Key Lime Pie
The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion Copyright 2003
One 9-inch single vanilla cookie crumb crust I preferred a graham cracker crust
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 (14-to-15-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup ( 2 ¾ ounces) Key lime juice, fresh or bottled I used fresh
1/8 teaspoon lime oil (optional, but good) I zested the limes then soaked the zest in the juice before straining it
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
In a medium-sized bowl, beat the cream cheese until soft. Add the condensed milk and beat until well-blended. Stir in the Key lime juice and the lime oil. Add the sour cream, mixing until smooth. Pour the filling into the crust and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. Garnish it with whipped cream and lime slices.
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I shouldn't be making anything this decadent but I've never seen fresh key limes in my grocery store before and for $2 they just had to come home with me. I had every intention of making the traditional sweetened condensed milk/egg yolk/lime juice version but then this recipe caught my eye.
This was great - it was creamy and tangy (from the lime juice and from the sour cream). I loved it but was it worth juicing all those little limes? Honestly, I doubt it. I mean, I bet it would have been just as good with bottled Key lime juice or juice from a 'regular' lime. This tasted a lot like the lemonade pie my MIL makes with lemonade concentrate so there are several less labor intensive routes you could take here. It doesn't get very firm so it's hard to get a neat slice but it scores high for flavor.
I didn't try to lighten this up because I knew this wouldn't be very firm and I worried that lower-fat products might not work here but if anyone tries them and it works (or doesn't), let me know.
I fell in love with Key lime pie on a Royal Caribbean cruise years ago. Unfortunately, it's been too long for me to recall any of the details of that pie except that it had a thin top layer, like sour cream on a cheesecake. I remember I loved it but I just can't recall exactly why. Years later my mother clipped a recipe out of a magazine that supposedly was RC's recipe but it wasn't what I had on my cruise. I'm tempted to take another RC cruise, just to see if that same version of Key lime pie is being served. I don't even order Key lime pie out anymore because I've been disappointed too many times. This version here was great but not like RC's.
Question of the Day: Is there a particular food you remember from your travels?
5 comments:
No particular food, but I do know that we always go to Waffle House (wow!) for breakfast one morning when on vacation and, when I was little, we would go to Cracker Barrel one day. My tastes have expanded a little.
More specifically, I lived overseas in Kyrgyzstan for a year; so, I remember all the Russian and Kyrgyz foods very distinctly! Yummy stuff.
Oh my, I love key lime pie!
I am going to Key West in two weeks and want to visit the Blond Giraffe! They have frozen chocolate covered Key Lime Pie on a stick! :)
Key limes were a big thig for us before we moved to Florida.But,my favorite food from travel has to be the homemade Tamales that I had in Mexico one year.Fantastic.
Looks GREAT! I use low-fat (neufchatel) cream cheese all the time and can't tell the difference ... I'm not as keen on low-fat sour cream though.
I love your question of the day! When I was 19 I went to Hawaii and we stopped to eat at this little shack on the side of the road. It looked like somewhere you should avoid altogether, but we had the best meal there. I can still remember exactly what we had and how wonderful it was.
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