Key Lime Pie

After eating salad all week, it's time for some pie.

You've earned it.

I'm a Key Lime Pie connoisseur.  I eat it everywhere I can.  I like it thick, thin, with whipped cream, with meringue, plain.

But thick and creamy and plain - no whipped cream, no meringue - is my favorite.

The problem is that I have had a hard time figuring out how to make it this way at home.

Until Southern Living came to the rescue.  They published a lemon pie with two cans of sweetened condensed milk.  I mean, how bad can that be?  So I tried it.  I realized that this is exactly the way I love Key Lime Pie. 

So I made the crust the way I like it and switched key lime juice for the lemon juice.

And then I died and went to heaven.

You'll need to start with the crust, because we're going to bake it for a few minutes to make it set up before we pour the yummy, creamy filling in.

Use some graham crackers (duh), powdered sugar, and butter.

Mix it up and pat it into a pie dish.

Now work on the filling.  Remember what I said about two cans of sweetened condensed milk?

I was serious.

You'll also need egg yolks.  Six of them.  The good news is that now you have six egg whites.  You can make a meringue topping for the pie.  Or you can make meringues to eat later.  Or you can make an egg-white omelete.  I have no idea why you would want to make an egg white omelete, but I've heard that some people do that.

Oh, and of course you'll need key limes or limes or bottled key lime juice.

Now, normally I'm very against bottled juice of any kind.  But in this case, bottled key lime juice is wonderful (I know because I've tested it many different ways.  That is, if "testing" means making a recipe compulsively because I am obsessed with it.).

Or you can use fresh-squeezed key lime or regular limes.  Key limes are tarter and zingier than regular limes.  I love them.

Regardless, get a cup of some sort of lime juice.

And whisk in six egg yolks and the sweetened condensed milk.  And pour it into the baked and cooled graham cracker crust.

And then bake it all together for about 15 minutes.  This is just long enough for it to set up so that it doesn't run when you cut into it.

Is there anything more summery than key lime pie???

Key Lime Pie
Adapted from Southern Living

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Filling:
2 14-oz. cans sweetened condensed milk
1 cup key lime juice
6 egg yolks

Mix the crust ingredients together and pat into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.  Bake on 350 degrees for about 7 minutes.  Cool completely.

Whisk together the filling ingredients and pour into the cooled crust.  Bake on 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Cool completely at room temperature and then refrigerate until chilled - about 4 hours.