Fresh Key Lime Pie

The principal ingredients of Key Lime Pie are key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. When mixed, a chemical reaction causes these ingredients to thicken. Originally the pie was not baked. Now days, because consuming raw eggs can be dangerous, we bake the pie, which further thickens it.

Graham cracker crust; bottled key lime juice + 1 Tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice; 2 teaspoons lime zest; three egg yolks; and 2 cans sweetened condensed milk. Two testers liked the recipe best. They said it was smooth and creamy and had good flavor. To me, it tastes like a standard key lime pie. It was good, and just what I expected, but there was a bit of after-taste from the bottled juice which has a slightly altered lime flavor compared to fresh juice. This is the easiest pie to make, and it's good enough. I'd use it if I was in a hurry -- it's fast!

Biscoff Lotus cookie crust. (Biscoff is a delicate shortbread cookie with a caramel flavor, plus cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves. It's commonly served on Delta, and now a few other airlines.) Bottled key lime juice, 2 teaspoons lime zest, 3 egg yolks, 3 egg whites whipped stiff and gently folded in, and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. None of the tasters preferred this pie. They called it fluffy, but said the texture wasn't smooth and the lime flavor wasn't as strong. Some also said the crust tasted slightly burned. I thought this crust was going to be a winner but I wouldn't use Biscoff cookies for a crust again. They were also quite oily. I expected to love the fluffy egg white addition the best. It did lighten the pie, but the flavor and texture suffered.

Graham Cracker crust. Fresh squeezed key lime juice (22 key limes), 2 teaspoons lime zest, 3 egg yolks, 2 cans sweetened condensed milk. 8/10 testers said this was their favorite pie. It was smooth and creamy and had great real lime flavor. I'd agree with the tasters that I preferred this pie. I've heard complaints about difficulty in finding key limes and the effort to squeeze the juice from these small citrus fruits. Honestly, it was not a bit deal. I found the key limes at my local Smith's grocery store ($2.00 for 25 key limes). And it took about 10 minutes to slice and squeeze them all. This is our favorite pie and it's the recipe we're giving you below.

The enhanced flavor of the fresh key limes was worth the extra time in my opinion. However, in a pinch, I would use bottled juice. I didn't love the taste of the juice straight from the bottle, but in the pie it was pretty good. I liked Nellie & Joes: Key West Lime Juice in a bottle the best. Please don't choose the bottled regular lime juice from the supermarket--you won't be happy with the result.

As a substitute for ½ cup key lime juice in a pie, you might also want to try ¼ cup lime juice and ¼ cup lemon juice. You could also make the pie out of straight lime juice. It will no longer be a key lime pie, but I think it would taste really good. Given a choice between eating spoonfuls of key lime juice or Persian lime juice, I'd take the less bitter Persian Lime, but for key lime pie, it's the key limes that hold the magic. Top your pie with meringue or sweetened whipped cream. You could cover the top in cream, or do what I love, which is to pipe some whipped cream around the edge of the pie.

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