The Best Key Lime Pie recipe EVER! Tart and sweet and incredibly easy, this Key Lime Pie is sure to be a family favorite! A delicious graham cracker crust filled to the brim with an incredibly creamy filling that is just so quick to make! You won’t be able to stop at just one slice!
Love key lime desserts? Check out my Key Lime Pie Bars and Key Lime Pie Snowball Cookies!
Key Lime Pie
I’m admittedly not much of a pie person. I only share pie recipes that I absolutely love. Recipes like this Key Lime Pie. That incredible combination of tart and sweet is absolutely irresistible and will make this pie a family favorite, guaranteed.
So, confession time. I didn’t squeeze a bunch of key limes for this pie. This is an easy key lime pie recipe, after all 🙂 I used key lime juice. You can find it the produce area in most grocery stores. It makes this pie even easier to make!
Now, if you have access to key limes and want to squeeze them, go right ahead! Absolutely perfect in this pie.
After all of that, Happy Pi Day! With an electrical engineering degree you can bet I’ve had my fill of pi. But never, NEVER will I have my fill of this pie.
So this “key” lime pie recipe is crazy easy. And I mean cray-zee. So easy, you may find yourself making one a week, like I plan to, for the rest of your life.
Key Lime Pie – Always Start with a Graham Cracker Crust
The pie starts with a graham cracker crust. I am terrible at crusts but gosh darnit, a homemade graham cracker crust tastes WAY better than a store bought one and it’s pretty simple to make. Just some graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter will do the trick.
I’m a big fan of graham cracker crusts because they are super easy to make and go so well in many desserts. I use it in this Pistachio Pie and these No Bake S’mores Cheesecake Bars.
(Extra graham crackers? You can find all my recipes that use graham cracker crusts here.)
What Is In Key Lime Pie Filling
Now let’s get to the filling. It’s a whole lotta lime juice, lime zest, sour cream and a couple cans of sweetened condensed milk (a.k.a. nectar of the gods). You just whisk it all together, pour it into your pie shell, bake for 10 minutes and voila – you’ve got a key lime pie that will blow your family and friends away.
- Key Lime Juice
- Lime Zest
- Sour Cream
- Sweetened Condensed Milk
What You Need To Make this Key Lime Pie
- Pie Plate – I made this pie in my 9.5 inch Pyrex pie plate. You can use a smaller pie plate no problem. You’ll either have a little extra crust or just make it extra thick. The filling does not expand when baking so go ahead and pour as much of it into your crust as you can.
- Key Lime Juice or Key Limes – I used key lime juice. I actually order mine on Amazon. I’m a big fan of reading reviews to make sure I get the very best product. This is the one I’m currently crushing on. Truth time. This pie can be made with regular limes if you can’t find key lime or key lime juice. Just sayin’.
- You’re going to need a zester for this pie. The key lime zest adds SO much flavor to this key lime pie and looks so pretty on top!
The truth is, I’m not much of a decorator when it comes to pies and cakes. I’m all about simple, easy, get-it-in-my-mouth-as-quick-as-possible. You too? Good. Then you’ll like my no-nonsense whipped cream topping.
If you are in a hurry, and I mean, a BIG HURRY, I would perhaps allow you to use a store bought pie crust and a can of whipped cream. This pie would still be heavenly. No doubt. (Edited to add: I made the crust in the video but as we were running out of time, I used a can of whipped cream in the video below. Works in a pinch!)
More amazing pie recipes to try!
- No Bake Blueberry Lemon Cream Pie
- No Bake Peanut Butter Cheesecake Pie
- 31 Amazing Pies You Need To Try!
- Deep Dish Dutch Apple Pie
- No Bake Pina Colada Cream Pie
How To Make the Best Key Lime Pie
Best Key Lime Pie
Ingredients
Graham cracker crust
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tbsp butter melted
Key Lime Filling
- 28 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup light sour cream
- 3/4 cup key lime juice
- zest from 2 regular limes or 4 key limes
Whipped Cream Topping
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Graham cracker crust
- Preheat oven to 375F.
- Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a small bowl. Press the crumb mixture into an 8" - 9.5" pie pan. Bake for 7 minutes. Cool for at least 30 minutes.
Key Lime Filling
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Whisk together sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest in a medium bowl. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust and bake for 10 minutes.
- Let pie cool slightly before chilling. Chill for at least 3 hours.
Whipped Cream Topping
- Beat heavy cream and sugar together in a mixer until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla. Spread or pipe the whipped cream on top of the cooled pie. Top with additional lime zest if desired.
Video
Nutrition
Originally published March 14, 2015.
And now that we’re all thinking pie… Check out these pies from my friends:
Krispy Kreme Pie | Cinnamon Pie | Peach Hand Pies
And more pies, just for fun!
For all cake recipes, go HERE.
For all dessert recipes, go HERE.
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Rita Owens says
My family and friends love this pie. I have made the pie into shooters by putting in small individual containers and just chilled it. I cooked the crust on a baking sheet and then crumbled it into the cups with the key lime mixture and then chilled. I was kind of nervous because I had cooked it but I realize the cook is to set it.
Kath M says
Didn’t have sour cream so I substituted plain Greek yogurt. Everyone loved it! I especially love the lime zest addition which is absent in many key lime pie recipes.
Don says
I’ve made this at least 10 times – each time zesting and juicing 20+ teeny key limes. I add lime zest to the Graham cracker crust which has gotten surprise compliments from a couple chef friends.
Everyone loves this especially me
Megan says
By far the best key lime pie ever!!! So easy to make too!
I just wanted to know.. have you ever made this ahead of time? If so – how many days before consuming? And just store in the fridge?
I wanted to make it two days before consuming.. but wasn’t sure if it would be as good as making it the day before.
I would make the whip cream topping the day of serving… please let me know!!!
Thanks!!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Yes! It will store just fine for 2 days. Thanks so much Megan!
Another Georgette says
My teenage son found this recipe to make for a fundraiser and it’s now our goto pie recipe. We just use a premade graham cracker crust and spray whipped cream to make it even easier. And he can make it on his own! It’s always one of the most popular items at the fundraiser and we always get compliments and recipe requests when we make it for other occasions.
Tammie says
I’ve used this recipe to make the key lime pie once and 3 times with reg limes because key limes are hard to come by plus they take forever to juice, lol. But the one flavor I’ve used this recipe for the most is lemon. It makes the perfect lemon pie. There’s no need to change any part of it either. Ive also added a few dollops of homemade strawberry, raspberry and blueberry jam,, swirling them into the mixture before the final bake. So good! So for those lemon lovers give this a go with lemon juice and zest. You won’t regret it. Thanks for sharing a perfect recipe.
Michele says
This is The Keylime Pie recipe. Perfectly delicious & creamy.
Nikki says
Excellent flavor. Very easy. Prep time is definitely more than 10 minutes. Takes that long to just to zest limes.
Anna says
First time making a key lime pie and it came out perfect! Followed your recipe as written and my family loved it. The creamy filling and crunchy crust was amazing. I’ll be making this again very soon. I wonder if this would work in a deep dish by doubling the ingredients? Thank you for sharing!
Deepika Jaiswal says
Best recipe ever. My first pie ever and won first prize for it too. Made it a couple of times and it was delicious.
Jenna says
This pie is always a hit with my family. I make it with limes from my tree in the summer and lemons from my uncle’s tree in the winter. I have never had a more requested dessert. 💜
Mandy Eaton says
Love this recipe!! I’ve made it several times for friends & they all rave over it & about it! I actually juice my key limes. This recipe is so easy & good! Thank you!!
Suzie says
I made two of these for Christmas dessert, 2022. They were a hit and every-single-person at our house raved on the flavor. No one even ate a slice of the apple pie on the counter! I used fresh limes from my Persian Lime tree. I also bought 10″ pie crusts so I added 1/4c more lime juice and sour cream. And, I forgot to precook the pie crusts, so I cooked the pies for 30 min on a lower rack- PERFECT. Best lime pie I’ve had- and I’ve been to the Florida Keys several times! Thank you, Trish 🙂
Stacey says
I found this recipe about a year ago and I won’t stray from it! I get so many compliments! In fact, I made it the other day and I had a friend who requested two pieces of my key lime versus the other pies I made the same day which were strawberry, lemon meringue and apple! They wanted the key lime hands down!
Jenelle says
I LOVE this recipe!!!
This was one of the first things I ever baked, and it’s still a massive hit at every single party I take it too, thank you so much for this 🙂
I have a question though, can I make this recipe and make into tarts?
Just by crushing the graham cracker crusts into muffin tins and then pouring the batter in after?
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Thank you so much Jenelle and yes, this recipe is great as tarts or mini pies!