Hands Down, This Is the Best Key Lime Pie Recipe on the Internet

When it comes to the best Key lime pie recipes, I have fond memories of one in particular — and, of course, it dates back to middle school. Olive Garden was the home of my younger self’s peak-pie indulgence. Sure dinner was fine, but what I couldn’t wait for was dessert: a slice of Black Tie Mousse Cake and a slice of Key Lime Pie. Piled high with whipped cream, the latter was a true piece de resistance. While I can’t tell you what In fact Gone among the dreamy-tasting dumplings of my youth, there’s one thing I know for sure: my savvy Dessert palette There has only been growth in the last few years.

How to make a good key lime pie?

During summers, my sweet cravings become bright, refreshing and full of excitement. Desserts that are refreshing at the end of a meal but still satisfy the need for a little treat. The best Key Lime Pie recipe checks all the boxes for a great summer dessert. It’s one that celebrates the season and will keep everyone sitting around the table a little longer. To confirm once and for all the best Key Lime Pie, I was more than a little excited to put together a few recipes. Bake-off test,

taste-test parameters

My team of seven taste testers followed the following guidelines when ranking each pie.

1. Filling the taste. Bright and zesty without being too acidic or sweet. The lemon should be forward but not heavy.
2. Filling texture. Creamy and smooth, not too dense but firm enough to hold its shape.
3. Crust texture. Should add a nice crunch without ruining the pie.

What you need to make Key Lime Pie

Most key lime pie recipes require only a handful of ingredients.

Key limes (juice and peel). Since it’s in the name of the recipe, it’s your most important ingredient. And no—when you’re making a classic summertime pie, you can’t shortcut it with key lime juice. For the best flavor, choose limes that are plump and yield a little juice when squeezed. (This makes them easier to juice.) Don’t forget: Always peel the limes before squeezing them.

sweetened condensed milk. This is canned milk that has had the water removed and sugar added (not to be confused with evaporated milk). It gives your pie a sweet, creamy flavor and texture, without the extra moisture you get from regular milk or cream.

Eggs. Some recipes have them, others don’t. In recipes that contain them, not only do they help the pie set, but the yolk adds a rich flavor to each bite.

Graham cracker crumbs. For many people, this is their favorite part of the pie. A traditional graham cracker crust provides a buttery layer beneath a cool, creamy filling.

heavy cream. This will be for your whipped cream topping. And while optional, I love the fluffy white cloud that sits lightly on top of each piece. With some powdered sugar and vanilla extract, the taste is simple but excellent.

Ingredients

Mixture of fresh lemon and lime juice. If you don’t have key limes readily available, you can mimic their tart, floral flavor by opting for a 1:1 mix of lemon and lime juice. Freshly squeezed, of course.

coconut milk. In a saucepan, whisk together one can of full-fat coconut milk with 1/4 cup sugar. Bring to a boil and cook on low heat for 30 minutes until thickened. The resulting flavor will be slightly tropical – perfect for the flavor of your key lime pie. This is a great dairy-free alternative to sweetened condensed milk.

Crisp Cookies. If you’re not a graham cracker fan or have simply run out of them, you can substitute almost any other crunchy cookie for a similar texture in your crust. Think: Speculoos or Ginger Snaps, Animal Crackers, or even vanilla wafers. All will change the flavor slightly, but add their own unique variety.

The first time I tried this recipe, I had to go back and double-check if I missed anything, which is usually not a good start.

professional:

• Easy to prepare. The pie is almost completely unbaked, except for the graham cracker crust, which is baked and then filled and frozen.

Shortcoming:

• Raw egg yolk. Because this pie is frozen, the raw egg yolks remain raw. Some traditionalists say that Key Lime Pie can be made with raw filling, but we found that it tasted like eggs as a result.
• Texture. The recipe says to lay the pie out before slicing so you can slice. However, the pie was practically melted within 30 minutes.

Takeaway: Overall, I like the novelty of the frozen pie, but we had some structural issues with it. If you try this, take it straight out of the freezer to ensure a solid pie.

Our notes on this pie were quite positive and everyone enjoyed their slices. However, there were a few technicalities that felt unnecessary rather than really adding to the overall quality of the pie.

professional:

• Good Taste. The flavors were very well balanced without being too sweet, and the acidity of the lemon cut through the rich creaminess beautifully.
• Efficient use of materials. Because the filling requires only yolks, you use leftover egg whites in the meringue topping.

Shortcoming:

• Meringue Topping. There was some debate as to whether the meringue topping was necessary. While the salted vanilla meringue was delicious, most taste testers preferred the whipped cream on top of the meringue.
• Too many unnecessary steps. As someone who collects every single recipe, I thought it would take too much effort and recipes to make meringue, when whipped cream would be just fine.

Takeaway: In conclusion, this pie recipe was good, but some of the other recipes fell behind it technically.

To be clear: This is a really good Key Lime Pie recipe. However, the lack of lime zest results in a flavor that falls short of traditional tartness. And while still delicious, we’re looking for something that clearly screams Key Lime Pie.

professional:

• vanilla extract. While many other recipes also include vanilla extract, here, it added a beautiful floral flavor to the filling.

Shortcoming:

• No lemon juice. We were skeptical at first when we learned that this recipe only called for lemon juice. It could use a little more of the classic key lime flavor that the zest provides.
• A little too sweet. again, Little.If you have a sweet tooth, you’ll love this. But if you want your desserts to be savory, you might want to skip this one.

Takeaway: If you want to enhance the lemon flavor, add the zest to the filling. The texture was incredibly smooth and overall, it turned out to be a very good pie.

This Key Lime Pie had all the makings of a classic pie and earned very high marks. This recipe combines Miette’s homemade graham crackers with Martha Stewart’s Key Lime Pie Filling in a pie pan.

Yes, it’s extra effort, so you have my permission to use store-bought crackers. When it came to making the final decision, we loved the tangy, citrusy flavor of the filling. And with this pie’s creamy texture, we were all fast fans.

professional:

• Homemade Graham Crackers. I admit, this was my first thought: Do we really need to make homemade graham crackers when it’s so easy (and convenient!) to buy a box? However, homemade crackers give the crust a different texture. It is crispy and has an incredible buttery flavor that goes so well with the creamy filling.
• Taste. The filling in this pie is tangy and full of lime-forward flavor.
• Texture. Creamy doesn’t begin to describe the exquisite, luscious bite.

Shortcoming:

• time intensive. Because this recipe requires a few extra steps (like homemade graham crackers), it’s not a project you can undertake because you’re short on time.

Takeaway: This pie is delicious and exciting, making the most of a unique approach that requires extra time, but is well worth the effort.

Drumroll please…this might be one of the best key lime pies I’ve ever eaten. But I’ll admit: I was skeptical at first because of the coconut milk added to the filling. I knew the flavor would work well, but I didn’t know if it would be too intense when combined with the lemon.

Benefit:

• Coconut milk instead of sweetened condensed milk. Then, I had doubts. However, the coconut milk served as a nice sweet base that helped temper the lemon and kept it from being too acidic.
• Well balanced taste. The lemon flavor wasn’t overpowering, and one thing I noticed after baking each pie was that Adriana’s recipe alone calls for salt. It makes a world of difference in bringing out the flavor.
• Texture. Absolute perfection, with thick creaminess that’s hard (again, impossible) to put down.

Takeaway: Without any cons, this is unquestionably the best key lime pie recipe. In fact, it’s the only dish that all of my taste testers ate whole. Run, don’t walk, to make this pie.