Your Key Lime Pie Got a Makeover
Use a key-lime pie as your jumping off point for more fun tropical desserts.
My Passionfruit-Hibiscus Pie brings all the boys to the yard.
When I moved from Vermont to New York to start my cooking career, I got profiled as a hippie a lot by my peers. I was always perplexed by this characterization of me— I had never worn Tom’s deodorant, nor had I used a Wal-Mart parking lot as an overnight rest stop on a cross-country road trip. The stereotype likely came down to three big personality traits: 1) my perpetually unruly hair, 2) my penchant for overalls (even back then!), and 3) my enthusiasm for tie dye.
In a city famous for classic black fashion, it’s still a breath of fresh air to see a pop of color out and about. Sometimes this applies to food as well, although my email list knows I detest the infamous rainbow bagel. No— for me, if you’re going to have colorful food, it must happen naturally and as a reflection of the flavors you are eating. Enter one of my favorite desserts: a key lime pie.
A key lime pie is a lemon tart’s wacky artistic aunt who embraces the culture of her home state of Florida and drinks one too many margaritas early on at the family reunion. She’s audacious and flavorful, but she’s still got that dependable taste of home with the graham cracker crust. In other words, she’s super fun and we’d all do better to emulate her a little bit more. However, we can use key lime pie’s basic curd formula to make an even bolder pie statement. Everything is up for debate, from the graham cracker base to the fruits or flowers that flavor the filling.
Like most of my recipes, this one is a little zany. It offers basic ratios, but encourages you to make judgement calls about crust thickness and filling flavors. The basic recipe is at the bottom, but I will be very surprised if you don’t find yourself scratching your head and referring to the detailed notes I left you. It’s worth it to read it through— you will grow so much in the process.
Foundations: the Crust
I know the crust isn’t the main event at this rodeo, but it’s delicious, crumbly, buttery, and most importantly, easy as pie. Here’s the most important details:
Crumbling your Crackers: I pulse my graham crackers in my food processor until they are uniformly fine. If you don’t have a food processor, a roll pin and a sturdy plastic bag will also work quite well.
Upper and Lower Limits of Crust Thickness— The thinnest I would recommend making your crust is using only one cup of graham crackers or about one sleeve of crushed crackers. However, I use 2 cups. Why? I think the crumbly buttery mixture is super important foil for the sweet and tangy filling. If you take a look at the picture above, that max seem like too thick a crust for your preferences. Use the ratio below and make up your own mind.
Crumb-to-Butter Ratio—for every half a cup of crumbs, use 2 tablespoons of melted butter. When you squeeze a handful of the mixture together, it should hold its shape fairly easily. You can add a tiny splash of water if it helps, but don’t go overboard. You then use a glass to evenly press the crumbly mixture into the bottom and sides of your pie pan.
Sugar vs Salt: I already think the sweetened condensed milk is more than enough sugar for my taste, so I don’t add any to the graham crackers. I do add a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor in the crust.
Further Ways to Get Creative: You don’t have to use graham crackers. You could use saltines, nilla wafers, a bit of toasted coconut, or even ginger snaps. Think about how your choice will complement your filling, and go to town.
Prebake the crust: I blind bake the crust with no weights at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Cool before filling.
The Filling
Traditional key lime pie filling is three ingredients: 4 egg yolks, 1 14-ounce can (397g) sweetened condensed milk, and 2/3 cup (152 g) key lime juice. I prefer a more tart filling, so I add a cup of juice instead. The tart will set either way, so start with 2/3 of a cup, taste the mixture, and add what you would like of an additional 1/3 of a cup. Here are other combinations you can use to make different types of flavors:
Margarita Pie: add 1 shot of mezcal or tequila and a pinch of cayenne to your basic key lime recipe.
Passionfruit Pie: sub passionfruit puree for key lime juice.
Hibiscus Pie: sub hibiscus tea for key lime juice.
Mango-Lime Pie: swap out half the lime juice for mango puree.
A combination: you can choose two flavors that you would like to swirl together to get the tie dye look in the top photo. First mix the egg yolks and the sweetened condensed milk together. Divide the mixture into two separate bowls, then add 1/3 cup of a different type of juice or puree into each bowl. Pour the denser filling into the pie shell first, then drizzle the other filling on top of the first one in lines until you have used it all. Use a knife to gently swirl patterns into the filling without breaking the crust underneath.
I then bake the pie for 15-20 minutes until the center is still a little jiggly. Cool the pie for 8 hours before slicing and serving with whipped cream.
Feel overwhelmed? No worries— jump to the recipe below and get started.
Tropical Pie
Makes 1 9 inch pie— see notes above if questioning the amounts and ingredients.
Ingredients for Crust:
4-8 tablespoons butter
1-2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 1-2 sleeves of whole graham crackers)
Pinch of salt
Ingredients for Filling
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
Pinch of salt
2/3 to 1 cup of the juices or fruit purees of your choice (see notes above)
Whipped cream to finish (optional)
Procedure:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees
If necessary, crush your crackers using a food processor or a sturdy plastic bag and a rolling pin. You should have fine, uniform pieces, and you should have 1 to 2 cups of crumbs depending on how thick you want the crust. Add your pinch of salt to the crumbs now.
Add 4 tablespoons of butter for every cup of crumbs. Check to see if your mixture holds together by pressing some of it together in the palm of your hand; if not, add the tiniest splash of water to help it come together. Evenly press the mixture into your pie pan using the base of a glass.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Cool 5-10 minutes before adding your filling.
Mix your sweetened condensed milk, your egg yolks, and a pinch of salt together. If making two different flavored curds, then divide the mixture into two bowls. Add 2/3 cup of your puree or juice of choice (1/3 in each bowl if making two types). Taste it, then continue to add up to 1/3 more puree or juice depending on your preferences.
Fill your pie crust (use the instructions in the notes to swirl your two different curds if desired).
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 325 degrees, or until the edges are set but the center is still a bit jiggly. Let your pie cool for 8 hours before slicing.
I promise that the end result is worth it! Once you make it through this recipe once you can cook it like a pro any time with any juices.
