A standout Key lime pie recipe is all about striking balance: The crunch of the homemade graham cracker crust should play off a creamy custard pie filling that’s both sweet and tangy. This recipe delivers just that.
It comes down to a few ingredients and techniques: To ensure it stays crisp, the crust is blind baked, meaning it’s popped in the oven for a bit before the Key lime filling is added. You can complete this step up to two days in advance or use the baking time to make the custard. Using coconut oil in place of some of the melted butter in the pie crust offers hints of the tropics. Fresh Key limes, which are named for the Florida Keys, can be hard to track down, but they are worth seeking out for their floral finish. If they’re not available in your local market, you can snag a bag online via sites like Etsy and Wee!, or opt for Persian limes (the variety available at most grocery stores), which are larger and more tart. Just make sure to stick with fresh lime juice—shelf-stable, bottled versions aren’t reliable. Sweetened condensed milk supplies the sugar in the filling and also gives this pie its concentrated creaminess.
For the finish, we eschewed meringue—which can sometimes be a little too cloying—in favor of whipped cream cut with yogurt for one last hit of tang.
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What you’ll need
USA Pan Aluminized Steel 9-inch Pie Pan
$19 $15 At Amazon
Recipe information
Yield
Makes one 9" pie Servings
Ingredients
Crust
14
4
4
1
½
Filling and assembly
4
1
2
¾
1
¼
1
1
Preparation
Crust
Step 1
Preheat oven to 325°. Using your hands, crush graham crackers in a large bowl until coarsely ground (you could do this in a food processor if you’d like, just be sure not to process too finely; you want some texture in the larger pieces). Add butter, coconut oil, sugar, and salt and mix until well blended (mixture will resemble wet sand). Transfer to a 9" pie dish. Using your fingers and the underside of a flat measuring cup, press mixture evenly into bottom and up sides of dish. Bake crust, rotating once halfway through, until golden brown on top and crumbs are set, 12–15 minutes. Let cool.
Filling and Assembly
Step 2
Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg yolks and condensed milk in a large bowl until paler and almost doubled in volume, about 5 minutes. Whisk in 2 tsp. lime zest, lime juice, and salt. Pour into cooled crust. Bake pie until filling is starting to slightly puff around the edges and center jiggles slightly, 15–20 minutes. Let cool completely.
Step 3
Whip cream and powdered sugar in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. Gently whisk in yogurt and rum, if using. Dollop onto cooled pie, creating dramatic peaks and valleys with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Garnish with lime zest.
Do Ahead: Crust can be baked 2 days ahead; pie without whipped topping can be made 2 days ahead; pie can be assembled (with topping) 4 hours ahead.
Editor’s note: This recipe was originally published in April 2015. This way for more of our best pie recipes →
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Reviews (276)
Back to TopThis was an awesome and easy recipe. I don't really recommend crushing the graham crackers by hand though - it took longer than expected and the large pieces made for a slightly crumbly crust. Next time I'll blitz in the food processor. Other than that it was perfect!!
Anonymous
nashville
7/24/2019
This was a great recipe! Didn't know what type of pie pan to use so I used metal and it worked fine.
Katiehwalsh
Austin
4/5/2020
Why use whipped cream when you can use a meringue. Honest question because I don't like egg white omelets and I don't know what else to use the egg whites for.
Anonymous
4/17/2020
Delicious! The filling is both intensely tart and very sweet - which I love! I preferred the whipped topping a little sweeter, so I just added more powdered sugar to taste. I agree with the review below that using a food processor is the way to go, since you get more cohesive crust.
Anonymous
New York
4/22/2020
Really good recipe and very easy to put together. Added some shredded coconut and pecans to the crust and topped with toasted coconut instead of whipped cream; turned out great.
Anonymous
4/23/2020
This one didn't work out for me. Once in the oven, my pie never got to a point where the filling stopped jiggling, per the recipe instructions. Since it continued to jiggle, I kept it in longer than I ought to have, hoping it would set as described; it puffed up unattractively about a half inch above the crust and developed a slightly browned skin. The pie tasted good, so points there, but the filling was indeed quite loose and made for a messy pie.
Anonymous
Los Angeles
7/5/2020
My dinner party guests and I all agreed that this is the best Key Lime pie we ever tasted! I did have some problems with the recipe however. Here are my notes after first making of the recipe: 1. Filling and crust quantity required a 10” pie dish. 2. Crust was very crumbly; perhaps more shortening would help—or a regular dough crust incorporating very fine graham cracker crumbs. 3. After 30 minutes of baking the filling never stopped jiggling. It did firm up somewhat after refrigeration. 4. It took forever to juice all those little limes! The flavor difference is hardly worth the effort (at least to my taste buds) and key limes can be hard to find.
barrylockard
Sarasota, FL
8/1/2020