Key Lime Pie

One of the dessert that I enjoyed eating when I was living in Orlando is the Key Lime Pie.
Every year around Oct I look forward to see this unique lime fruit on the shelves of my local store , and if I am lucky , I grab couple of bags, and promise myself with a good treat.

the recipe of this pie is not from a book or online source, but its my own testing and twist to it.
I hope you give it a try and enjoy it as we do.

Key Lime Pie Recipe


Crust:
1 1/4 cups of graham crackers (I use whole crackers and ground them myself they taste better)
2 tbsp sugar
5-6 tbsp unsalted butter melted
1/3 cup of coarsely ground almond ( I like the texture and flavour)

mix the ingredients and press it evenly onto the bottom and up sides of a 9 inch pie pan - I used a rectangular (12x6) if you have a loose bottom pie pan its ideal .

Bake the crust in a preheated 350F oven for 10 minutes. take it out and leave the oven on.
Note: when I bake pies and specially using a tray under the pan i bake the pie in the first shelf of the oven ... My oven is natural gas with a fan which I don't use for baking pies.

Filling:

1 1/2 cans sweetened condensed milk ( 300 ml each)
3 extra large eggs (some use 4 large)
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp of freshly squeezed key lime - no bottle juice.(the whole bag which contains 22 lime)

with a whisk whip the eggs and the condensed milk , slowly add the lime juice and combine well you will notice that the mixture will start to thicken)
pour the filling over the crust make sure its well distributed , don't over fill your pan if its smaller than the above... make small tarts in a muffin pan.
bake in the
oven for 15-18 minutes depends on your oven temp. Cool the pie completely before you chill it at least 8 hours to set completely.

To decorate: 3/4 cup heavy cream whipped.

Flavours Variation:

Sometimes if I am in the mood to jazz it up, I use graham biscuits for the bottom, and in the filling i add 1/3 of unsweeted coconut and 1 tbsp of tecquilla or rum, as well as the whipping cream....