Key Lime Pie – YUM!

I have to say, I’m not much of  a dessert person.  It just doesn’t do anything for me. No sweet tooth here  My family on the other hand has to have  a sweet treat every night.  One thing I do like however is key lime pie. YUM!  I love how cool and tart it is.  When we were in Florida over Spring Break I needed to get some key lime pie.  The best one I found believe it or not was in their local supermarket Publix.  It was sooooo good!

Recently I was watching an episode of Pioneer Woman on the Food Network and she was making key lime pie.  It got me in the mood again and it looked easy so I figured I’d give it a go.

Start with 18 graham crackers.  We want to make them into crumbs which you can either do in your food processor or just put them in a ziploc and crush them up with your hands or beat them with a rolling pin or something.  i opted for the food processor.

Next you need 1/3 cup of melted butter.  On the side of the stick of butter it gives you markings so you know how much you need.  You also need 1/3 cup of sugar.

The graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter all get mixed in a bowl.

My younger daughter has been really into cooking lately so she helped me out with this one.  You take the crumb mixture and put it in a pie pan.  Flatten it out as much as possible and leave some to come up on the edges.  You can use your hand or the bottom of the measuring cup.

The crust gets prebaked in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Now we can work on the filling.  You need 2 egg yolks,

the zest of 3 limes, and the juice from 4 limes.  I didn’t have actual key limes so just used regular ones.

Mix the egg yolks, lime juice and zest and then add in one 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk.

Pour the mixture into the prebaked crust and bake for another 15 minutes.

In the meantime you can get the garnishes and toppings ready.  Get a few thin slices of lime, whipped cream and slivered almonds.

When the pie comes out of the over, let it cool down for a  bit and then chill it in the fridge for about 2 hours.  The colder the better!

Once it’s all chilled you can decorate.  I made whipped cream by whipping up heavy cream, some sugar and vanilla but feel free to use the squirty stuff in the can.  I put the whipped cream in a plastic pastry bag and piped out these simple swirls.  I have lots of left over cake decorating supplies from my cake decorating days but you can easily use  a ziploc bag, cut the corner off and pipe it out.

The slivered almonds were my addition.  They had them in the Publix version and I really liked it so I added it here.  I toasted them up in a pan for a few minutes.  Be careful because they burn quickly.  Then take  a lime slice, twist it and place it in the middle.

YUM! Ready to eat!

Let me tell you my goofs and how I would modify this recipe next time.

• I felt like there were too many crumbs and they didn’t really stick together as much with the butter.  I would reduce the amount to 12 graham crackers rather than 18.  
• We used Nabisco grahams but I would use Honey Maid next time.  I think they have more flavor.
• Pay attention to the 5 minute prebake!  I of course didn’t and that’s why the final version came out a bit too dark.

For the Pioneer Woman’s exact recipe you can go here…

Its easy and I would definitely make it again.  My girls are already asking!  Do you like key lime pie?