on top of the filling for the last few minutes instead of chilling with cream.
Yes, a no-bake version swaps the egg yolks for 8 ounces of softened cream cheese folded with whipped cream, giving a lighter, mousse-like filling that just needs to chill, no oven required. It's a genuinely different texture from this baked custard version, worth trying both to see which you prefer.
The filling is, but a standard graham cracker crust isn't. Swap in gluten-free graham crackers, which are widely available, and the rest of the recipe needs no changes.
Yes, it freezes well for up to 2 to 3 months. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and foil before freezing, and add the whipped cream topping fresh after thawing overnight in the fridge rather than freezing it on.
It's tied to the Florida Keys, with a commonly told story crediting a cook known as 'Aunt Sally' in 19th-century Key West. Like a lot of regional dish origin stories, the exact details are more folklore than documented fact, but its Florida Keys roots and its use of shelf-stable condensed milk (fresh milk didn't keep well in the Keys before refrigeration) are well established. It's been Florida's official state pie since 1965.
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