The Winner of Our Key Lime Pie Bake-Off Is a Summertime Basic, With the Quantity Turned Up

In terms of the very best key lime pie recipes, I’ve fond reminiscences of 1 particularly—and, in fact, it dates again to center faculty. The Olive Backyard was house to my youthful self’s peak-pie indulgences. Positive dinner was fantastic, however what I couldn’t anticipate was dessert: a slice of black tie mousse cake and considered one of key lime pie. Piled excessive with whipped cream, the latter was a real pièce de résistance. Whereas I couldn’t inform you what really went into the dreamy-delicious pies of my youth, there’s one factor I do know for certain: My discerning dessert palette has solely developed over time.

With summer season in full swing, my dessert cravings lean vivid, zingy, and stuffed with zest. Sweets which might be refreshing on the finish of a meal however nonetheless fulfill the necessity for a bit of deal with. The very best key lime pie recipe checks all of the containers of a stellar summer season dessert. It’s one which celebrates the season and can maintain everybody lingering across the desk a short while longer. To substantiate as soon as and for all what constitutes the very best key lime pie, I used to be greater than a bit of excited to place a couple of recipes to the bake-off check.

Guidelines of the Street

Usually, that is the place I inform y’all that each one recipes are adopted precisely as written with none changes for private style or taste preferences. That is nonetheless true, however for this specific bake-off, I made a half-serving of each recipe as an alternative of a full pie (my pie-loving coronary heart does have its limits!). I used a scale to weigh out the halves to make sure accuracy when baking. Simply attempting to attenuate meals waste over right here! All pies have been baked the evening prior and tasted the following day.

Rating Pointers

My group of seven style testers all aligned on the next pointers when rating every of the pies.

1. Filling Taste. Vibrant and zesty with out being too acidic or candy. Lime needs to be ahead however not overwhelming.
2. Filling Texture. Creamy and easy, not too dense however agency sufficient to carry its form.
3. Crust Texture. Ought to add a pleasant crunch with out detracting from the pie.

Most key lime pie recipes solely name for a handful of elements. Limes, condensed milk, and egg yolks. Due to this, seeing slight variations in portions or further elements added to the refined distinctions that made every recipe stand out.

Now for the very best half! Preserve scrolling to find which recipe reigned supreme in our Key Lime Pie Bake-Off.

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After I first tried this recipe, I had to return and double-check that I hadn’t missed one thing, which often isn’t an important begin. The great a part of this contender for the very best key lime pie recipe is that it’s nearly fully no-bake. The graham cracker crust is baked after which stuffed and frozen. The remainder of it, nevertheless, we had a couple of points with.

First, I had a couple of style testers who weren’t so eager on the uncooked egg yolk scenario. Whereas there are some traditionalists who insist key lime pies be made with the raw filling, my group was unanimously anti-raw eggs. This additionally impacted the flavour as some famous it was a bit of eggy.

The most important concern, nevertheless, was the feel. The recipe notes setting the pie out forward of slicing so that you could slice by way of, however the pie mainly melted inside half-hour (not best!). General, I just like the novelty of a frozen pie, however we had a couple of structural qualms with this one. For those who attempt it, eat it straight out of the freezer to make sure a strong pie.

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Our notes on this pie have been really fairly optimistic and everybody loved their slices. The pie filling flavors have been very well-balanced with out being too candy, and the style of lime was good as effectively. There was some debate about whether or not the meringue topping was actually wanted. Whereas the salted vanilla meringue was tasty, most style testers most popular a whipped cream topping to the meringue.

As the one that assembled each single recipe, I believed it was loads of additional effort and dishes to make meringue when whipped cream would have been completely fantastic. (Although it was a good way to make use of up the leftover egg whites from utilizing solely yolks within the filling!) Ultimately, this pie recipe was good, however a number of the different recipes edged it out on technicalities.

To be clear: it is a actually good key lime pie recipe. Nonetheless, I’ve to confess that I used to be skeptical after I found that it doesn’t use lime zest and consists of vanilla within the filling. However upon additional consideration (and extra intentional tasting), I discovered that the vanilla provides a beautiful, nearly floral savoriness to the filling.

Style testers famous that this one leaned on the slightly-sweeter facet, nevertheless it did fulfill the group’s many candy tooth. My testers who weren’t followers of key lime pie loved this one essentially the most as effectively. Nonetheless, I feel the shortage of lime zest does make a distinction within the taste. For those who actually wish to punch up the limey-ness, combine it into the filling. The feel was extremely easy and general, this made for a fairly good pie.

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This key lime pie had all of the makings of a traditional and earned very excessive marks. The recipe combines Miette’s do-it-yourself graham crackers with Martha Stewart’s Key Lime Pie Filling combined collectively in a single pie pan. I’ll admit, this was my first thought: Do we actually must make do-it-yourself graham crackers when it’s really easy (and handy!) to purchase a field? Nonetheless, the do-it-yourself crackers give the crust a noticeable textural distinction. Sure it’s additional effort, so you’ve got my permission to make use of store-bought crackers. When it got here to the ultimate judging, we beloved the filling’s zingy, lime-filled taste. And with this pie’s creamy texture, we have been all quick followers.

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Drumroll please… this may be the most effective key lime pies I’ve ever had. However I’ll admit: I used to be skeptical at first due to the coconut milk added to the filling. I knew the flavour would work effectively, however I didn’t know if it will be too overpowering when paired with the limes. Nonetheless, the coconut milk acted as a pleasant candy base that helped mood the lime and stored it from being too acidic.

Some tasters couldn’t even inform there was coconut milk within the filling! The lime taste was upfront with out being overwhelming, and the one factor I observed after baking each single pie was that Adriana’s recipe is the one one which requires salt within the filling. That makes a distinction when it comes to bringing out the flavors. The feel was absolute perfection in its thick creaminess, and it was the one pie that each one of my style testers ate in its entirety. Run, don’t stroll to make this pie.

This put up was initially revealed on June ninth, 2022, and has since been up to date.