Key lime pie recipe made with high-quality ingredients will make you love this pie even more. Refreshing dessert perfect for any party or occasion. Full of tangy and creamy lime curd complimenting sweet raham cracker base and topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream. Every bite will remind you of warm and refreshing summer.
Why you should make this Key Lime Pie
Why would this recipe be different from the others? Because it’s using the highest quality and rich ingredients, to achieve the best potential in this dessert. The main ingredient here are limes, and you can’t possibly use nothing else then real beautifully green limes. Don’t even try to look at the artificial squeezed lime juice box. It’s simply a must to get real limes and squeeze the lime juice fresh for this key lime pie.
This recipe doesn’t use any thickening agents, so you won’t get altered taste. Simple rich ingredients like sour cream, sweet condensed milk, eggs and heavy cream will set this lime curd naturally in silky smooth rich custard. Essential to let the pie cools in refrigerator, to make sure the curd and all the flavours sets properly. You will get the most rich curd texture and amazing tangy flavour.
If you love tangy key lime, that you should also try Key Lime Cheesecake Tart. Additional layer of classic creamy cheesecake as the base for the Key Lime Pie, brings key lime desserts to another level.
Ingredients
Graham cracker crumbs makes wonderuful base for keylime pie. If you are not a fan of Graham crackers, you can use digestive cookies.
Unsalted butter keeps together well the crumbs for the base of keylime pie. Make sure using unsalted butter, because the crackers are already lightly salted and there is no need for extra salt.
Sweetened condensed milk has wonderful smooth texture that will take care of sweetening the whole pie. It’s condensed form makes luscious creamy lime curd.
Egg yolks are biding agent in the curd and will also add more smoothness to the lime curd.
Sour cream adds more creamy texture and breaks down the overall sweetness.
Lime juice & zest the star of the keylime pie. Tangy lime juice and zest can’t miss.
Heavy cream is used in the lemon curd for extra smooth and creamy texture, as well as decoration on top of the keylime pie.
How to make Key Lime Pie
Let’s start by preparing the ingredients and bringing them to room temperature. Especially eggs and sour cream. These ingredients will be easier to combine in. This doesn’t apply to the garnish (heavy cream & lime zest for decoration). Take a time to zest and squeeze the lime juice.
Tip: Buy rather more limes than less. Every lime might be different size, and you need exactly 150 ml of lime juice. This recipe calls for 5 limes + 1 lime for garnish. I was able to squeeze out exactly 150 ml from 5 limes, but you might not be that lucky. Grab rather 8–10 limes to be on the safe side.
Start preheating oven and make the crust by combining melted unsalted butter and graham cracker crumbs (picture no. 1). You might have noticed this recipe doesn’t require sugar in the crust. The reason is that graham crackers are sweet enough and extra addition of sugar in the crust, would overpower the pie. Press tightly the mixture into a springform.
Bake the crust in the oven before filling it with the lime curd. Baking the crust will reinforce its shape.
Make the filling by whisking all the ingredients together in kitchen bowl. You can whisk with handheld mixer or using balloon whisk by hand. It combines fairly quickly if your ingredients are in room temperature, the mixture should be without any lumps. Pour in baked crust.
Tip: If you find some lumps in the key lime filling, use handheld blender to combine.
Bake the key lime pie in preheated oven 325 F/ 160 C for 30–35 minutes. Keep a close eye on it as around 25 minutes in. Ovens can vary, and you don’t want to dry out the lime curd. Don’t get alarmed if the texture of the curd is slightly giggly in the middle. That is normal. The edges, on the other hand, will be set.
Resting time is necessary. Let the pie come to room temperature, cover and let it chill at least 6 hours in the refrigerator. Best would be overnight, so the curd has time to set.
Tip: Covering a smooth and warm silky texture is sometimes tricky. I have learned in years of baking, that if you use only plastic food wrap, it can create condensation on top of the wrap and can drip onto the lime pie filling. And let me tell you, it’s nothing worse to achieve smooth texture of key lime curd and then drop of condensation will ruin it. Cover the springform first with parchment paper (or clean kitchen towel), and secure with elastic. And then use plastic food wrap to keep key lime pie safe from other odours in the refrigerator.
Garnish and decorating is one of my favourite part. Make sure you are whipping well chilled heavy cream. Whipping cream might be tricky, but having properly chilled equipment and heavy cream minimum of 35%, it will be a breeze. Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks, add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and whip for few more seconds just to incorporate the powdered sugar. That should be enough time to get to stiff peaks. Powdered sugar will help to thicken the whipped cream as well. Then pipe adorable swirls around the edges of the pie.
Use tip 1M open star to pipe the swirls (picture no.7). Top with slices of lime (picture no. 8) and extra zest of limes (picture no. 9). Enjoy this beautiful key lime pie (picture no. 10).
Extra tips
Don’t overbake the filling– often key lime pie filling might look uncooked when the timer goes on. It’s normal the centre still has a slight wobble, as long as the edges are set, that means the pie is cooked.
Chill overnight – Key lime pie needs a little rest. Overnight chilling transforms the texture into dense and silky smooth piece of pie.
Freeze the key lime pie before slicing – This is a bakery professional trick to have extremely clean slices without dragging the filling. Freeze the pie for 20-30 minutes before slicing.
How to zest limes
Use Microplane-style zester for best results. Zest the lime before cutting it. Start sesting from the top side of the lime and rotate the lime constantly and stop as soon as the bright green layer is removed. Usually this take 2-3 strokes maximal in one spot.
The white layer underneath is bitter and can overpower desserts very quickly. For maximum flavor us firm, room-temperature limes. Cold limes release less aromatic oil. Zest with light pressure, let the sharp blades to do the work.
Tap the back of the zester occasionally, a lot of frangrant lime oil sticks there. A fresh lime’s essential oils are strongest in the first few minutes after sesting, so add the zest to the curd right away.
More Recipes
- KEY LIME CHEESECAKE TART RECIPE
- COCONUT LIME VEGAN TART
- FRENCH STYLE LEMON TART
- HOMEMADE LEMON CURD
- THE BEST LEMON CHEESECAKE
Tried This Recipe?
If you give this “Key Lime Pie” a try, I’d love to hear how it turned out! 💛
Leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating and a comment below to share your experience. Snap a photo and tag me on Instagram @Juliarecipes so I can see your delicious creations. Don’t forget to save this recipe on Pinterest so you can find it easily the next time that delicious craving hits!
KEY LIME PIE
Ingredients
Graham cracker crust
- 4 cups (400 g) graham crackers or digestive biscuits
- ½ cup (100 g) melted butter unsalted
Key lime filling
- 1 can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk
- 5 large egg yolks
- ½ cup (100 g) sour cream 14% or plain yogurt rich %
- ⅔ cup (150 ml) lime juice approximately 5-6 limes
- 5 medium limes for zest
- ⅚ cup (190 ml) heavy cream 35%
- 1 teaspoon dark rum (optional)
Garnish
- 1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream 35% very cold
- ½ cup (50 g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 medium limes 1 for zest & 1 for decoration
Instructions
Graham cracker crust
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉/177 ℃, middle rack, and prepare 9" springform pan with a parchment paper on the bottom. In a medium bowl, start combining graham cracker crumbs with unsalted melted butter, until it has a consistency of wet sand.
- Pour one half of the mixture to ungreased 9" springform pan and compact the mixture well to the bottom of the pan, use your hands or bottom of a measuring cup to pat the mixture down. Use the second half of the graham cracker mixture to cover the sides of the springform, press gently to the side.
- Bake the graham cracker crust for 5 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let rest on kitchen counter.
Key lime filling
- In a large kitchen bowl, place sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, yogurt, lime juice, lime zest, dark rum and heavy cream. Mix with a whisk or hand held mixer until all the ingredients are well combined.
- Pour key lime curd in the springform pan, onto the graham cracker crust and bake in preheated oven on 325 ℉/160 ℃, middle rack, for 30 – 35 minutes. The key lime curd will be still little giggly in the middle once baked.
- Remove the key lime pie from the oven and let it rest on wire rack for about 15–20 minutes. Then transfer it to the refrigerator for at least 6 hours to set or better overnight.
Garnish
- Prepare whipping cream, by taking well chilled heavy cream and start mixing with handheld mixer and a whisk on medium-high speed, until it starts thickening. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and mix until firm peaks.
- Place the whipping cream into piping bag with tip 1M open star and pipe 8 rosettes. Decorate with lime zest and half-circled limes.
Notes
- Always refrigerate uneaten slices, by covering the pie with a plastic wrap or foil.
- Best when eaten within 3-4 days.
- Cool the pie completely before storing.
- To freeze key lime pie: wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and then place the slices in airtight container to freeze up to 1 month.
- To thaw: thaq overnight in the refrigerator.
Julia
This is wonderful dessert for summer parties. Smooth tangy curd filling with sweet graham cracker’s crust is the perfect combo!