But I've never tried to make Key Lime Pie... and I don't know why. Maybe I was subconsciously intimidated by the idea, envisioning it would be very complicated? Or maybe it's just that I didn't have a recipe...
So imagine my delight when, in the January 2012 issue of Food & Wine magazine, I found a recipe... and it was from a 19 year old blogger. A friggin 19 year old blogger made a friggin Key Lime Pie, and here I am, at the (ripe old) age of 30, and I hadn't attempted it because I'm scared? Pe-shaw!! (not sure how to spell that, but I think you get my drift)
I originally wanted this to be part of my first "30 before I turn 30" challenge, but I ran out of time... so it seems fitting that it will kick off #18 Cook 30 more new recipes.
Without further ado... my very first Key Lime Pie, as adapted from Elissa Bernstein's recipe as published in Food & Wine magazine.
Key Lime Pie with Chocolate Crust
Difficulty: Easy!!!!
Makes One 10-inch pie
Ingredients:
For the crust:
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted1 cup chocolate graham cracker crumbs (from 9 whole crackers)
1/3 cup sugar
For the filling:
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 1/4 cups fresh lime juice (from ~8-10 limes, but preference is from ~25 key limes)
2 Tablespoons sugar (ONLY IF YOU USE LIMES instead of KEY LIMES)
1 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
Two 14oz cans sweetened condensed milk
For the garnish:
Whipped cream for topping
Lime slices, thinly sliced, for garnish
Directions:
1. Make the crust. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 10-inch glass pie plate. In a food processor, pulse the graham cracker crumbs until a finely ground, then add sugar and pulse to blend thoroughly. Add the melted butter and pulse until the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs evenly over the bottom and up the side of the pie plate to form the crust. Bake for 20 minutes. Let the crust cool to room temperature.
2. Make the filling. Juice the limes. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Whisk in the lime juice, lime zest, and condensed milk until smooth. Pour the filling into the cooled crust and bake for about 20 minutes, until set around the edge and slightly jiggly in the center. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until very firm, at least 6 hours or overnight.
3. Get ready to serve. Take whipped cream, add to pie. Garnish with lime slices.
4. Devour like a greedy goddess. Taste. Savor. Enjoy. Watch this clip and imitate (optional) ;)
Notes/Disclaimers:
- While you can buy a store-bought crust to save time (and the amount of dirty dishes that pile up)... I don't prefer it. Making the crust was pretty easy... and it was SO delicious... so just do it, mkay?
- Speaking of the crust, Elissa's recipe calls for 1/2 cup finely ground almonds. Oops. See, my roommate and I always buy ingredients, use a teaspoon of it, and then the rest sit around in our cabinets and/or fridge for yeeeeears... so when I was shopping for ingredients, I assumed we had almonds somewhere. And I'm sure we do, I just couldn't find them... so if you want, follow the original recipe and add almonds. (Update: I found the almonds that I had forgotten I bought. They were hiding behind a bottle of Bacardi. Ha.)
- Key limes versus limes. There's a whole big controversy over this one. Enthusiasts will tell you that you can't beat key limes, and that it's not a key lime pie if you don't have key limes, and let me tell you - I don't care what they say. I would have preferred to use key limes (mainly because it is a Key Lime Pie after all), but my grocery store didn't have key limes. So, I went with limes, and I added just a teensy bit of sugar to help sweeten it up since limes are more tart than key limes. Do as you like, my friends, do as you like. (Plus, my pie tasted friggin delicious, so I don't care what people say)
- Whipped cream. I'm not a big fan of whipped cream. The original recipe calls for making your own. That sounds great in theory, but I just bought one of those cans of whipped cream, and that's what I used. But only because I'm taking this pie to a BBQ pool party. If I was going to keep it all to my greedy self, I'd nix the whipped cream (and the crust, for that matter), and just spoon the delicious filling in to my mouth while sitting in a jacuzzi and having a hot cabana boy massage my back. Wait. Crossing fantasies, sorry...
SO THERE YOU HAVE IT. My first Key Lime Pie. Despite having some issues with covering it with plastic wrap (which took a few precious bits of filling off the pie and left it looking un-smooth), this was super easy to make. Easy as pie, so they say :)
