Melanie’s Key Lime Pie

Crust:
1 ¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
5 Tb unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1 tsp grated lime zest
½ cup fresh lime juice

Topping:
1 ½ cups cold heavy cream
1 ½ Tb powdered sugar

Garnish:
Freshly grated lime zest

1. Crust: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In bowl, mix ingredients. Press over bottom and up sides of 9 in pie plate. Bake 8 min, until golden and puffed. Let cool on rack while finishing filling. Reduce oven to 350.

2. Filling: In bowl, beat milk and yolks on high speed, 5 minutes. Beat in zest. Drizzle in lime juice, beat until slightly thickened. Pour into crust. Bake 8 minutes, until barely set in center. Let cool on rack. Chill at least 3 hours.

3. Topping: In bowl, beat cream, sugar until stiff peaks form. Spoon on pie. Garnish with zest, if desired.

Tips:
I (Melanie) use my blender or food processor to get fine graham cracker crumbs. I think one sleeve of crackers is about 1 ¼ cups. Do not substitute a premade graham cracker crust – it’s just not the same! And don’t sub margarine for the butter – it changes the texture of the crust.

You can use fat free sw cond milk, but only beat the mixture for a minute or 2; the texture won’t be right otherwise. You can use regular limes or key limes, but the difference is so slight I typically use regular limes because it doesn’t take as long to juice them and they’re typically less expensive. Just don’t use bottled juice!

The substitute I DO use most frequently is Redi whip or cool whip instead of the homemade topping. I just put a dollop on each individual piece and grate a little lime zest over the top.

Yum!!