Key Lime Pie

On a recent Sunday afternoon, my husband and daughter were busy, but my son and I had nothing on our schedules until the evening.  I refused to spend the afternoon with us just hanging around the house doing lots of nothing, busywork, or playing on screens, so I asked what he would like to do.  I gave him the option of doing something with me or making plans with his friends. He was initially indecisive, but he eventually said that he wanted to make key lime pie.  I was sort of hoping to do something outdoors, but, he came up with a legitimate, doable idea, so that became our afternoon plan. He likes key lime pie, but we had never made one before.  I put him in charge of finding a recipe, and once he did, we took stock of our ingredients. We had confectioners sugar; the rest we would have to pick up. Although it sometimes seems as though businesses are just popping up all over, I do enjoy having easy access to multiple different grocery stores.  We took a little trip to a local Woodman’s store. (If you have never been to a Woodman’s, let me just tell you that the place is huge! I knew that I would get in a good walk prior to eating pie!)

None of the ingredients were esoteric, and, for ease, my son decided that we would just buy the pie crust as opposed to making it from scratch.  Maybe next time we will make the crust; time will tell. My son was so “into” the idea of the pie that we purchased enough ingredients to make four pies.  We made two on this particular day.

The ingredients for the filling were basic:  egg yolks, lime zest, sweetened condensed milk, and lime juice.  I do have a Kitchen Aid standing mixer, and, honestly, I had never used it.  My husband has used it, but historically I used a hand mixer. That hand mixer started smoking the last time it was put into action, so it is no longer a gadget in my kitchen.  I gave myself the benefit of the doubt that between myself and my son, we could figure it out, and we did. Although the recipe states that the whisk attachment should be used, I did not know where that was located, so I used the attachment that was already in place.  I figured that it wouldn’t completely mess things up. Fortunately, I was correct! (Later that day, I did find the whisk attachment. It was easily visible; I just did not notice it.) We prepared the filling and followed the instructions. At this point, we followed steps 1 and 3 of the recipe; step 2 was replaced with a pre-made crust.  Due to the time, we did not make the whipped cream topping (step 4) at that time. We had considered doing it later before eating the pie.  

After enjoying an evening house league high school baseball game, we enjoyed the pie as a family.  We never did make the whipped cream despite having the confectioners sugar and carton of whipping cream ready and waiting.  This pie was really good! I have never thought much about key lime pie, but this pie proved itself to be a bit addictive (and easy)!  As I previously mentioned, we made two pies. I am quite certain that two more will be made quite soon. Try out the recipe linked above, and let me know how you enjoy it!