Key lime pie

Proper key lime pie is quite awkward to make if you do not live in Florida with access to a small orchard. The crumbly crust uses Graham’s crackers, which are very hard to obtain outside of the US. You can’t even order the things on Amazon. If you really want Graham’s crackers, it might be worth befriending someone who lives on one of the dwindling number of US air bases in foreign territories. Key limes (thus called because of their cultivation on the Florida Keys) are also a bugger to get hold of, and many lime growers prefer to produce the larger, less spiny Peruvian limes. A hurricane in 1926 wiped out almost all of the Key lime groves on the peninsula, and the trees were replaced with the Peruvian variety. Key limes can be found now and then, but for a reliable source, you would need a contact who grows them privately.

Now we have the recipe out of the way, we can discuss where Key lime pie came from. Unsurprisingly, there are more than one claimant:

• Aunt Sally. Sally was cook to Florida’s first millionaire – ship salvage mogul William Curry. It is said that Sally observed local sponge fishermen mixing the juice of Key West limes with condense milk and eggs. This was apparently in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, and was never written down. The timeline fits wth the existence of the lime groves prior to the 1926 hurricane.
• Borden Milk Company. In an effort to boost sales of condensed milk, the New York-based Bordern Milk company published a recipe for Magic Lemon Cream pie, which was adapted in Florida using limes . Food historians tend to favour this version of events as no recipes for key lime pie appear before 1930 when Bordern published the lemon dish.

Regardless of genesis, there is no doubt that the moose celebrated Key lime pie of them all comes from Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami. This family-owned crab shack has been serving the dessert for decades, and people flock from miles around to try it.

Joe’s Stone Crab can be found at 11 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139, United States. Call +1 305 673-0365.  

Print Recipe

Key lime pie

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By Joe's Stone Crab, Miami – Serves: 6

Cooking Time: 2 hours

Ingredients

• For the crust:
• 150g Graham's crackers or digestive biscuits (10 digestives), broken up (see notes)
• 75g butter, melted
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• For the filling:
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 tsp lime zest
• 1 397g can of condensed milk
• 2/3 cup lime juice (see notes)
• For the cream:
• 1 cup double cream
• 2 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

For the crust:

1

Heat an oven to 180˚C. Butter a 9" pie tin (e.g. a tarte Tatin tin)

2

Blitz the biscuits with the sugar in a food processor, and then slowly add the butter, mixing to the texture of wet sand. Tip the mixture into the buttered pie dish and gently push the mixture around with the base of a cup measure to form the base and sides. Do not pack it in.

3

Bake in the oven for 8 mins. Cool.

For the filling:

4

Using a stand mixer whisk the egg yolks and lime zest for 5 mins. Then slowly pour in the condensed milk, and mix for a further 4 mins. Finally, mix in the lime juice until combined and no more.

5

Pour the mixture in to the crust and bake in the oven for 10 mins until set. Cool on a wire rack and then refrigerate for an hour or so.

To serve:

6

Put the pie in the freezer for 20 mins.

7

Meanwhile whisk the cream and sugar to soft peaks. Portion the pie and serve with a dollop of cream on top.

Notes

Grahams crackers are the required biscuit for the original recipe; however, they are very hard to get hold of in Europe. The best swap is digestive biscuits. Similarly, Floridian Key limes are hard to get hold of, even in Florida, so many cooks will use standard Peruvian limes.