Key Lime Meringue Pie
Key lime pie is made of Key lime juice, eggs, condensed milk, and sugar in a pre-baked pie shell. The pie is then baked, and often topped with meringue or whipped cream. Other recipes (with slightly different ingredients) call for it to be chilled or frozen, using an unbaked Graham cracker crust. This makes it a popular summer dessert. The dish is named after the small Key limes (Citrus aurantifolia 'Swingle') that are naturalized throughout the Florida Keys. Their ferocious thorns make them less tractable and their thin yellowish rind makes them less shippable, but they are both tarter and mo
United States
Known as an American recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.
Ingredients 6 ingredients
- 1 fully-baked 9-inch (25 cm / 9 oz) graham cracker or pastry pie shell
- 1 can (14 oz / 400 g) sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup fresh Key lime juice
- 4 egg yolks
- 4 egg whites
- ½ cup caster sugar
Cook safely
Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.
- Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
- Hot sugar. Hot sugar sticks to skin and burns far hotter than boiling water: don't touch or taste it. Keep a bowl of cold water close, and keep children away while it cooks.
Method
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- Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Make sure there is no trace of yolk in the whites.
- Beat the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks in a small mixing bowl.
- Pour the mixture into the baked pie shell. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 8 minutes.
- While baking filling, whip egg whites in a large, clean mixer bowl on high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the sugar until meringue forms hard peaks.
- Spoon the meringue over the top of the hot pie and use a spoon to form peaks.
- Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 10–15 minutes, or until meringue begins to brown.
Plating
Cookware for this recipe
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Mixing bowl
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Whisk
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Electric mixer