I’ve tried making Key Lime Pie a number of times since then, but I’ve never been able to do that taste memory justice. Traditional Key Lime Pies are made with sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, and lime juice, but because eating uncooked eggs is unwise, most recipes these days call for them to be baked in the oven. This not only renders the custard much firmer, the heat takes the fresh edge off of the lime juice. I wanted to come up with a Key Lime Pie that doesn’t require the filling to be baked. The breakthrough moment came when I made a yuzu posset a few months ago. A posset is an eggless custard that’s set through a chemical reaction between boiled cream and citrus juice. The first thought I had when I tasted it was that I’d found my solution for making a delicious Key Lime Pie that you don’t need to worry about eating. The best part is that this method makes it ridiculously simple to make the pie. The filling consists of only 3 ingredients, and comes together in under 10 minutes. To ensure I got as much lime flavor into the filling as possible, I add both lime juice and lime zest, but I strain the zest out before filling the pie shell in order to keep the texture of the filling nice and smooth. With a buttery graham cracker crust, and a cool silky filling that melts on contact with your tongue into a tangy pool of fresh lime flavor, this pie brought back delicious memories from my trip to the Keys. The rich, milky sweetness from the cream mellows the harsh acidity of the limes, and the temperature-sensitive filling sets firm in the fridge, but melts like a ganache in your mouth, giving it an indescribably smooth texture.
📖 Recipe
