Get ready for the easiest, yet still impressive dessert you need to add to your repertoire TODAY! You won’t believe how delicious and simple these are with minimal prep and just a few ingredients! They taste like a lime curd filling, but are so much easier!
These mini key lime pies are a bit of a misnomer, because I actually made them with Persian limes (also known as the ubiquitous limes you’ll find at every grocery store.) They still tasted amazing, but if you can get your hands on some key limes, they’d have an even sharper lime flavor. Alternatively, you can use a 50/50 Persian lime and lemon juice mixture to give it extra tang, but my version with Persian limes was perfectly fine. They were delicious, and they disappeared so fast! I almost didn’t get to taste one at all!
Just like my S’mores Cupcakes from last week, I made a double batch, so don’t let the vast amount of eggs and lime juice in the photo fool you. I made them for the same party as those cupcakes, so the egg whites that were leftover from the yolks needed for the meringue icing for the S’mores went to wonderful use! If you don’t like for anything to go to waste, you could make a batch of that frosting for these, but I found a simple home-made whipped cream kept these citrusy bites feeling light and not overly sweet!
If you read my S’mores Cupcake post last week, you know those had a graham cracker crust. There are pretty much the same. The ratio of butter and sugar to crumbs was slightly different, but not by much. This time, though, we only use 1 Tbsp of cracker crumb crust, and it should be packed in as tightly as you can. I also took a bit more time with making these a clean, level layer. Turns out that one of my daughter’s sippy cups makes an excellent tool to pack down crust into the muffin tins, but anything with a flat bottom will do.
Ready for a “Do as I say, not as I did” moment? This recipe came with a couple of them. First of all, please, for the love, SPRAY THE WRAPPERS before packing in the crumb layer. The foil wrappers you use are entirely function over form. You’ll probably want to remove them before serving, and if you don’t spray them, they won’t come out as cleanly. I forgot to do this with my first batch. I also forgot to do it with my second, after I reminded myself not to make the same mistake. I caught myself, though, and dumped the crumbs back into the bowl before I got too far into the crumb-pressing process.
Speaking of the first batch:
Ugh. Burnt. I could smell it as it was happening, but didn’t react. Luckily, I had extra graham cracker crumbs and an extra package of foil wrappers, so I just scrapped this batch and started over. I can tell you definitively that those pies wouldn’t have come out of the wrappers cleanly if they hadn’t burnt, so perhaps the universe was doing me a solid here.
On the second go around, (and after forgetting and remembering to spray the cups) I lowered the temp from the original recipe (325°F, down from 350°F) and started checking at 3 minutes so the crust was set enough to pour the filling over, but not browned along the edges. I also did that thing they do on The Great British Baking show where they sit by the oven the whole time and watch things bake through the oven window. I understand those people better now.
Did I mention how easy this filling is? Four ingredients: Egg yolks, lime juice, lime zest, and a can of sweetened condensed milk just get mixed together and poured over the par-baked crusts and popped back into the oven. A mere 9-11 minutes later (I kept a pretty close eye on them this time too!) and these babies were done! They need to be cooled and chilled before they can be served, so even though hands on time is extremely low, you do have to plan a little bit ahead. Betty Crocker’s recipe said that they should be served within 12 hours, but the second batch went into work with me the next morning and were just as good about 24 hours later, even with the whipped topping on.
The recipe below gives you ratios for the homemade whipped cream (even if I never follow them anymore!) I will never not recommend that you make your own whipped cream, but I won’t judge the person who uses the stuff from a can. Just promise that if you DO use the stuff from a can this time that you’ll try to make your own when you’ve got more time. It’s so worth it!
So, there you go!! A super easy, but SOOOOO delicious recipe that will make you look like you slaved away in the kitchen when the hardest thing you did was grate some lime zest! Go forth and bake, my friends!! 🙂
Mini Key Lime Pies
We don't always have time to bake a whole pie or slave over a double boiler to make a proper curd filling, but you definitely have the time to whip these up for your next party or bake sale!
Ingredients
- For the Crust:
- 1 cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
- 2 Tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 4 Tbsp Melted Butter
- For the Filling:
- 1 can (14 oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 4 Egg Yolks
- 1/2 cup fresh lime juice
- 1 tsp Grated Lime Peel
- For the Topping:
- 3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 Tbsp Powdered Sugar
- 2 tsp Grated Lime Peel (optional)
Directions
- Step 1 Heat oven to 350°F (or 325°F if you want to be cautious). Place foil muffin liners in a standard sized muffin/cupcake tin. Spray liners with cooking spray (Don’t Forget!!!!)
- Step 2 Mix crust ingredients together in a medium bowl. Divide mixture among the cups (around 1 Tbsp each). Press crumbs firmly into the bottom of the cups. It helps to use something with a flat bottom. Bake until firm (anywhere from 5-10 minutes.) Cool for 5 minutes.
- Step 3 Meanwhile, mix condensed milk and yolk with a whisk. Stir in lime juice and 1 tsp lime peel. Divide mixture evenly among cups. Bake 9 to 11 minutes at 350°F or until set. Cool completely in the muffing pan place on a cooling rack. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. They are best served within 12 hours.
- Step 4 Before serving, beat whipping cream in medium bowl with electric mixture for 45-90 seconds or until it forms soft peaks. Add powdered sugar and optional lime peel. Beat to stiff peaks, another 30 to 60 seconds. Top pies with a dollop of whipped cream (or pipe in on nice and pretty and top with decorative sugar!)
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