Key Lime Pie

How about a little key lime pie?! The crust on this key lime pie is amazing…graham cracker and candied toasted almonds.

If it’s Thanksgiving, Pi Day or you just really want pie, this Key Lime Pie is reason enough to celebrate. For some, “Pi Day is an annual celebration commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi)”. For others, it’s really just a day to eat PIE! According to wikipedia: Pi Day is observed on March 14 (or 3/14 in the month/day date format), since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π in decimal form. So this pretty much means you need to make pie, and eat pie…don’t you think?!

What you need to make Key Lime Pie Crust:

• butter
• graham crackers
• almonds
• butter
• brown sugar

For the Filling:

• sweetened condensed milk
• key lime juice
• lime zest
• egg yolks

For the Whipped Cream Topping:

• heavy cream cream
• powdered sugar

How to make Key Lime Pie:

• Preheat: Preheat oven to 350.
• Toast almonds: To make candied almonds, toast the almonds in a dry skillet set to a medium heat for about 5 minutes, moving them about to avoid burning. Once they’re slightly golden brown, add butter. Stir and cover all almonds with the butter as it melts. Add the brown sugar and let cook for a few minutes on a medium heat. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• Prepare crust: For the Crust, combine ingredients and place in the blender to create crumbs. Melt the butter and add to the crumbs. Place the toasted almonds/graham cracker crumbs into your buttered pie plate and press down firmly. Bake at 350 for 5-7 minutes. Out of the oven, let the crust cool.
• Prepare filling: For the filling, in a medium sized bowl combine all the pie filling ingredients and then pour into the baked graham cracker crust. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for a while before putting it into the fridge to set overnight.
• Top with whipped cream: To make the whipped cream, add the powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks. You can put a big dollop of cream in the middle of your pie, or use a wide tip and a ziploc bag to pipe on the swirls of whipped cream.

How to store Key Lime Pie:

If you have any of this delicious pie leftover, just keep it covered in the fridge. It will last around 3 days. You can also keep your pie frozen in the freezer, and it will last around one month!

Make ahead:

It is best to make this Key Lime Pie the day before you want to serve it. It needs to chill in the fridge before eating, and keeping it refrigerated overnight is the easiest way to do this!

Toasted Almond Graham Cracker Crust:

Here is a little step by step of how this crust comes together. The candied toasted almonds add so much to the graham cracker crust. It is the perfect crust for the lime filling-you’re going to love it!

Choosing limes for Key Lime Pie:

Here’s a tip when choosing limes at the grocery store: lighter colored limes with smoother skin have more juice. You can use regular limes or key limes for this recipe.

Variations to this recipe:

• If you have a nut allergy, skip the crushed almonds in the crust.
• Not a fan of almonds? Try adding your favorite type of nut into the crust. Crushed pecans or macadamia nuts would be so delicious in this pie!
• Add Vanilla to the whipped cream if you love the added flavor.

No Bake vs. Baked:

This pie needs to be baked twice, both for a short amount of time. The crust needs to be set after baking in the oven, and the pie filling also needs to be baked. If no bake style pies are your thing, you definitely could try omitting the egg yolk in the pie filling so that no baking is required. The graham cracker crust could also try for no bake. It’s worth a go, let me know how it turns out!

More pie recipes we LOVE:

• German Chocolate Pie
• Buttermilk Pie with Raspberry Sauce
• Fresh Peach Soda Cracker Crust Pie
• Eggnog Cream Pie
• Marshmallow Pumpkin Pie

Here’s a tip when choosing limes at the grocery store: lighter colored limes with smoother skin have more juice. You can use regular limes or key limes for this recipe.

Now aren’t you so happy there’s a day dedicated to celebrating pi? It’s totally a day worth celebrating!

That’s it! Do you like to celebrate Pi Day? Whether you do or not, make this pie for any occasion and let me know what you think in the comments below!