Pie-a-Day #5 – Key Lime (omg!)

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This is the first time I made Key Lime Pie.  I don’t really know why I never made one before.  It’s spectacular!  A friend,  Theresa St. Clair is a talented baker who consented to share her recipe.  As luck would have it there were big bags of key limes at the grocery store, but no regular Graham Crackers.  How is that possible?  They are all cinnamon or low fat, but I scrounged in the baking aisle and found some ready made crumbs.Now you have to know that pastry dough just kind of flows out of my hands, but a graham cracker crust?  I had to make it three times.  First time, not enough butter so it was just too crumbly.  Second time, very uneven depth and some nearly burnt spots.  Third time, okay, but not as great as when Theresa makes it.  Her crust is almost like a candy bar it’s so buttery and crunchy and sticks together really well.  But the filling was so delicious.  Very creamy with a perfect balance of that floral tart key lime hit of acidity and sugar.

pac man limes

   Of course I didn’t have anything to juice the limes.  Everything functional always migrates to the  restaurant.  So my pal Ivan put the little limes in a big zip lock bag put it on the floor and stepped on them.  They burst open into little pacmen shapes.  What fascinated me was how the acid of the lime juice basically cooked the egg yolks that were lightened by beating then mixed together with sweetened condensed milk.  I happily brought it to a client’s house for a Father’s Day dinner I cooked.  He loves Key Lime Pie.  And now, so do I.