This Classic Key Lime Pie features an easy homemade graham cracker crust, a smooth and creamy key lime pie filling, and homemade whipped cream on top. The perfect dessert for key lime lovers!
Last Tuesday we covered how to make a homemade graham cracker crust. And today, I’m giving you a reason to try out that graham cracker crust with this easy homemade key lime pie recipe!
If you’ve ever felt intimidated when it comes to making pies, this key lime pie is a great starting point. Not only is the homemade crust easy to make, but the filling is just three ingredients (yes, THREE!) and it only takes a few minutes to mix together.
An added bonus? Since this pie needs to chill for a while in the refrigerator, it’s a great recipe that you can make ahead of time.
To make this key lime pie, you’ll start out with my homemade graham cracker crust recipe which is just a simple mixture of graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. I put together a tutorial here to show you exactly how to make a graham cracker crust.
You’ll want to pre-bake the crust for 10 minutes and then let it cool for another 10 minutes while you make the filling. I’ve found that giving the crust some time to cool and firm up before you add the filling creates a sturdier crust that holds up better. So, once you take the crust out of the oven set it aside and mix up your filling.
The filling is just a simple mixture of key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. If you want to make this recipe easy, I suggest sticking with bottled key lime juice. As much as I love using fresh juice whenever I can, key limes are so tiny that it takes forever to get 1 cup of juice. I’ve used bottled juice for this pie several times and it tastes just as good as fresh juice. I really love Nellie and Joe’s Key Lime Juice, you can usually find it by the juices in most grocery stores.
You will also have quite a few egg whites left over that you can either discard or save and use for something else. I really love using extra egg whites to make these candied pecans.
Once you mix up the filling, you’ll pour it onto the slightly cooled pie crust and bake it for about 20 minutes. The top of the pie will look set, but it will still be jiggly when you take it out of the oven. The residual heat will continue to cook the pie and allow it to set up as it cools.
And last, but not least, you’ll want to top this pie with some whipped cream to balance out the tartness of the filling. You can either use whipped topping or my homemade whipped cream recipe.
Baking Tips for Classic Key Lime Pie
- Once you’ve baked the crust, be sure to let it cool for at least 10 minutes before adding the filling.
- You can use either fresh or bottled key lime juice in this recipe. I prefer to use bottled key lime juice because it’s much easier.
- In order to properly set up, this pie needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours. It’s best to make this pie the night before and allow it to chill overnight.
- When you cover the pie, make sure that the plastic wrap (or whatever you use to cover it) is not directly touching the top. Sometimes plastic wrap tends to stick to the pie and pull some of it up with it when you remove it.
Classic Key Lime Pie
Ingredients
For the graham cracker crust:
- 1 and ½ cups (180 grams) graham cracker crumbs, 11-12 full sheets of graham crackers
- ⅓ cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
For the key lime pie filling:
- 1 cup (240 ml) key lime juice
- 2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
- 5 large egg yolks
Topping:
- Whipped topping or homemade whipped cream
Instructions
To make the graham cracker crust:
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix until well combined. Add the melted butter and stir until fully combined and all of the crumbs are moistened.
- Scoop the mixture into a 9-9.5 inch pie plate and firmly press it down into an even layer on the bottom and up around the sides of the dish.
- Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool for 10 minutes while you make the filling.
- Keep oven temperature at 350°F.
To make the key lime pie filling:
- Combine the key lime juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and whisk until fully combined.
- Pour the filling into the slightly cooled graham cracker crust and spread it around into one even layer.
- Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until the top of the pie is set, the pie will still be jiggly.
- Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool for 2 hours. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill for at least 6 hours or overnight. Once chilled, top with whipped cream, serve and enjoy!
Notes
Mmmm…It’s delicious!!! I am planning to make it on Sunday. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe. 🙂
Thank you, Puja! Hope you enjoy the pie! 🙂
I love key lime pie! A variation to this is my “speciality” recipe at family gatherings, but I have to try this crust. My filling was also three ingredients but I would use heavy cream (or evaporated milk?) instead of the egg yolks. I also used meringue instead of the whipped cream on top, and that’s an alternative for those who would want to put their leftover egg whites to use. Just top it before you bake the rest of the pie!
Using the egg whites for a meringue is a wonderful idea! Not sure why I didn’t think of that when I wrote the post 🙂 I’d love to hear if you give it a try!
That looks like very good Key Lime Pie. And the recipes look like what a 65 y/o guy could do while following the directions. I’ll probably try it. A question I have is in the pictures it looks like maybe some lime zest was sparingly sprinkled over the top. It really adds to the eye appeal of the pie. How did you do that?
Hi Tom! I just zested a key lime over the top of the pie with my zester. You can also just zest a lime and sprinkle some on top too.
Made one today, omg. The highest compliment in this family is, “keep practicing”. Today I got the “keep practicing”. I’m going to tweak what I did. Want to try moving down to 5 tsp of butter in the graham cracker crust. Ready made whipped topping really helped me, since I’ve never made whipped cream. Pretty happy with the outcome. I would definitely serve this to company. Thank you.
So glad to hear the key lime pie turned out great for you, Tom! You can certainly feel free to reduce the butter down some too.
Don’t be afraid of real whipped cream it is super easy and way better than cool whip
I agree, Rhonda! 🙂
Could I use freshly squeezed lemon juice instead of lime, and would I use the same quantity?
Thanks
Hi, Sue! I *think* that would it work, but I haven’t tried it yet so I’m not quite sure.
Hi, Sue! I tested this out using the same amount of lemon juice in place of the key lime juice and it works great!
Yes it works. I am from Key West. I am now in my 70s and still have my 1950s Key West Woman’s club recipe book. We had an extremely large And prolific Key Lime Tree in our yard. It was a very short tree (maybe 6-7 ft high) but wider than tall. Many of the branches touched the ground. Anyway, I no longer live there, but continue to make Key Lime pie. This recipe is very much like the original. I use 1/3 cup fresh juice and 3 egg yolks per 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Since I can no longer get fresh key lime juice, I have found that 1/2 fresh squeezed lime juice mixed with 1\2 fresh squeezed lemon juice works very well. Now I know my taste buds are old and not as effective as they used to be, but I honestly can’t taste the difference.
Hi,
Thank you for your response. I will give it a go and let you know how it turns out.
Sue
Sounds great, Sue! I had actually planned to test this out soon, so if I do in the next few days I’ll be sure to let you know.
I’m going to use a pre-made pie crust. Do I still bake it after adding the filling? Anything else I should know?
If you’re using a pre-made graham cracker crust it may not hurt to bake it for a few minutes. I would check the directions on the package and see if it’s necessary first though. Just keep in mind that pre-made graham cracker crusts tend to be crumbly and don’t hold up very well. Also, this does make quite a bit of filling so depending on the size of the pre-made pie crusts it may be a little too much.
Could I substitute the sugar for truvia? My dad cannot have sugar so looking for alternatives. Is this on the tart side or does it have a nice balance? Also, how can you use egg whites to make a meringue?
Hi, Daniela! I wouldn’t suggest replacing the sweetened condensed milk with Truvia otherwise the pie may not set up properly. I think this pie has a good balance of sweet and tart, but it’s definitely a little tart because of the key lime juice. You can certainly use the egg whites to make a meringue too!
Made this for my key lime loving husband and son; they thought it was terrific. It was so easy, too. Next time, though, I think I’m going to use a slightly deeper pie pan. It was way too close to the edge for me in the pan I used.
So glad to hear that everyone enjoyed the pie, Tracy!
Hi it was great made it today, a little more tart than my husband is used to. Any suggestions to make it less tart? Thanks!
Did you add the whipped cream on top? I find that it helps a little with the tartness. The only other way to make it less tart would be to use less key lime juice, but I haven’t tested that yet so I’m unsure of how much you would need to use.
Thanks for the recipe! I really want to make key lime pie tarts, would this recipe work for that? And if so how full do I fill them? Also, i need to ship these from Florida to upstate New York, should I freeze them first?
I think it would be fine to make tarts, you could probably fill them close to the top since the filling doesn’t rise much. Also, I don’t think that these would ship very well since the graham cracker crust could be fragile and they need to be refrigerated.
Ooh, this recipe looks so good!
Thank you, Zully!
I wish I had took a picture before my family devoured it, but it was very good. Thank you!
No worries, Sarah! I’m happy to hear that everyone loved the key lime pie!
I have tried to find graham crackers EVERYWHERE (I am currently in the virgin islands), with no luck. Any other option for the base of the crust? (I prefer not to buy one, and to make it)-thanks!
I know some readers use digestive biscuits in place of the graham crackers. Are those available where you live? If not, another type of cookie would work. You may need more or less butter just depending on what you use.
Thank you for your recipe! My in-laws showed up years ago and bought a key lime pie from a restaurant for one of our son’s birthday. Now it’s a yearly tradition and I was so happy to find your simple and delicious recipe. Much appreciated.
How fun! Hope everyone enjoys the pie!
I wound up with key lime soup. I followed the recipe to a T and have no idea why it didn’t turn out. Suggestions?
Sorry to hear that, Diane! Was the top of the key lime pie set when you took it out of the oven? And did you let it cool completely and chill? I’m not quite sure what could have happened.
I bought an oven thermometer and found that my oven is off by 50 degrees. Trying again today..it did taste delicious though 😀
That sounds like it might be why the pie didn’t fully set up, Diane. Just make sure the top of the pie is set before you remove it from the oven. You can also recalibrate your oven temperature if it’s off. Your oven manual should have a section for how to fix it! 🙂
Is there a way to use the egg whites to make meringue? Would it take away from the recipe? I’m open to your comments.
I haven’t tried it, but I think it would be okay to add one to this pie.
Beat the egg whites until just frothy. Then add, while still beating on high, 6 tablespoons is sugar. Space them out slowly. Merangue will be ready when stiff peaks form and hold their shape.Nancy
This Key Lime Pie is the best I have ever tasted. I never made one from scratch before. It was super easy and delicious! The tip of using the measuring cup to press the graham cracker crust down, was awesome. I never thought of that before. Also, I used nine limes, but of course it will vary depending on the size. Thank you for this great recipe!
Hi! I am going to make this recipe for father’s day. I had a couple questions first:
1. Where do you get your key lime juice or key limes?
2. If I cannot find key limes or the bottled juice in a store, can I use regular limes instead?
3. I would like to use small 4 inch scalloped tart pans as opposed to one large pan. How many do you estimate I would need to use?
Thanks!
I can typically find key limes in the produce at my grocery store, but I like to use Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice. Regular limes should be fine if you can’t find key lime juice. As far as the smaller tart pans, I’m not sure how much you would need to use. This does make quite a bit of filling so if you make the full recipe you may want to make more crust for the smaller tart pans.
I am sorry to admit I didn’t use this recipe but one I found in an old Americsn Family Home Cooknook. Looking yours now I see it is basically the same recipe and ingredients. This one though did not have me cook the filling, just chill it. So I did with trepidation.
It is a mess. Of course I am now baking it at 6.30 in the morning before I have to deliver it to a friend at 11:30. It called for a merengue topping, so I scraped that off and am now baking the mess and getting ready to make another merengue topping. I should have listened to my gut feeling-“it needs to be baked!”
Yes, I know some recipes don’t bake the filling but I find that the pie holds up way better by baking it. Hope it turned out okay for you!
THIS is a real key lime recipe. I went through quite a few online to find a good one; always had weird stiff egg whites, etc. But THIS is a good, tart, not too sweet, smooth and custardy key lime pie. Wrote it right into the family cookbook! 🙂
Thank you for posting this, so excited to try this recipe – I am almost a Florida girl having lived there as a child for 2 years and visit at least 4-5 times a year. Being a happy Key Lime Pie connoisseur, I feel it’s my duty to ALWAYS try a different Key Lime Pie at restaurants, bakeries and markets searching for the Best!!! ; )
One question:
Do you prefer to use glass pie plate over a metal one?
I always use glass pie plates, mainly so I can see how the bottom of my pie crust looks as the pie is baking. Either one is fine though!