A recipe for key lime pie topped with homemade whipped cream. The perfect blend of sweet, tart, and creamy!
🧂 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You’ll find the full measurements and instructions in the printable recipe at the bottom of the page.
You’ll need the following for this key limed pie:
- graham crackers
- white sugar
- cinnamon
- key lime juice. (It MUST be key lime! This can be found in the cocktail section of the grocery store, or you can order it online. I always get the brand Nellie and Joe’s.)
- sweetened condensed milk (in the baking aisle of the grocery store)
- melted butter
- sour cream
- egg
🥣 Equipment
- pie plate
- bowl
- electric mixer
🍴Instructions
Step One: Making the graham cracker crust
First of all, you can of course buy a pre-made graham cracker crust. I won’t judge you. But it’s really easy to make your own!
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees with the rack in the center.
Just crush the graham crackers in your food processor until they look like, well, crumbs. You may need to break up some stubborn pieces with your hands. Then add the sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter. Pulse a few times until the mixture looks like damp sand.
Pour it into your pie dish and gently press, making sure you cover the bottom and the sides. Bake the crust by itself for 7 minutes. It will not brown, but don’t overtake or it will be very hard to cut.
Let it cool to room temperature. While it’s cooling, make the filling!
Step Two: Making the filling and baking the pie
The hardest part is over. To make the filling, just mix the sweetened condensed milk, the key lime juice, the sour cream, and the egg. Combine them well, and then cover and chill the filling while the crust finishes cooling.
Once the crust is ready to fill, preheat the oven to 350 with the rack in the center.
Pour the lime filling in and smooth it out with a spatula or wooden spoon. Bake the pie for 10 minutes to set the filling. Allow it to cool to room temperature, then cover it and chill it in the fridge for at least 3 hours
Step three: Making and piping the whipped cream topping
Once the pie is chilled, let’s make the whipped cream! Don’t let homemade whipped cream scare you, it couldn’t be easier.
Start with cold heavy cream and put in the bowl of your mixer and fit it with the whisk attachment. Add the vanilla, sugar, and cream of tartar. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 1-2 minutes until the cream is fluffy and beautiful.
Now to get it on the pie, you can either dollop it on and spread it out flat, or you can get fancy and pipe it.
The pie will hold just fine in the fridge a few more hours if you want it ready to go, or you can serve it right after topping.
🥫 Storage instructions
The best way to store key lime pie with whipped cream is to keep it in the refrigerator. It is important that you wrap the pie tightly in aluminum foil or plastic wrap before storing it in the fridge. This will help keep any moisture from getting into your pie, which can make it soggy.
🔍 FAQs
For the base layer, instead of graham crackers you can use biscoff cookies or digestive biscuits
No, those two are different ingredients.
If you really can’t find key limes then plain lime juice will do.
👩🏻🍳 Expert tips
- This pie is already very inexpensive to make! But to save even more, look for sweetened condensed milk at Aldi. Their store brand is just fine! If you are picky and like eagle brand, you can get a case of 6 at Costco as well.
- Make sure to allow the crust to cool sufficiently in the pan before adding the filling.
- This recipe can be made with fresh or canned key limes, but fresh is best.
📘 Related Recipes
- Everyone loves Triple Berry Cobbler with a sugar cookie topping
- Try homemade vanilla caramel fudge ice cream for the treat for the hottest days
- Coconut cupcakes filled with lemon curd are another citrusy dessert perfect for summer.
📖 here’s the recipe
Key Lime Pie with Whipped Cream Topping
Ingredients
graham cracker crust
- 11 graham crackers
- 6 tablespoons butter
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
lime filling
- ½ cup key lime juice fresh or bottled
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 2 tablespoons sour cream
- 1 egg
whipped topping
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon cream of tarter
Instructions
- make the crust preheat oven to 375. using a food processor, crush the graham crackers into crumbs. melt the butter and add it to the graham cracker crumbs along with the sugar and cinnamon. press crumbly mixture into 9 inch pie plate. bake at 375 for 7 minutes. do not overtake, or the crust will be too hard to slice. cool at room temperature before filling
- make the filling: combine the sweetened condensed milk, key lime juice, egg, and sour cream. make sure to blend well using a whisk until there are no bits of egg yolk visible. pour filling into a bowl, cover, and chill in fridge while the crust cools.
- assemble and bake Preheat the oven to 350. Pour the lime filling into the graham cracker crust and smooth with a wooden spoon or spatula. Bake for 10 minutes, until filling is set.. Cool at room temperature then refrigerate at least 3 hours.
- Make the whipped topping. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk beaters, combine the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and cream of tartar. Beat at high for 1-3 minutes until whipped. Top pie with whipped cream topping by either spreading out gently with a spatula or piping on top. serve cold.
I’m going to need to make a few of these! My boys all love Key Lime Pie and this just looks delicious!!! Thank you for the recipe!!