This past week was my husband’s birthday. He’s not really one for cake for any occasion. He likes it fine, but it’s not his favourite, you know? I can’t figure out what’s wrong with him, and believe me, I’ve tried.
Instead of baking him a fabulous cake this year, which he would like just fine, but not like as much as something else, I baked him something I knew he’d REALLY like. It is his day after all, and this man deserves exactly what he wants.
We celebrated Husband’s birthday this year with birthday pie. A key lime pie, since we’re getting into particulars. On this last day of summer, I’d like to share it with you.
Key lime pie reminds me of our first trip to Disney World together. We went to a place in Downtown Disney called Fulton’s Crab House. Needless to say, it was a less than stellar dining experience. We had reservations (as you do at Disney), but they didn’t seat us until at least an hour after our reservation time – they’d forgotten we’d arrived. I don’t think we got seated until after 9pm. Um, we were mucho hungry by 9pm. And just a touch cranky.
Next up on the Fulton’s Crab House evening of disaster was the allergy scare. It was an incident at the table, caused by me, because I thought I “may” be having an allergic reaction at a seafood house. False alarm, but it caused some issues between us and our server.
After the allergy scare, I wasn’t allowed to order fish anymore, so I ordered a steak for dinner, medium rare. It came to the table still mooing. Normally, this doesn’t really bother me, except that this steak was almost 2 inches thick and nearly cold in the middle. It was a bit too much, even for me.
By the time we ordered dessert, neither of us were in the mood to eat it, so we had it packed up. I enjoyed my slice of key lime pie the next evening in our hotel room, in bed. It was dee-lightful. At least that salvaged the horrible evening at the crab house. I was at least left with a happy memory of key lime pie.
This is the first time I’ve made key lime pie at home. Well, at least key lime pie. I’ve made Florida pie and key lime squares, but never key lime pie. Once you see how easy this recipe for key lime pie is, and you taste how delicious it is, you’ll want to make this for your birthday celebrations too. I mean really, it’s dead simple to make, and only has 5 ingredients.
This key lime pie is tart – nice and tart. It’s creamy and smooth too. Perfect.
And for all the key lime purists out there… I used regular limes here, not key limes. I’m not changing the name of the recipe though. This is “key” lime pie. We don’t live in Florida, so we barely notice, if at all.
Another note – make this pie a day ahead of when you plan on eating it, or at least 8 hours before you’d like to eat it. It need some time to set in the refrigerator.
[Recipe] Key Lime Pie
1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
1 cup lime juice (about 6 regular-sized limes)
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1 Tbsp lime zest (optional)
whipped cream, for serving
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Separate the eggs. You can reserve the whites if you’d like to make a meringue for the pie instead of serving it with whipped cream. Put the yolks into a large bowl.
Zest about 3 limes, until you have enough zest for the pie, about 1 tablespoon. It’s important to zest the limes before you juice them. This really makes zesting a lot easier. Add the zest to the bowl with the egg yolks.
Juice the limes. This recipe used the juice of exactly 6 regular-sized limes. Add the 1 cup of lime juice to the egg yolk mixture. Mix well.
Add both cans of sweetened condensed milk to the egg yolk mixture. Whisk until well incorporated.
Poor the milk and egg mixture into the prepared crust until it is nearly full. You will not use all the mixture, but this is the way it’s supposed to be.
Bake the pie for 30 -35 minutes, until it is set.
Allow the pie to cool, then refrigerate it for several hours before serving.
[Recipe] Key Lime Pie
Ingredients
- 1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
- 1 cup lime juice about 6 regular-sized limes
- 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 Tbsp lime zest optional
- whipped cream for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Separate the eggs. You can reserve the whites if you'd like to make a meringue for the pie instead of serving it with whipped cream. Put the yolks into a large bowl.
- Zest about 3 limes, until you have enough zest for the pie, about 1 tablespoon. It's important to zest the limes before you juice them. This really makes zesting a lot easier. Add the zest to the bowl with the egg yolks.
- Juice the limes. This recipe used the juice of exactly 6 regular-sized limes. Add the 1 cup of lime juice to the egg yolk mixture. Mix well.
- Add both cans of sweetened condensed milk to the egg yolk mixture. Whisk until well incorporated.
- Poor the milk and egg mixture into the prepared crust until it is nearly full. You will not use all the mixture, but this is the way it's supposed to be.
- Bake the pie for 30 -35 minutes, until it is set.
- Allow the pie to cool, then refrigerate it for several hours before serving.
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