I love key lime pie. I love it so much that I order it even when I suspect I will be served some sort of terrible green gelatinous goo. I order it at every meal when I’m at the beach. And I will continue to order it whenever I can, even though I know it is super easy to make. But now I will probably make it a lot more often.

Also, key limes are the cutest limes ever. I totally confused the poor checkout woman at the local grocery store when I bought these, though. She could not figure out what the hell was going on. Apparently the large label that said “Key limes” on the bag was unclear.

You can totally make this pie with key lime juice, which is available at many grocery stores at all times of the year. But if you have actual key limes, go ahead and zest a few so you can add about a tablespoon of zest to the filling mixture.

The only reason I got fat-free sweetened condensed milk is because they didn’t have any other kind at the store. Although now I think this pie qualifies as health food, don’t you?

I am sure you have all figured out by now that I am nuts. There is really no other explanation for why I would juice approximately 9 zillion tiny limes for a pie when I could easily just use the bottled juice I have in my fridge. I am all for using fresh juice, but let me warn you: These limes are too small to really work properly with a normal citrus juicer. I had to use that, then squeeze them more by hand. It was pretty ridiculous. So if you are not nuts, use bottled juice.

The only other ingredients here are the sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks. However, I noticed when I poured the filling into the pie crust that it seemed kinda low. And I had those egg whites left over. So I made a meringue, which worked nicely. But I will try doubling the filling recipe and get back to you on whether that overflows the crust or alters the space-time continuum something. You can also just bake the filling part of this pie at 350 for 20 minutes and serve it with whipped cream, if you don’t want to deal with meringues.

You do have to bake the pie first, then add the meringue. Also, even though there is that Constitutional amendment about eating a slice of pie the day it’s made, this is exponentially better when it’s cold.

I overbaked the meringue, by the way. That’s why there are weird little droplets on top of the pie. Try to avoid that.

Key lime pie
Graham cracker pie crust
3 egg yolks
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup (plus 2 tablespoons*) key lime juice
1 tablespoon key lime zest (if available)
Meringue for pie

Pre-heat oven to 325 (if oven is not already on). Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl. Add sweetened condensed milk and whisk to combine. Add key lime juice and zest and blend thoroughly. Pour mixture into pre-baked pie crust and bake at 325 for 15 minutes.

While pie is baking, make the meringue. Spoon the meringue over the hot pie filling, then raise oven temperature to 350 and bake pie for 10-15 minutes more. Cool for an hour, then chill before serving.

*I like my key lime pie very tart, so I added a little more key lime juice. You may want to start with 1/2 cup and taste the mixture before adding another tablespoon or two.

**Extremely important note: Key lime juice is yellow. You *could* add some green food coloring to the mixture to make the pie green, but the only excuse I can think of to justify that crime against nature is if you operate a restaurant in Hinton, West Virginia, where people order Philly cheese steaks with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise and refuse to believe that a yellow pie is made of limes.