Lime Pie, oh my!

It is spring in some parts of this continent I've heard, and although it's yet to break 60 degrees for more than ten minutes in Minnesota, this often signifies a transition to tropical desserts. One dessert in particular that people request from me for gatherings in the spring is key lime or lime pie. This dessert is awesome for people who don't like to monkey around with a ton of ingredients, and it's easy as pie! (hardy har, right?) I have made this recipe with regular limes for years, partially because they're almost always available in the form of lime juice concentrate, and also because they are much cheaper than key limes. Now, if your palate is really REALLY refined and you simply must have fresh key limes in your pie, they can often be found in concentrated form too. Or, you can half and juice their tiny little key lime butts one by one, but I have never heard anyone really gripe about the difference, and it's kind of annoying to do it the hard way.
So, you start out by pre-heating the oven to 325 degrees, and then make up the crust, like so:
Standard Graham Cracker Crust:
-2 packages of graham crackers
-3/4 stick of butter, melted
-1 T. Sugar
Directions: Blend the graham crackers and sugar in a food processor until they are fine and sand-like. Then remove them and toss with melted butter in a mixing bowl. Spray the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate ( I prefer metal for this particular pie, it seems to cook more evenly and give a perfectly silky texture) and press the crumbs down evenly so it looks a little something like this:

Stick the crust in your oven for ten minutes to brown up, and then remove and cool before adding filling.

Lime Filling:
-1 cup lime juice concentrate, fresh or bottled
-5 egg yolks
-2 cans sweetened condensed milk
- 2 T. lime zest

Directions: Combine the egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk, and whisk until combined, but not bubbly. Then whisk in lime juice and zest. Pour into pan and bake for fifteen minutes. It will look underdone, but trust me, it should take no longer than 20 minutes to cook this pie all the way. A surefire sign is if the edges start to crackle a bit, then it's done for sure. Cool pie to chill. Right before serving, send your guests over the edge by topping it with freshly whipped cream:
Whipped Cream:
-1 cup heavy cream
- 2 T. powdered sugar
-1 t. vanilla

Lime lovers may weep over this "pie" of sorts, but there are some awesome renditions you can make with it too:

Coconut-Lime Pie
Add a 1/2 cup of coconut to the pie and bake as usual, lime in the coconut anyone??

Lemon- Lime Pie
Do 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1/2 cup lime juice. Best of both worlds folks!

Lemon Pie
Replace lemon juice for lime juice and, Viola!


Lime pie is so easy, you might feel a bit bad when your guests rave about your amazing talents in the kitchen. Now, if you want to use a pre-made crust and whipped cream that's already made, that's totally up to you. But, the taste is incomparable to fresh in my opinion, and not worth the extra clams. Any other renditions of this are encouraged for sharing!