My Key Lime pie recipe may be a bit misleading as there are no Key Limes in it.... By all means if you have some available hold true to the namesake of this yummy dessert but don't worry if you have plain old limes or in my case lime juice in a bottle...
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees while you separate your egg yolks. The meringue is optional but coincidentally calls for 4 egg whites so I decided I might as well....
Put the egg yolks, a 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk, and the lime juice in a bowl. Beat at a medium speed until combined. Note: if you like a milder lime flavor you can reduce the amount of lime juice...
I used a ready made graham cracker crust but the fun thing about pies is the mix-and-match to make it your own. If you made a crust from scratch make sure you follow the baking instructions for your recipe... I just had to pour the pie filling in the crust no other efforts needed....
Oh and if you use a ready made crust, leave the edging up to help hold on the meringue in a later step.
To bake the pie you need to decide first if you are going to put on a meringue. If you are NOT using a meringue, bake for 15 minutes. IF you ARE using a meringue bake the pie for 10 minutes and move on to step 7 while you are waiting for the pie to cook... Sorry for all the CAPS, geeze there I go again....
Meringue instructions are all over the internet cooking world, if you do not have a go to recipe here's what I do... Place the sugar, cornstarch, and pinch of salt in small container, stir once and keep it close by. Place the 4 egg whites that you had left over from baking the pie in a bowl and beat on a high speed until you have "soft peaks"..
Once you have "soft peaks" (or you start to see your beater tracks) then gradually add the dry ingredients while continuing to beat on a medium high setting. Continue beating until all ingredients are well incorporated and you have "stiff peaks"...
That whole meringue making process should have occupied you while your pie baked for 10 minutes... Once your times up remove pie from oven (I really hummed and hawed about including that last step but you can never be too careful). Spoon the meringue onto your mostly cooked pie keeping in mind to be gentle with all those air bubbles you just beat into it....
Once all the meringue is on the pie, gently pat with a rubber spatula or whatever you have available. The idea is to give the texture as seen in the picture....
Bake the pie for another 10 minutes at 375 degrees on an oven rack adjusted to slightly above the middle... The higher level in the oven allows the meringue to brown slightly. Other options are to use the broiler setting or a kitchen torch... That can go bad quickly though so make sure you know what you are doing and where the nearest fire extinguisher is...
