Easy Key Lime Pie

How to make the best key Lime Pie recipe, a delicious dessert made with a cookie crumb crust with a generous layer of egg-free lemon filling made with Florida keys limes juice, sweetened condensed milk and served with an homemade whipped cream topping.

Key lime pie with condensed milk

This recipe for key lime pie is delicious and will satisfy all tangy lovers, as well as those who like lightly lemony desserts.

Unlike the traditional key lime pie made with pie crust and egg yolks, this easy key lime pie is made with sweetened condensed milk, sour cream and key lime juice and, in place of the Italian meringue, a light and fluffy whipped cream perfect for softening this lemon dessert.

Its creamy filling is very similar to my lemon cream pie recipe with a no bake cheesecake like texture. It's like the lemon curd we use to make lemon meringue pie but less concentrated.

The key lime pie is a fresh dessert, very easy to make and really perfect to enjoy the lemon season and to treat your friends and family on any occasion.

>> See all the pies and tarts recipes of the blog

Ingredients and substitutions

Crunchy base:

In the traditional recipe we use a pie crust, but here I wanted to use a base with reconstituted cookie crumbsmade with cookie crumbs and melted unsalted butter.

This is a graham cracker crust base, but you can easily replace them with other cookies like speculoos or use directly a sweet shortcrust pastry or a pie crust.

Lemon cream

• Condensed milk: use sweetened condensed milk preferably, or unsweetened but you will need to add some extra sugar in the recipe to balance the tartness of the lemons.
• Key Lime zest and lime juice: Preferably use squeezed key limes and fresh zest, you can also use bottled key lime juice directly. And if you don't have any limes, don't worry, you can also use regular limes or yellow lemons.
• Cream: it can be replaced by heavy cream or cream cheese (philadelphia).

Whipped topping

• Heavy cream : Full fat heavy cream or whipping cream and cold.
• Sugar : preferably use a fine white sugar such as powdered sugar or icing sugar.

⚠️ You will find all the quantities and complete instructions in the recipe card further down this page.

How to make Easy Key Lime Pie

1 - Graham cracker crust

1. Blend the graham cracker cookies in a food processor until they are a fine powder.
2. Melt butter in a saucepan or in the microwave.
3. Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter in a medium bowl with a wooden spoon.
4. Pour this crumb mixture into the pie plate and press well with the bottom of a glass to form the bottom of the pie.
5. Bake at 350°F / 180°C for 7 to 10 minutes.
6. Let the pie crust cool to room temperature.
7. Then place in the fridge while preparing the lemon filling.

Tips : You can replace the graham crackers crumbs with biscoff cookies or use a pie dough crust or shortcrust pastry instead.

2 - Lemon filling

1. Whisk together with a hand whisk or an electric mixer sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice and lime zest in a large bowl until smooth.
2. Pour the key lime pie filling into the prepared graham cracker crust and smooth the top with an angled spatula.
3. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes until the cream is firm.
4. Let the key lime pie cool completely to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours or let sit in the fridge overnight.

Tip : The lemon pie is ready when the filling seems firmer and the crumbs have a golden brown color, after a passage in the cold it will harden again.

3 - Whipped cream

1. Place the heavy cream and powdered sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk at medium speed for about 5 minutes. Until you obtain a firm whipped cream.
2. Put the whipped cream in a pastry bag fitted with a piping bag.
3. Decorate the top of the cooled pie by forming swirls.
4. Add extra lime zest and serve cold.

Tip : You can always replace the whipped topping with an Italian meringue topping like in the traditional recipe.

Storage and freezing

In the fridge:

Keylime pie can only be stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days under plastic wrap or in a storage box.n.

In the freezer:

You can store the key lime pie in the freezer covered with plastic wrap for up to 3 months.

Defrosting:

Let it rest gently in the refrigerator preferably for 1-2 hours until it is completely thawed.

More lemon recipes

• Lemon poppy seed pound cake
• Lemon pound cake with sugar glaze
• Lemon Meringue Tartlets
• Lemon curd cupcakes
• Lemon Muffins
• Lemon poppy seed muffins
• Lemon bundt cake

More Pie recipe

• Pumpkin pie
• Maple Pecan Pie
• Apple Pie
• Chocolate mousse pie
• Lemon cream pie
• Walnut pie
• Cinnamon pie

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