Food & Drink

Classic Key Lime Pie

How to make Florida’s bright and refreshing pie, topped with homemade whipped cream

By CJ Lotz Diego
Recipe by Stacey Mei Yan Fong

June 14, 2023

Photo: Alanna Hale

In her new book, 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the United States through Pie, Stacey Mei Yan Fong shares this recipe for Florida key lime pie and advises: “Make the pie from June to September when key limes are in season!” Read our interview with the author and find more recipes here.

Ingredients

Classic Key Lime Pie (Yield: One 10-inch pie)
- 1 (14-oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
- 4 large egg yolks
- 2 tsp. grated key lime zest
- ½ cup fresh key lime juice
- Graham cracker pie crust (store bought or homemade, blind baked and cooled)
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 to 3 key limes, sliced

Preparation

Make the filling: In a large mixing bowl, whisk the condensed milk and egg yolks until smooth and thick. Add the key lime zest and juice and whisk for 1 minute.

Assemble and bake the pie: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the cooled graham cracker crust on a baking sheet and pour in the filling. Bake on the center rack for 15 minutes, until the edges are set but the center still jiggles like a soft thigh. Let the pie cool at room temperature for an hour before chilling for 3 hours to overnight in the fridge.

Make the topping: Whip the cream to stiff peaks with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer, 8 to 9 minutes. Top the chilled pie with whipped cream and arrange sliced key limes on top as desired.

Excerpted from 50 PIES, 50 STATES by Stacey Mei Yan Fong. Copyright © 2023 by Stacey Mei Yan Fong. Photography by Alanna Hale. Food styling by Caitlin Haught Brown. Used with permission of Voracious, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company.

CJ Lotz Diego is Garden & Gun’s senior editor. A staffer since 2013, she wrote G&G’s bestselling Bless Your Heart trivia game, edits the Due South travel section, and covers gardens, books, and art. Originally from Eureka, Missouri, she graduated from Indiana University and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she tends a downtown pocket garden with her florist husband, Max.