Tart and sweet, this key lime pie is perfect for those dog days of summer!
My husband’s birthday and Father’s Day are very close to each other. In fact, he was born on Father’s Day. When I asked him what kind of dessert he wanted for Father’s Day this year, he quickly said without any hesitation that he wanted key lime pie.
I had a difficult time finding key limes at my grocery store but after scouring the aisles, I finally found them (they were hidden between some bags of oranges and lemons). My bag of key limes only yielded half a cup of juice, but I made up for it by zesting all of the limes and including it in the filling.
One mistake I almost made while making this pie was around the quantity of sweetened condensed milk. After I had mixed all of the filling ingredients together, it looked like it wasn’t going to be enough to fill the pie. I re-read the instructions and noticed that it said 28 ounces of sweetened condensed milk. When I looked at the empty can, I noticed that it only contained 14 ounces. Thank goodness I had another can of sweetened condensed milk in the pantry. Once I added the second can into the bowl and mixed, it appeared that I’d have enough filling for the pie.
I made the pie the day before Father’s Day and made the whipped cream the day of. The recipe for the whipped cream will yield a lot of leftovers. I opted to only decorate the perimeter of the key lime pie so that I could see the filling and zest. If you want, you can decorate the entire surface of the pie with whipped cream. I did not do this since I am not a huge fan of whipped cream – I saved the extras for anybody that wanted some on the side.
Husband’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4 out of 5
My rating: 4.5 out of 5
Key lime pie
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 and ½ cups graham cracker crumbs I used my food processor to pulse 1 sleeve of crackers into crumbs
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted (I used closer to 5 Tablespoons)
Filling
- 2 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup freshly squeezed key lime juice I used an entire package of key limes and only got about ½ cup
- zest from key limes I zested all of my key limes (you can save some for decoration if you like)
Whipped cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375℉.
Make the crust
- In a large bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, granulated sugar, and the butter together. It should resemble wet sand.
- Gently press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of a standard pie pan. I used a glass pie pan.
- Bake in your preheated oven for 7 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Make the filling
- Lower the oven temperature to 350℉.
- If you haven't done so already, zest and juice all of your key limes. This process took me ~20+ minutes so be patient.
- In a large bowl, mix together the 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest if using (you can save some to decorate the top of the pie if you like).
- Once the crust has cooled, pour this on top of the crust. Smooth out the top with a wooden spoon or spatula and bake in your oven for 10 minutes. The pie may be a bit jiggly when you shake it, but it will set as it cools.
- Allow the pie to cool slightly before transferring to the refrigerator to cool fully, at least 2 hours.
Make the whipped cream
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer, whisk the heavy cream and powdered sugar on high speed until you achieve soft peaks.
- Add in the vanilla and continue whisking on high speed until you achieve stiff peaks. You may need to stop the mixer to wipe down the sides with a spatula at least once.
- Using an open star tip, decorate the pie as desired. If you don't have a piping bag with tips, you can simply use a spatula to spread the whipped cream in an even layer on top. Sprinkle the top of the pie with the remaining key lime zest if desired.
- Serve and enjoy!