Pucker up, buttercup! This key lime pie is perfectly balanced between tart and sweet. The filling is smooth, creamy and light – no eggs required! Use either a store bought graham cracker crust or make your own.

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half key lime pie this recipe

Start with the crust

While you could probably use both a traditional flour/fat pie crust, most of the key lime pie you’ll eat in FL has either no crust or a graham cracker crust. I’ve always just used the graham, because it’s easy and goes really well with the tart lime filling.

Blitz a couple sleeves of graham crackers in a food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, just use a plastic bag and a rolling pin. As long as the crumbs are fine enough to pack into a pie plate.

Stir in the sugar and cinnamon, add the melted butter, pack into the pie plate, and bake until toasty and fragrant, about 7 minutes.

Make the filling

Between you and me, I’ve used key lime juice, plain bottled lime juice, squeezed supermarket limes and fresh key limes. They all make the same pie. Some purists may argue that there’s a difference, but it’s not something to get worked up about, I promise. No matter what you use, at the end there’s going to be a delicious pie.

Bake and set

Once you add the filling to the crust, bake for 7-8 minutes, or until you can see tiny “pinhole” bubbles rise to the top. The pie should not jiggle, and do not brown the top. Let it cool to room temperature.

slice of key lime pie with a bite take out

Chill and serve

After the pie is at room temperature, chill it for another 4 hours before garnishing with whipped cream.

Print
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whole key lime pie in a white pie plate with striped towel

Key Lime Pie

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  • Author: Megan
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 10 slices 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American
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Description

Pucker up, buttercup! Use regular limes if you can’t get your paws on key lime juice.

Ingredients

Units Scale

For the crust:

For the filling & to serve:

Instructions

  1. Make the crust. Preheat the oven to 375F/190C. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and mix until well combined. Add the melted butter and mix well until all the crumbs are moistened and the mixture packs to the side of the bowl. Press the crust mixture onto the bottom and sides of a 9-10 inch pie plate. Bake the crust for 7 minutes. Set aside while you make the filling and lower the oven temperature to 350F/176C.
  2. Make the filling, bake and serve. In another bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, sour cream, and lime zest and whisk until well combined and smooth. Pour filling into baked crust just before loading into the oven. Bake the pie for 8 minutes, or until you can see tiny bubbles rise to the top. Do not brown the top of the pie.
  3. Let cool to room temperature, and allow the pie to chill for 4 hours before serving with homemade whipped cream!

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 slice
  • Calories: 399
  • Sugar: 44.7 g
  • Sodium: 214.9 mg
  • Fat: 15.5 g
  • Saturated Fat: 9.1 g
  • Trans Fat: 0 g
  • Carbohydrates: 57.5 g
  • Fiber: 0.9 g
  • Protein: 9.2 g
  • Cholesterol: 144 mg

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