A mere 6 ingredients, a little zesting, whisking, pouring and cooling is all it takes to make the ultimate Make Ahead Key Lime Pie! A spring and summer must at our house!
I’m not really a pie person. Nothing against pies, they are delicoius… but I honestly hate makeing them. I find them tediuous and cringe at the thought of having to make pie crust. Except for ONE! One pie is different. One pie I’ll make all day long and eat all night long. Oh yes, you guessed it, it’s this Key Lime Pie.
Let me start with the best part about this pie. The CRUST. My key lime pie has a graham cracker crust! Praise the crust gods 🙌 No need to deal with cold butter. Just a bunch of graham crackers (which we always have at my house, because KIDS) blitzed, a little butter a little sugar and a bit of baking.
The filling is also super low maintenance. No need for a stand mixer or peeling and pitting fruit. Just some lime zest, lime juice, egg yolks, and sweetened condenced milk! That is it my friends.
I would say the hardest part about this recipe is the wiating! I called it make ahead for a reason. It’s the type of pie you have to plan ahead for. If you want to eat it after dinner, make it earlier in the day. Or better yet the day before! Personally I love making this for guests, normally the day before they come over. Simple and no pressure. Plus people seem to always be impressed with this pie. Little do they know it’s pretty easy!
Last but not least, the topping. Homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream! Or BOTH! We always dollop whipped cream on top of ours and ice cream for my toddler. I don’t like spreading the whipped cream over the whole pie like some recipes call for because it doesn’t save well that way. Plus if you cream the whole thing it detracts from the lovely lime flavor. Just a good dollop and you are golden 👌
There it is! The dessert that screams summer! Word of caution. It will be hard to simply eat 1 slice…. you have been warned.
Yields 1 pie (8 slices)
Ingredients
- 4 teaspoons lime zest
- 1/2 cup lime juice [from 4-5 limes]
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk
- 11 regular graham crackers
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Start by zesting the limes into a medium sized bowl. Add the egg yolks and vigorously whisk by hand for 1 minute until light green in color. Add in the sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice. Whisk until combined. Let mixture sit aside at room temperature until thicken.
- For the graham cracker crust, preheat oven to 325F. Process the graham cracker into fine crumbs in a food processor or blender.
- In a bowl mix graham cracker crumbs and sugar together. Add melted butter, and mix well.
- Pour the mixture into a 9 inch pie plate. Press crumbs evenly on bottom and up sides of the pie dish. Refrigerate crust for 15 minutes. Then bake the crust 15 minutes (it will be lightly brown and fragrant). Take out of the oven and allow it to cool for 10 or so minutes.
- Pour lime pie filling into the warm crust, and bake for 15-17 minutes. Center will be set but still a tiny bit wiggly. Let the pie cool again for a little while and then refrigerate at least 3 hours.
- Serve with a whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Pie will save for about 5 days in the fridge.
Slightly adapted from America’s Test Kitchen.
Originally posted 2018-08-09 15:56:37.
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