Looking for Key Lime Pie

Well, I finally found it. Harry has a thing for Key Lime Pie. When we had to be away from the house for more than a month last year while they were doing the demolition for our remodel, one of the things we did was a week in the Florida Keys and two weeks on a Caribbean cruise. Great fun. And we ate our way around the Keys looking for the best absolute Key Lime pie. We were reminded of that quest recently when we were in Catalina. We were in a really good restaurant, fabulous food, but they said their specialty was Key Lime pie. Harry was all over that. But it wasn’t Key Lime. Not that it wasn’t good pie. Fluffy green interior, lots of whipped cream. Problem there is that the best Key Lime pie we had wasn’t green. It was more yellow. Chartreuse if you really squinted and imagined some green. And this pie tasted like they’d used Roses Lime Juice, and not very much of that.

I made a rash promise. If Harry would find me Key Limes, and juice them (they are tiny little things, and very annoying to juice) I’d make him a real Key Lime pie. We discussed strategy. I have a great lemon meringue recipe with a bit of milk in it, and we decided to use that and just sub out the Key Lime for the lemon. He brought home two bags of Key limes. I had a homemade pie crust in the fridge waiting to be rolled out (left over from the fresh pumpkin pie I made at Thanksgiving. Make two crusts, just in case you end up throwing one on the floor. Don’t ask me how I got into that habit.)

Yay!!! Result was great. True Key lime. Yellow, because of the egg yolks in the meringue. It seems hard, but you can do it a piece at a time and then do other things, and do some more. Or you can make the filling in advance, even make the crust in advance and then finish the rest on the day you want it.

So, forthwith, a REAL Key Lime Pie recipe:

KEY LIME CREAM MERINGUE PIE

Recipe adapted from one in Gourmet Magazine

Buy or make your favorite Pie Dough for a one-crust pie

Filling:

2 cups milk

2/3 cup sugar

18-22 Key Limes (they’re tiny) for zest and juice

1/4 cup cornstarch

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

Meringue:

4 egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

Prepare and chill the dough.

Filling: To make the filling, combine the milk and sugar in a nonreactive saucepan, preferably enameled iron. Strip the zest from the limes with a sharp vegetable peeler, making sure you remove the green zest but none of the white pith beneath. If you do remove some of the white pith, scrape it off the strips of zest with the point of a paring knife and discard it. Add the zest to the milk and sugar and bring to a simmer over low heat. Remove from the heat and allow to steep for 5 minutes; remove the strips of zest with a slotted spoon or skimmer and discard them.

Squeeze the zested Key Limes to make 1/2 cup strained juice. Place the juice in a mixing bowl and whisk in the cornstarch, then yolks.

Return the milk and sugar mixture to a boil over low heat and whisk about a third of the boiling milk into the lemon juice mixture. Return the remaining milk and sugar mixture to a boil once more and whisk the lemon juice and yolk mixture back into it, whisking constantly until the filling comes to a boil and thickens. Allow to boil, whisking constantly, for about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat, whisk in the butter, and pour into a nonreactive bowl. Press plastic wrap against the surface of the filling and chill until it is approximately 75 degrees. (If you prepare the filling in advance, let it come to room temperature before proceeding.)

Set a rack at the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

Roll out the dough to make a bottom crust and arrange in the pan and create a decorative edge. Chill the crust until firm, about 20 minutes.

To bake the crust, pierce it all over with the tines of a fork at 1/2-inch intervals. Bake until the crust is golden brown. Cool the crust on a rack.

Spread the cooled filling evenly in the cooled crust. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees.

To make the meringue, bring a small pan of water to a boil. Lower the heat so that the water simmers. Combine the ingredients in the bowl of a mixer or, if you are using a hand whisk, in another heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over the pan of simmering water and whisk the egg white mixture gently for about 2 minutes, until the egg whites are hot and the sugar has dissolved. Whip the meringue on medium speed until it has cooled, shiny, and is able to hold a shape, but it should not look dry. Distribute spoonfuls of the meringue all over the top of the pie, then use the back of a spoon to spread the meringue evenly. It should cover the top of the pie and touch the edges of the crust all around. Here and there, bring up the surface of the meringue so that it is swirled. Place the pie on a cookie sheet and bake for 5 to 10 minutes, until the meringue is colored evenly.

Cool on a rack.

Recipe Summary

Difficulty: Easy

Yield: 1 pie serving 8