Key Lime Pie Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 2 hours or overnight chilling
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 8 people
Ingredients Needed
For Crust:
- 200g/7ozs Biscoff cookies
- 30g/1oz raw sugar
- 50-60g/1.7-2.1ozs melted butter plus extra for greasing
For Filling
- 2x400g/14oz sweetened condensed milk tins
- 220ml/7.7flozs lime juice
- 30ml/1floz lemon juice
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
For Topping
- 1 cup/250ml/8.8flozs pure or thickened cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 lime, sliced thinly
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 160C/320F fan forced. Butter a deep pie dish (mine was 23cms/9inches at the top and 18cms/7inches on the base and 6cms/2.3inches high). Place the Biscoff cookies in a food processor and blend until very fine crumbs (Thermomix directions: 30 seconds, speed#10). Empty into a bowl and mix with the raw sugar. Then add in the melted butter. It should feel like damp sand. You don't want it too wet but you do want it to stick together (use the extra butter if needed). Gently press into the pie dish up to the sides 1 inch high (use a flat bottomed glass) and bake for 10 minutes. Cool.
Step 2 -Whisk the condensed milk with the lime and lemon juices. Then whisk in the egg yolks and lime zest until you get a smooth mixture. Pour over the crust and bake for 20 minutes. Cool completely for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Step 3 -Place the cream in a chilled mixing bowl with chilled beaters. Add the sugar and then whisk until you get firm peaks (keep watching this and do not overmix or you will get butter). Place in a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle (something like an 867 nozzle). Pipe 8 rosettes on top and then place a slice of lime vertically in each rosette.
Personal Note
I made this key lime pie just before I left for my trip to Switzerland - I literally gave pieces to neighbours on the day that I flew out. I had a late flight leaving around 8pm so it wasn't as panicked as it sounds. On the flight out of Sydney I was seated behind a guy that was so charming that he had finagled 18 Jim Beams and Cokes from the flight attendants. I think he managed this feat because he was so personable but also because he held the alcohol so well that he seemed completely sober (and he had also hidden the tiny bottles in the middle seat's pocket).
As we were getting ready to disembark he suggested to me and the couple next to me that we all hang out on the lounge. The couple begged off but he seemed funny and I had to go to a lounge anyway. Sometimes I just do things for the plot. We decided on one lounge mainly because it satisfied my need for a shower and his need for more cocktails. He told me that he was a 33 year old former soccer player from Manchester that also had around 15 Airbnbs in Bali. He had a way of charming men in particular and wasn't afraid of trying it on. As soon as he saw someone with a golf cart he asked if they could take "me and my wife" on a ride. He greeted other men with such brotherly enthusiasm that the smile never left their faces. I was unfamiliar with his game until that point but it was impressive.
"Will you have a Long Island iced tea with me?" he asked. "No I will not, I'll have a sparkling water please," I told the bartender. Just in case I made sure that I collected my drink. He noticed that I was working so he told me that he would go off to get himself some espresso martinis and I heard him in the background singing Happy Birthday to someone and then ten minutes later he was rapping (quite badly). The guys loved him but the women less so. It got a bit much so I excused myself to have a shower and for a time out in case people thought that we were together as he kept calling me his wife. When I got out of the shower I couldn't find him and just like that, he was gone!
So tell me Dear Reader, do you ever do something for the plot? And have you ever made a key lime pie?