I was determined to bake a key lime pie and was going to hit one grocery store with the kids. If said grocery store didn’t have key limes (I would have settled for key lime juice) then too bad. Sure enough, no key limes. I decided to go ahead with the pie anyway, sans the key limes. You can’t really substitute key limes with anything else, but you can get pretty close by adding in some lemon juice to pump up the acidity levels. I have to say…it turned out DELICIOUS. It was the perfect amount of tart and tasted almost identical to the one I made with key limes.

Ingredients

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I use HoneyMaid)
7 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
Filling:
1½ tbsp zest from a lime
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 fresh lemon juice
3 egg yolks
Whipped Cream:
1 cup heavy cream (35%)
1 tbsp sugar

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.
For the crust:
1. In a medium bowl add graham cracker crumbs, melted butter or margarine, sugar and salt. Mix until well combined. Pour mixture into a 9 -inch pie dish and press down. Bring crust up the edges of the pie dish. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool while preparing the filling.
For the filling:
2. Add 1 tbsp of the lime zest to the egg yolks and whisk for 1-2 minutes, or until thickened.
3. Add sweetened condensed milk and mix for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Add lime and lemon juice and stir until well combined.
5. Pour the mixture onto the pie crust.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. Allow pie to cool for 30 min and then place in fridge for at least 2 hours.
For the Whipped Cream (make right before serving):
1. With an electric mixer, whip the cream and sugar together until stiff peaks form.
2. Top the pie with the whipped cream and sprinkle the remaining ½ tbsp of lime zest on top as a garnish.

Try it. I promise you won’t be disappointed.