Key Lime Pie

I’ve been overseas for a week which means that there is now a bit of a pie in July backlog to deal with! Today’s treat is Key Lime Pie, the official pie of Florida since 2006.

I got the recipe originally from a postcard my brother sent to our family from New Orleans, written while drinking mint juleps after having a little altercation between his station wagon (“The Walruss”) and a lamp post (so I recall) earlier that day. It’s fair to say the writing got increasingly silly as the mint juleps went down, so it’s lucky he wasn’t copying out the recipe – it was on the postcard itself.

I’ve made this pie many times, and over the years have adapted the recipe a bit, so what’s below isn’t exactly the original recipe, but it’s pretty darn good! It has a shortcrust shell with a pale yellow, fluffy, sweet and limey filling, and is topped with meringue.

I’ve seen recipes for Key Lime Pie which don’t have meringue and are topped with whipped cream instead, recipes which have a biscuit crust rather than a pastry one and recipes with no egg whites in the lime filling mixture, but I really like this one because it’s pretty traditional and it is a definite step away from lemon meringue pie. If the fluffy texture of this pie isn’t for you, you could just use egg yolks in the filling and use all of the egg whites in the meringue – just double the sugar in the meringue recipe below.

Speaking of which, you can also make my Lemon Meringue Pie with lime juice, and the result is just amazing, but it’s not a Key Lime Pie. Actually, it’s not really a Key Lime Pie unless it was made with Key Limes, which are tarter than regular limes, but the recipe is still delish using regular limes!

There’s also a frozen Key Lime Pie which I had at a friend’s place in Toronto last year… I’ll be looking into that one when it’s not 10 degrees in Melbourne….

makes one deep, 22cm pie

Shortcrust pastry

ingredients

185g butter, cubed

2 cups flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
2-3 tbsp iced water

mixing

In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer or a food processor, makes all process the butter and flour and icing sugar until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add two tablespoons of the iced water and mix or process until clumps of pastry start to form. If necessary, add the rest of the water. Mix or process only until the mixture starts to clump together. After that, use your hands to press the mixture into a ball, flatten the ball and wrap in cling wrap. Try not to over mix or over handle the pastry because this will lead to it being tough. Let the pastry rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to about 3 mm thick. If making a large pie, carefully roll the pastry on to the rolling-pin to make it easier to transport without breaking, and lift the pastry over a deep 22cm tart tin or pie dish. Carefully unroll the pastry across the pie dish and gently press in to the edges. Trim off the excess pastry with a sharp knife, and prick the pastry extremely well (this stops the pasty puffing up during the baking process). There will be a little excess pastry – you can use it to patch any gaps or breaks in the pastry case – just press together well.

Very well pricked pastry ready for baking

Bake the pastry shell at 180 degrees Celsius for about 15 minutes, or until pale golden. The shell will have shrunk a little away from the sides of the tart tin when it is cooked. Let the shell cool a little and make the filling.

Lime filling

ingredients

4 egg yolks
2 egg whites (reserve the other two whites for the meringue)
400g (1 tin) sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lime juice
grated zest of two limes

mixing

Beat the yolks and whites until very light and creamy.

The beaten egg yolks and whites

Beat in the sweetened condensed milk in a thin stream, followed by the lime juice and zest. Pour the lime filling into the warm pastry shell.

Pouring in the filling!

Meringue topping

2 egg whites
1/2 cup caster sugar

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until the sugar is all dissolved and you have a stiff, glossy meringue. You can test to see whether the sugar is dissolved by rubbing a little of the meringue mixture between your fingers – it should not feel gritty.

Carefully and sparingly spoon the meringue over the top of the pie, working with about a dessert spoonful of meringue at a time and starting at the edges of the pie, working your way in. There is only enough for a thin layer and the filling is quite soft so you have to be quite gentle as you spread the meringue out to cover the whole surface of the filling. I find it easiest to spread out the meringue and smooth the surface, then to rough the meringue back up into peaks with a teaspoon.

The pie ready for baking

Bake the pie at 180 degrees Celsius until the meringue is golden – about ten minutes.

Serve the pie cold. It’s very hard to cut when it is warm!

Yum. Enjoy!xxx

Key Lime Pie – Pie in July