Simple Key Lime Pie Recipe
An A+ balance of sweet creamy tanginess, this recipe for key lime pie is heirloom quality with the ease of making it for a random weekend.
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Why You’ll Love this Traditional Key Lime Pie Recipe!
I am a little bit of a key lime pie snob. I LOVE it and have spent a lot of time perfecting a recipe for key lime pie that is creamy, tangy, and easy to make! With a buttery, graham + brown sugar crust and a sweet, thick, tangy lime filling that is covered with a quick cool whip topping this is the BEST key lime pie recipe. Instead of using sour cream or greek yogurt, I’ve opted for cream cheese to make it ultra creamy and rich.
Best Key Lime Pie Ingredients
- Graham crackers, crushed to a powder – I just used store brand graham crackers, but you can use whatever you’d like.
- Melted butter – I always use salted butter!
- Brown sugar
- Cream cheese, room temperature
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Lime juice – I always squeeze my now fresh, but you could use the bottled, if you prefer. I always use regular limes, because key limes are hard to find and you’d have to squeeze like 72 because they are so tiny. 🙂
- Egg
- Lime zest
- Cool whip – Find this in the freezer section of your grocery store.
How to Make Homemade Key Lime Pie
- Preheat your oven to 350° F.
- In a bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers, melted butter and brown sugar.
- Once combined, press your graham cracker mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a deep 9 inch pie plate.
- Bake at 350° F for 10 minutes.
- While the crust is baking, combine the cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, egg and lime zest in a blender until smooth.
- When the mixture is smooth, pour the filling into the baked crust and return the pie dish to the oven for 20-30 minutes. The filling should jiggle only slightly when tapped.
- Allow the pie to come to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
- Before serving, top the pie with cool whip (you can use as much or as little as you’d like!) and then serve chilled.
- Store in the fridge for up to 4 days. Enjoy!
Homemade Key Lime Pie Topping
In this recipe I just use store bought cool whip to top my homemade key lime pie. However, you can make a simple whipped cream or leave this plain if you’d like!
How to store this Simple Key Lime Pie Recipe
Store your key lime pie covered in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Can you freeze Key Lime Pie?
Yes, you can freeze key lime pie for up to 3 months! Bake in a foil tin and wait to top with cool whip until you’re ready to serve. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and then a layer of tin foil.
Best Key Lime Pie Recipe FAQs
Key limes are a smaller lime with more seeds and a powerful tart, but not too acidic lime flavor. Your typical lime is a little bigger and more tart.
First things first, the cream cheese in this recipe will thicken the pie filling. Beyond that, the acid in your lime juice will react with the sweetened condensed milk, causing it to thicken.
Yep, you sure can!
Other Favorite Classics
Best Recipe for Key Lime Pie
Ingredients
- 12 graham crackers, crushed to a powder.
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 8 oz blocks cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 3/4 cup lime juice
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp lime zest
- 8 oz cool whip
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350° F.
- In a bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers, melted butter and brown sugar.
- Once combined, press your graham cracker mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a deep 9 inch pie plate.
- Bake at 350° F for 10 minutes.
- While the crust is baking, combine the cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, egg and lime zest in a blender until smooth.
- When the mixture is smooth, pour the filling into the baked crust and return the pie dish to the oven for 20-30 minutes. The filling should jiggle only slightly when tapped.
- Allow the pie to come to room temperature and then refrigerate overnight.
- Before serving, top the pie with cool whip (you can use as much or as little as you’d like!) and then serve chilled.
- Store in the fridge for up to 4 days. Enjoy!
This looks so good! Have you made this into smaller individual pies before? If so do I just change the bake time? Can’t wait to try it! Love the recipes I’ve tried of yours so far!
Yummmmm! So delicious! Perfectly sweet and sour. Will definitely be making this again!!
I love how easy this key like pie was as I expected this to take a long time, but was pretty low maintenance. The flavor of the pie was the perfect mix of tangy and sweet and despite me not being a lime person, I enjoyed this a lot!
Key lime pie has always seemed daunting to make, but my husband loves it and has always wanted me to make it. I love all of Karli’s recipes so when this one popped up I knew I had to try making it for my hubby. It was so simple and not daunting at all. And best of all the husband loved it!!
I love simple recipes and key lime pie has never seemed like a simple recipe. My husband loves key lime pie though and has been asking for me to make one, so when I saw Karli’s recipe o knew I had to try it. Karli’s recipes are always simple and fail proof. I’ve made so many of her recipes and this one was no different. It was beautiful and delicious and best of all my hubby loved it!
This hit the mark! It’s creamy and yet has that tang that isn’t too much. It wasn’t overly complicated to make and recipe is helpful and explains with lots of tips and tricks. Family loves this even my little boy who is so picky. Will definitely make it again !
This was phenomenal! Made it exactly and it came out perfect. Took it to a potluck and it got rave reviews!!
My daughter got married May 4,2024. They decided not to do a grooms cake and opted for his favorite pies. We made 4 pecan and 4 Key Lime using your recipe. Let me just say, they were a huge hit. They are the creamiest with just enough tart. This will be my go to recipe for Key Lime from now on!! Thank you!
this our is so good and creamy and tangy. I will be making this several more times this summer.
super duper easy! The first time I’ve ever made a pie and I’m a fan! I added a little extra lime juice and it’s *chef’s kiss* !!!!
We love the key lime pie maybe a little more citrus. The crust was amazing! Would recommend for your next dessert.
This is my husbands’s favorite pie ! I have to tell you Karli; I’ve been baking longer than you’ve been alive, and NEVER in my life have I ever used a blender for softened cream cheese !!!
Game changer !!!
Thank you so much for this recipe-It’s creamy, super “limey” and scrumptious !