The spirit of a Key lime pie in the guise of a luscious cranberry curd. The contrast between the snappy press-in crust and the tart filling in this recipe is pure genius.
Recipe information
Yield
Serves 8
Ingredients
Crust:
Filling and assembly:
Preparation
Crust:
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350°F. Pulse cookies in a food processor until very finely ground (you should have about 1 cup). Add pecans; pulse until finely ground. Add butter and brown sugar; pulse to combine. Transfer to a deep 9" pie dish. Using a measuring cup, press firmly onto bottom and up sides of dish. Bake until firm and slightly darkened in color, 10–15 minutes. If crust slides down sides, gently press back up. Let cool.
Filling and assembly:
Step 2
Bring 12 oz. cranberries, 1 cup granulated sugar, and 1/4 cup water to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high. Reduce heat; simmer until cranberries burst and most of the liquid evaporates, 12–15 minutes. Let cool. Purée in a blender until very smooth.
Step 3
Cook purée, eggs, egg yolks, lemon zest, lime juice, salt, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. lime zest in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (bowl should not touch water), stirring with a rubber spatula and scraping down sides of bowl often, until curd thickens and coats spatula, 8–10 minutes. Let cool until just warm.
Step 4
Using an electric mixer on medium-high, beat curd, adding butter a piece at a time and incorporating after each addition, until curd looks lighter in color and texture, about 5 minutes. Scrape into crust and chill until firm, about 2 hours.
Step 5
Bring 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 cup water to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add remaining 4 oz. cranberries and cook until barely starting to soften, about 1 minute. Using a slotted spoon, transfer cranberries to a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Chill until no longer sticky, 20–30 minutes.
Step 6
Toss remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 tsp. lime zest in a small bowl. Toss cranberries in lime sugar. Top pie with cranberries; serve with whipped cream.
Do Ahead
Step 7
Crust can be baked 1 day ahead. Store tightly wrapped at room temperature.
Pie (without topping) can be made 2 days ahead. Cover once filling is firm and keep chilled. Let sit at room temperature 2 hours before serving.
Leave a Review
Reviews (29)
Back to TopWe haven’t eaten it yet but I want to thank Miche Miche for suggesting making the curd in the Vitamix. So easy! I even added the butter right in there. I wish I’d read the rest of the reviews and reduced the butter (it did seem a lot) and sugar. I’ll report back after we eat it tomorrow.
Moosegirl
11/20/2022
I've made this pie over the holidays every year since the recipe was published. The flavors are so vivid and the color really pops. I have a calamondin tree, so use the whole fruit instead of using lemon and lime zest; the entire peel is edible. They are nice and juicy, so it takes about 10 of them to get the right amount of juice. The best shortcut for making an easy custard is to use a high-speed blender, like a VitaMix. We have a Waring 'X-Prep', which is the equivalent. I go right from blending the cranberry sauce, to adding all of the custard ingredients and you let it go on high for six to eight minutes. It creates enough heat to start steaming and slowly cooks the eggs to make a perfect custard. The crust is delicious and it's super easy to make gluten-free if you come across ginger snaps that are without gluten; I just happened to pick them up a few times unintentionally.
Miche Miche
Brooklyn, NY
12/31/2021
Sublime yet delicious pie! I was looking for a little dessert project to end a season of heavy meals that was festive/bright and cranberry, and this pie was it. It was less like spicy cranberry sauce and more like a key lime pie - tangy and smooth, not too heavy. I would probably leave the cranberry topping off since initially they were too tart to complement the pie. But they mellowed out after a few days in the fridge so maybe I would just prepare them a few days in anticipation of making the pie. This is also tart enough to serve in the summer and, yes, the curd took forever (is there a shortcut?) but I'm glad I waited for it to thicken.
Rachel S
Columbia, SC
12/29/2021
This pie is great! I took the advice of another reviewer and left out the cranberries on top. So I can’t speak to that, but the pie itself I followed the recipe to the letter. It turned out great. The whipped cream is a must, it balances out the sharp citrus. But you could leave it unsweetened since the pie is plenty sweet.
Meg
Oregon
11/26/2021
Love this pie! My family thought I was crazy when I showed it to them, wound up being the hit of the holiday!
Kim
10/13/2021
Wow! I made this for Christmas dinner and my family loved it. Rich enough for the holidays and tart enough to be refreshing after a big meal. Bonus points for storing well in the fridge for several days because this year it was just three of us eating it. -- I left the sugar out of the crust entirely (ginger snaps are sweet enough) and cut it down in the other places. -- The curd took much longer to thicken than the recipe suggests. Just stir patiently. -- Next time I'll skip the candied cranberries on top. They were too sweet and detracted from the smooth texture. This pie might become a Thanksgiving/Christmas staple.
Dappled
British Columbia
1/5/2021
This dessert was just missing something completely. It was just tart and tart on top of tart. I wanted some fat with it but ice cream didn't seem like a good fit. Whipped cream didn't seem like a good fit. I really like tart and I really like curd and I really didn't like this tart.
cjcchicago
Portland, Or
2/1/2020
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