This is a really easy recipe, what’s a pain are getting the juice out of a lot of fairly small key limes and crushing the graham crackers… if you have something amusing to do while you’re getting those done (or can get someone else to help you), then this recipe is a breeze.
It doesn’t taste nearly as good with regular limes (or god forbid some kind of plastic bottled substitute). Personally, I’d either make ‘em with key limes or buy it from the store. (if they’re about lemon sized, they’re regular limes – see pic).
Wash and grate the key limes first. Harder to grate after juicing. I usually grate 5-6, so get a pile going (the stronger you want the key lime taste, the more zest – if you just want a bit, save for tossing on top of the whipped cream upon serving). If mixing in, chop a bit. If garnish only, no need. If mixing, toss zest into the bottom of a medium sized mixing bowl.
Next is the juicing. If you put a sieve or colander inside a bigger bowl, and just juice directly into that, it’ll catch the seeds for easy disposal. To juice, I use a canvas stretcher which I happened to have laying around. If you have an easier way, lemme know. I found the hand-held wooden ones, manual juicers are too big for key limes.
The canvas stretcher is like pliers, except with rectangular pieces at the end, which is actually the perfect shape and size for relative
ly easy juicing. I get a whole bag of about 20, and juice em all.
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
Okay, so now you’ve got the zest, juice. Add 4 whole eggs instead of separating out yolks and whites (so far no one has complained).
Then open a can of sweetened condensed milk, add and mix. Take 12-16 double sheets of regular graham crackers and pulverize. Pictured here is my erstwhile assistant Patricia with a meat tenderizing hammer being multi-purposed.
It’s easier to make the crust with finer crumbs.
Melt half a stick of unsalted butter in a loosely covered microwave safe dish (big dish so the butter doesn’t overflow… I’d do it minute by minute). When completely liquid, add the butter to the graham cracker crumbs along with 3 Tablespoons of brown sugar or raw sugar.
Mix and pour into your baking container (if you don’t have a special pie tin, you can use a sprinform cake tin, it’s easier to get the pie out). Press down and out towards the sides. For this pan, it’s important to get the crust up to about 2 inches so the custard won’t overflow… press down into the space between the pan bottom and side so the crust doesn’t get too thick there.
Pour the custard into the pie crust and bake for 15 minutes.
The custard will have set, and will wiggle if shaken lightly. Cool at room temperature, and then remove the side if it’s a spring form before refrigerating for at least a couple of hours until chilled through. (if you forget, it’s just harder to get the side of the pan off).
Serve as is, with whipped cream… traditional recipes call for sour cream which I’ve never been tempted to try.
