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.
Sign up to get emails when I post new recipes!
For even more great ideas follow me on Facebook – Pinterest – Instagram – Twitter – Bloglovin’.
David says
I made it exactly by the directions and it turned out great. My family just loved it. And it really is easy!
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Thank you so much David!
M’Lou says
My go-to key lime pie recipe. My family loves it. Even though a number of them claim they don’t eat key lime pie. LOL.
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Haha! This pie has converted many of my friends that “don’t like” key lime pie as well – lol! Thank you!
Lee says
I just notice the recipe does not have eggs yolks! yikes. I wonder if that was a mistake or if the sour cream some how acts as a substitute. Can anyone comment on the this pie vs pies that do utilize 2-3 egg yolks?
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
You nailed it. No egg yolks because the sour cream sets the pies. Give it a try, I’m confident you will LOVE it 🙂
Jenny says
Made this pie a couple of times, and it is delicious! I’m thinking of using a pan for pie bars. Would it work in a 9×13 dish? Or is that too big?
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
That is a great idea and I need to try it with this particular recipe. I think 9×13 would be a little big but maybe thinner bars would be fine? I also have this recipe if you’d like to take a look: https://www.momontimeout.com/irresistible-key-lime-pie-bars/ . They are FANTASTIC.
Dana says
I LOVE this pie recipe! I make it often and get tons of compliments 🙂
I was wondering if the keylime juice and zest could be switched out for lemon juice/zest to make a lemon pie
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
Me too Dana! I could eat this at LEAST once a week 🙂 The answer to your question is yes and I think I may need to make a lemon pie soon 😉 Have a great weekend!
Inez Britz says
Plse explain why you bake the pie? There’s nothing in it that needs cooking. I just cannot figure it? Can’t it just go straight into the fridge?
Trish - Mom On Timeout says
It sets the pie. If you don’t bake it, you won’t be able to slice it.
Marly says
I made this keylime pie for my moms birthday last month as it is her favorite dessert. This is officially my staple recipe for keylime pie! For the folks that aren’t fans of sour cream.. you absolutely CANNOT taste it. My boyfriend loathes sour cream.. i didn’t tell him the recipe had it in there.. He hasn’t stopped talking about the damn keylime pie and how awesome it was lol! He asked me to make it for his family next week. Awesome awesome awesome! I love it!
Emily says
Really love these pies! So good!
Alana says
I have made 5 of these in the last 2 weeks! Amazing!!!!!!
Trish Chavez says
This was seriously THE BEST key lime pie ever! It was perfectly tart and not overly sweet, I really don’t like a weak/super sweet pie so it was spot on! I used a muffin tin and made awesome little mini pies, it was a big hit. Thank you for this great recipe, it’ll always be my go to!
Carly says
So for the lime juice do you usually use bottled lime juice to get that much or do you usually get that much from squeezing that many limes?
Shabari Karumbaya says
Hi,
Just made your pie and it tasted great! We live in Singapore where there are obviously no Key limes but I used a citrus called Calamansi that people say is a nice substitute.
However, while my pie dish was 8.5-9 inches in diametre, the depth was more shallow than what your dish seems to be. This resulted in my havIng some filling left over and a thicker crust than what I would like. I would like to try this again. What depth of pie pan do you recommend to fit this amount of filling?
Brooke says
I made this delicious key lime pie for my
Moms birthday last year..She requested it again this year! It was easy to make and absolutely yummy!! ?
Cara says
I like a KLP that has a pucker to it. Is this recipe tart? Thanks!
JoAnn says
Hi there! I LOVE this pie! And its so easy to make! I was wondering if you could possibly give me any idea about how much sugar is in one slice of pie…I need to know cause a diabetic wants some! Thank you!!