Key Lime Pie

Welcome back! 

Today, we have one of my favorite desserts: Key Lime Pie! There's so many things that are great about this dish from the texture to the combination of flavors. Plus, I prefer the flavor of key limes as compared to normal limes, as key limes are tarter and more citrus-y. Now this is a sour dish, so if that's not your thing, then you can cut back on some of the key lime juice and it'll be better. Any way, it's a great dessert!

Key Lime Pie

Makes a 10" tart pan or 9" pie pan

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 2 1/2 cups almond flour
• 6 tablespoons butter, diced
• 1/4 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt

If you want to use graham crackers for the crust, use about 1 1/2 cups (150 grams) of crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 10 sheets) along with 5 tablespoons melted butter and mix.

Filling:

• 4 egg yolks*
• 1 14-ounce can of condensed milk
• 2/3 cup key lime juice (about 1 pound of key limes should be enough for decorations too)
• 1 tablespoon key lime zest

*If you don't want to use so many egg yolks or you don't know what to do with your egg whites, you can substitute the 4 egg yolks for 2 whole eggs.

Directions:

1. Prepare the crust:
1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and, using a pastry blender, mix it until there are no large chunks of butter. It should be kinda crumbly.
   
   
   
2. Put it into the pan and press down on it. Poke some holes on the bottom of the crust with a fork and bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes

   

   Before baking

   
   
2. Prepare the filling:
1. Take the egg yolks and whisk them with an electric mixer for about 3-4 minutes until it thickens and becomes pale in color.
2. Add the condensed milk and whisk for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the lime juice and zest and mix.
3. Take the crust out of the oven and let it cool. Now, pour in the filling.
   
   
   
4. Bake it in the oven at 325° for 25 more minutes. (note the temperature change!)
5. Take it out and let it chill in the fridge for a few hours.
   
   
   

When we made it we used almond flour for the crust since we had that handy, but you can really do whatever for the crust; the key part for this recipe is the filling. Traditionally, it's graham crackers, so we put the recipe for that too (in the ingredients).

We added a little decoration to ours, as you can see - this pie is often served with some whipped cream, which helps as a balance to the tartness of the pie, and we added some zest and key lime slices (which are sour!) to make things pretty and a little more limey.

Bonus: We had authentic key lime pie at Key West from Key West Key Lime Pie Co; it was amazing! I would totally recommend this if you ever have a chance to go to Key West.

-Chefpo