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Key Lime Pie

A key lime pie with whipped cream on top.
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5 from 3 reviews

This unique Key Lime Pie recipe has a bright and unencumbered flavor that is all about that floraly bright citrus juice. It’s a no-bake recipe that is perfectly balanced between sweet and sour with a thick graham cracker crumb crust.

Ingredients

Pie Crust:

  • 10 ounces (about 2 cups) graham cracker crumbs (about 10 full graham cracker sheets)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt (see note)
  • 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
  • 10 tablespoons (130 grams) unsalted butter, melted

For the Key Lime Filling:

  • 2-½ teaspoons gelatin (or one .25 ounce packet)
  • 1 cup milk, divided (gelatin  mixed with ½ cup milk)
  • 1-1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar 
  • 4 tablespoons (65 grams) cream cheese, diced into pieces
  • Pinch coarse kosher salt
  • ⅔ cups (150 grams) fresh squeezed key lime juice (see note)
  • 1 tablespoon key lime zest (from about 6 key limes)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Tangy Whipped Cream (Optional)

  • ¾ cup (180 grams) heavy cream
  • ¼ cup (60 grams) sour cream
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Prepare the Pie Crust:

  1. Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, salt, granulated sugar and melted butter. Immediately (while it’s still warm from the butter) pour the crumbs into a 9” pie plate and start pressing the ingredients up the sides of the pie plate to form the edges first. Once the edges are formed work the crumbs down to evenly distribute into the bottom of the pie plate and pack it down into an even layer.
  2. The crumb crust can be parbaked in a 350ºF preheated oven for 10 minutes for a more toasted flavor, or this step can be skipped. Place the (chilled if baked) pie crust in the freezer to harden up. 

Make the Key Lime Filling: 

  1. Add ½ cup of milk to a medium bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Stir, and let the gelatin hydrate (also known as bloom).
  2. Meanwhile add the remaining milk, cream, sugar, cream cheese and salt to a medium-sized saucepan. Heat the mixture over medium heat, while stirring, until it is steaming and just shy of boiling, about 180ºF.
  3. Slowly pour in the warmed cream mixture to the bloomed gelatin while whisking. Whisk for a minute or two to ensure the gelatin dissolves.
  4. Keep stirring the mixture to let the steam escape for 2-3 minutes. After slightly cooling the mixture, pour in the key lime juice while stirring. Blend the mixture for a minute using an immersion blender (or a regular blender) to ensure everything is homogenized. 
  5. Stir in the vanilla and key lime zest. 
  6. The mixture can cool at ambient room temperature for about a half an hour, or an ice bath can be used to cool it down for about 10 minutes.
  7. When the mixture has slightly thickened, remove the pie crust from the freezer.
  8. Slowly pour the filling into the crust. Gently knock the pie plate on the counter / table to encourage any air bubbles to rise to the surface. Pop any remaining bubbles on the surface on the custard.
  9. Carefully transfer the pie to a refrigerator to chill for at least 6 hours, or overnight. 
  10. When it's completely set up serve cold with optional tangy whipped cream and thinly sliced key limes for garnish!

Make the Tangy Whipped Cream (this is optional)

  1. Add all the ingredients to the bowl of an electric mixer and whip on medium speed until the cream has reached soft stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. Keep a close eye though because it will go from perfectly whipped to over-whipped in a matter of seconds.

Notes

Have a question or looking for tips? The text written above the recipe is always a great first place to start! This Key Lime Pie was developed with love,  and I always include loads of explanations, tips, step-by-step photos and technical advice shared before the recipe.

Key limes are small. And this pie needs a lot of juice. It takes about 7 ounces of key limes to make about 1 ounce of juice. And this recipe needs 5.2 ounces of juice, so about 36 ounces of key limes are needed to make the ⅔ cups of juice. See section "Are Key Limes Really Necessary" for more minute details about using fresh vs. bottled by TL:DR use fresh or bottled key lime juice, or regular lime juice. Just be sure to use fresh zest, whether from key limes or regular limes.

Helpful tip: zest your limes before you squeeze them!

If for any reason you see pieces of undissolved gelatin, the mixture can be gently heated back up until they dissolve.

This key lime filling is well balanced between sour and sweet. If you want your key lime filling to bend more to the side of sour, you can reduce the amount of sugar in the filling to ¾ cup sugar.

Make sure to tightly pack down the crumbs for the graham cracker crust as tightly as you can. Freezing it before filling helps mitigate any crumbs from getting into the pretty thin filling liquid. Brushing off any excess loose crumbs before the filling is poured in can also help with this.

I use Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt in my recipes, if you use  Morton's kosher salt or fine salt you will likely need to decrease the amount of salt called for

This pie will keep for a few days in the refrigerator. It holds up "just ok" to freezing. The consistency can change when it thaws out, and it isn't quite as creamy and smooth as before it was frozen.

Find it online: https://everydaypie.com/key-lime-pie/