Key Lime Pie

From Cooking with the Blues
by Sharon O'Connor

A beloved recipe from Key West, Florida. This luscious pie takes only a few minutes to prepare.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, preferably from Key limes (about 5 Key limes, or 2 regular limes)
• 1 7-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 9-inch graham cracker pie crust (recipe follows)
• 1 teaspoon grated lime zest

1. In a medium bow, stir the lime juice and sweetened condensed milk until thoroughly blended.
2. In a deep bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the lime mixture. Spoon the filling into the prepared pie shell. Sprinkle with lime zest and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Makes one 9-inch pie

Graham Cracker Crust

• 1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, stir all the ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake the crust in the preheated oven for 8 minutes, or until set. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Makes one 9-inch pie shell

Cook's Tips

• Since the Florida Keys were isolated before the railroad opened in 1912, the authentic version of this pie uses canned milk, which was brought in by ship. The Key lime, also referred to as a Mexican lime, is small, sour, thin-skinned, and greenish-yellow. To make lime zest, use a zester, Microplane, or grater to cut the zest, or the colored part of the peel; don't include the white pith underneath, which is bitter.