I’ve only made Key Lime Pie once before – it was, in a word, inedible. Seriously bad. Throw it in the trash and pretend you never made it worse. I’m blaming it on a bad recipe that used the rinds of the lime.

This is a slightly tweaked version of the recipe we used in my Bakeshop Skills class. I used the scraps of the gluten free graham crackers I made the other day for the crust. I made the pie three days ago and Marks is still talking about it. One of our neighbors we gave a piece to called last night to say how good it was and that he was eating his wife’s slice of pie. So hopefully I have redeemed myself.

In looking at recipes for key lime pie I came across a little history of the pie I found interesting. The pie was made possible by the invention of sweetened condensed milk. At the time refrigeration was such that milk would not hold up in Florida’s heat. Originally the pie was not cooked at all – the acid of the limes cooked the eggs. The pie can still be made this way, but because of modern fears of salmonella its usually baked.

The recipe and detailed instructions are at the end of this post. For this recipe, we need graham-cracker crumbs, unsalted butter, cinnamon, eggs, cream of tartar, sweetened condensed milk, and Key limes. Looks like we have it all. Ready, set, bake…

Melt the butter over medium heat. Remove from heat to cool slightly. Crush the graham crackers in a food processor into fine crumbs. I’m using my Cuisinart food processor from Costco – its a nice piece of equipment and really easy to clean too. You can always just crush the graham crackers in a bag with a rolling pin too.

Combine the melted butter, graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. Mix with a spoon until all the ingredients are wet and combined – when finished the graham cracker crumbs look a little wet still. Press the mixture into a 9-inch pie pan. You can just cover the bottom or take the crumbs all the way up the side. The crust will fall down the sides a bit when baked. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature of the oven to 325°.

Whisk the egg yolks with the cream of tartar until frothy, the cream of tartar stabilizes and gives volume to the eggs. Juice the limes (a lime or lemon juice works well for this if you have one.) Stir the condensed milk and egg mixture together, then whisk in the Key lime juice until fully incorporated.

Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 15 minutes, or until set. Let the pie cool, then refrigerate the pie for about an hour before serving.

The pie is not green – when you see one that is it has food coloring in it. The color is going to be different depending on your ingredients. The eggs yolks I used in this pie were darker than usual. I like a little unsweetened whipped cream on the top to contrast the sweetness of the pie.