Key Lime Pie

I loveeee me some Key Lime Pie. Chris doesn't like it. Needless to say I've made two pies in a week. Don't worry, we only shared one piece between us and then gave the rest away. Even though this recipe is made from scratch it's so easy. You could make it even easier by buying one of those pre-made graham cracker crusts and a tub of cool whip.

But I didn't. And I wouldn't, only because this is so quick to whip up.

KEY LIME PIE
What you need for the crust (or buy one already made)-
10 whole graham crackers
1/3 cups of sugar
1/3 cups of butter, melted
What you need for the filling-
Key limes I found a bag of them. I'm sure regular limes would work as well.
1 tbs. lime zest
1/2 cup lime juice
2 egg yolks
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
What you need for the whipped topping (or buy cool whip)-
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbs. sugar

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Break up the graham crackers, we used our mini food processor. The crackers need to be really fine. Also, melt your butter.

Combine the graham crackers, melted butter and sugar. It'll be crumbly. That's good. Press it into a pie plate.

The crust ends up being pretty thick, but that's good because the filling is very rich. Next, throw the pie crust into the oven for five minutes so it can brown up.

Beautiful. Now, set it aside to cool. Leave the oven on. Next comes the fun part, you need to get a tablespoon of zest from those cute little limes, don't forget to rinse them off.

Yes, that is an Ikea sticker on our grater. We've never used it before. I promise we washed it.

I'd call that a heaping tablespoon. Now comes the not so fun part, unless you have a lime squeezer thingie which we don't, but however you have to do it, get 1/2 a cup of juice from the key limes.

You didn't know a grater could multi-task didya? It was great for catching the seeds.

Look at how cute these little babies are. So small. I think my fingers are bleeding from squeezing so many.

I suppose you could just buy some lime juice, but I was going for the whole "made from scratch" feel. After you've got your 1/2 cup of juice, strain it to make sure you no seeds have snuck in.

What's that? More multi tasking by my cheap Ikea grater? Yep, who needs a lime squeezer thingie or a mesh colander? Thank you, Ikea.

Moving on.

These are egg yolks. Duh! You don't need the whites, just the yolks. Have fun separating! Combine the yolks, the key lime juice, and the lime zest in a bowl.

Mix.

You don't have to mix long, just until combined didn't I already say that?. Now slowly mix in the can of condensed milk.

Now you need to mix until the filling becomes kind of thick. A couple of minutes, then pour into the pie crust.

Bake for about 15 minutes. Or until it no longer jiggles in the middle. When it's finished, let it cool on the counter for about an hour. After it's cooled it needs to go into the fridge for 4 hours. Over night is better. Right before you serve it you must top it with whipped cream. It's super easy to make, I'll show you in just pictures...

Really, that's all there is to it. Dump the sugar and cream into a bowl and mix until it thickens like whipped cream! Don't skip this step, the pie needs this otherwise I think it'd almost be too tart. If you're to lazy to do this then you could always buy some at the store.

Spread on top of the chilled pie.

I didn't get a picture of a sliced piece. Like I said, we gave both pies away and I wasn't going to ask for a picture of the finished product. That would be weird.

Yum.