The Dutch’s Salted Lime Pie

PIE-A-DAY #52

This recipe comes to us from Kierin Baldwin, Head Pastry Chef at The Dutch in New York, New York.

Originally this pie was a concieved as a margarita cream pie, with a spiked layer of whipped cream on top of the custard and a salt garnish, but when I tried it without the cream I realized I liked it a lot more that way. The custard is based on a recipe for key lime pie that I found in a book of pie recipes from Appalachia I bought secondhand a few years ago, but it is not a key lime pie. Regular Persian limes give it a zing that goes perfectly with the sea salt sprinkled on top. I like it best served with coconut sorbet to temper the tang and salt.

Keep reading for the recipe…

Preheat the oven to 325^oF. Place coconut and crumbs in the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the flour, sugars and salt and mix just to blend. Slowly pour in the melted butter and blend. Spread crumbs in a 9” pie pan and press down to cover the bottom and sides of the pan with a clean edge the same height as the pie pan. Bake until golden brown, about 20-30 minutes. Allow to cool completely and then pour the melted white chocolate into it and first pick up the pie plate and swirl it until it covers the bottom and sides to just below the toop edge of the crust then, using a small rubber spatula, remove any excess chocolate that pools int eh crust, leaving just a thin coating. Allow the chocolate to reset completely and then it is ready to fill.

Lime Custard

the zest of 2 limes

5 egg yolks

one 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1 cup fresh lime juice

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

1 Tablespoon Tequila

1 Tablespoon Cointreau

1 tsp Maldon sea salt (for garnishing)

Preheat the oven to 300^o F.

Zest the limes and then chop up very finely with a chef’s knife.

Add to the yolks in an electric mixer bowl and whisk until it is thickened and the yolks have gotten lighter and slightly green, a few minutes.

Whisk in the condensed milk followed by the lime juice, salt and the liquors.

Pour into the crumb crust and bake until set in the center. (It will jiggle slightly like jello, but no longer look liquid when done.) This may take up to an hour and a half depending on the oven, since it is a fairly thick layer of custard. Begin to check it after 45 minutes. (If you have a convection oven, invert another pie plate on top of the one the pie is in so it won’t form a skin.)

When the custard has cooked through, cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until cold before cutting into it. Garnish it with the Maldwon salt just before serving.