Key Lime Pie
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Bright, tangy, and ultra-creamy, this key lime pie has just the right balance of sweet and tart—perfect for warm days and easy entertaining.
I’ve been making this Key lime pie for years, and it’s one of my favorite desserts to serve when the weather warms up. Inspired by the classic pie made famous in the Florida Keys, it has a buttery graham cracker crust and a cool, creamy filling that’s the perfect balance of sweet and tart. Best of all, it’s easy to make with just a handful of ingredients—you can use regular limes from the grocery store, and Greek yogurt stands in for the usual egg yolks (trust me, it works). I’ve served this pie everywhere from summer barbecues to holiday dinners, and it’s always a crowd-pleaser.
“The best key lime pie I’ve ever had!! Tart, sweet, fresh but rich.”
Do You Really Need Key Limes?
Despite the name, you don’t need Key limes to make an outstanding Key lime pie. Over the years, I’ve made this pie with bottled Key lime juice (such as Nellie & Joe’s), fresh Key limes, and regular limes (also called Persian limes), and I actually prefer regular limes. They’re easy to find year-round and have a bright, fresh flavor that makes an exceptional pie. If you have access to fresh Key limes, though, they’re delicious too, lending the pie a slightly more floral, aromatic flavor.
What You’ll Need To Make Key Lime Pie
For the crust, you’ll need finely crushed graham cracker crumbs, light brown sugar, and melted butter. For the filling, you’ll need sweetened condensed milk, Greek yogurt, fresh lime juice and lime zest. For the topping, you’ll need heavy cream and confectioners’ sugar.
You’ll notice this recipe doesn’t call for egg yolks, like many traditional Key lime pie recipes. After testing it both ways, I found they simply weren’t necessary. The pie sets beautifully because the lime juice’s acidity reacts with the proteins in the yogurt and sweetened condensed milk, thickening the filling as it bakes (the same basic reaction that turns milk into cheese). And from a taste standpoint, I actually prefer the cleaner, brighter lime flavor that comes from leaving the yolks out. As a bonus, there’s no separating eggs, making the recipe even easier to prepare.
“Outstanding! Sets up beautifully and has the most perfect lime flavor.”
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Mix the crust. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and melted butter, stirring first with a fork, then finishing with your hands until the mixture looks like damp sand and holds together when you squeeze a bit in your palm.
Step 2: Press the crust into the pan. Work the crumbs up the sides of the pan first, then press the bottom—it’s easier this way. Press firmly; a loosely packed crust tends to crumble when you slice the pie later.
Step 3: Blind bake. Bake just until the edges turn a shade darker and it smells toasty. This short bake deepens the flavor of the crust and keeps the crust from turning soggy once the filling goes in, but it doesn’t need to brown deeply.
Step 4: Zest, then juice. Zest every lime you plan to juice before you cut into them—it’s nearly impossible to zest a lime once it’s been squeezed. A rasp grater makes this fast; a reamer or your hands work fine for juicing.
Step 5: Whisk the filling. Whisk the condensed milk, yogurt, zest, and juice together until completely smooth. The mixture will look thick, almost like a pudding.
Step 6: Bake and chill. Pour the filling into the warm crust and bake until the center looks just set. Let it cool for a bit on the counter, then pop it in the fridge for at least 3 hours to set completely. It’ll firm up further as it cools and chills.
Step 7: Whip the cream. Beat the heavy cream until it just starts to hold soft peaks, then add the confectioners’ sugar and continue beating until it’s thick enough to hold its shape when you lift the whisk. Don’t take it too far past this point—overwhipped cream turns grainy and starts to look more like butter than a topping.
Pro Tip: A hand whisk works fine here too if you don’t feel like pulling out the mixer—it just takes a bit more elbow grease.
Step 8: Top and serve. Top with the whipped cream shortly before serving rather than hours ahead, since cream loses its shape sitting on a cold pie for too long. A knife wiped clean between cuts will give you the neatest slices.
Key Lime Pie Video Tutorial
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Key Lime Pie
Ingredients
For the Crust
- 1½ cups finely crushed graham cracker crumbs, from about 12 whole graham crackers
- ⅓ cup (packed) light brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
For the Filling
- Two 14-oz cans sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (2% or whole milk)
- 1 tablespoon grated lime zest
- ¾ cup fresh lime juice
For the Topping
- 1 cup cold heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated lime zest
- 8 to 10 thin lime slices
Instructions
- Make the Crust: Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position.
- In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and melted butter; stir with a fork first, and then your hands until the mixture is well combined. Using your fingers and the bottom of a glass or dry measuring cup, press the crumbs firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 x 1½-in (23 x 4-cm) pie pan. The crust should be about ¼-in (6-mm) thick. (Tip: do the sides first.)
- Bake for 10 minutes, until just slightly browned. Let the crust cool on a wire rack.
- Make the Filling: Lower the oven temperature to 350°F (180°C). In a large bowl, whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, yogurt, lime zest, and lime juice. Pour the thick mixture into the warm graham cracker crust. Bake for 15 minutes, until the filling is almost set; it should wobble a bit. Let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes, then place in the refrigerator to chill thoroughly, about 3 hours.
- Make the Topping: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat until medium peaks form. Top the pie with the whipped cream. Decorate with the lime zest and lime slices. Store the pie in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Slice the pie into wedges, wiping your knife clean between slices, and serve cold.
Notes
- Make-Ahead Instructions: You can make the crust a day ahead of time, but the filling should be added on the day of serving, otherwise the crust will get soggy.
- The nutritional information was calculated using 2% Greek yogurt.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Tastes good and easy too. Made it for a dinner party and everyone commented positively. My only issue was with the number of limes the recipe stated would be needed for 3/4 C of lime juice. I thought it seemed excessive but I bought eight. I used four. The only thing I did was to roll each lime on my counter prior to juicing it to make it easier to extract the juice.
This came out just absolutely delicious! Light, clean, airy, sweet, and tart are some of the words we all used to describe this delicious dessert. The only change I would make, and it may have just been the size of my pie dish, would be to make the crust a little thicker on the bottom. Will definitely be making it again! Thanks for yet ANOTHER delicious recipe. My husband said, “I guess I don’t even have to ask anymore! I assume this is Jenn’s recipe!” All the good ones are yours. Can’t wait for your new cookbook to arrive soon!
– Taylor
❤️
Hello! I would like to try making this for my significant other’s birthday, but he LOVES “extra tart” pie. How can I alter this to give him that puckery satisfaction? I’m wondering if I order some key lime juice online maybe and add somewhere? I love to cook, but I am not a baker and I know these things need to be exact, so any advice would be awesome!
You could add 1 – 2 additional tablespoons of lemon juice. Any more than that and I’m afraid it would throw off the texture. Hope he enjoys it!
Loved it!
We made it with 18 key limes and the zest from 9 limes in a 9×13 casserole dish, using 2 can of milk and all else maintained proportionally same as recipe directed. My son ate 4 servings on 1st day and he loves chocolate more than any dessert. It was slightly too much zest which increased the tartness but we loved it! Will be my go to but next will tryit with regular limes as the zesting and squeeze took over 1 hr.
So glad it came out well — thanks for reporting back!
Loved this recipe! So easy and delicious! Canadians note that our sweetened condensed milk tin sizes are different so you will need 3 tins. (14 ounces is 414 ml, 28 ounces is 828 ml. Our tins are 300mls which is only approx 10 oz.)
I just checked out the Eagle brand website and it turns out that their can sizes refer to weight rather than volume. A 14oz can is equivalent to 10 fluid oz or a 300ml can here in Canada -two cans should suffice. (Assuming this is the industry norm) Hope this helps another Canadian baker!
https://www.eaglebrand.com/products-faq
Here in Sweden all brands of (sweetened) condensed milk & Dulche de Leche are in tins with exactly 397 grams & 1 brand states it’s 305 ml of condensed milk in the tin that weights 397 gram (I’m just looking at my tins right now, I have bought 4 different brands & 2 of them are the grocery store’s own brand).
I’m quite worried now, which brand to use, bc I’ve never tasted 2 of these 4 brands, but at least 1-2 of these 4 tins was quite cheap when I bought them several months ago.
But the other 2 were the opposite; quite expensive, but here in Sweden sweet condensed milk always been more expensive than cheap & now they, of course, are even more expensive (even the cheap brand) & I can’t afford to waist so much money 🙁 The limes are also very expensive & yet always so bad it’s impossible to get any juice out of them, no matter what you do. So I just buy limes to get the zest & then have to use lime juice from a bottle, which actually doesn’t taste good at all. But what else could I do? 🙁
I don’t live in a big city with a lot of stores nearby, with many different brands of everything sold in an ordinary grocery store.
I’m usually not a fan a the taste of sweet condensed milk, but I do love a Key lime pie. But I’m afraid these other brands (cheaper) may taste even worse, so it even will affect the taste of my Key lime pie….
And I’m not really sure how I’m ging to get the right amount sweet condensed milk when the tins are so different.
All Swedish recipes always only use 397 g of sweet condensed milk (and/or Dulche de Leche).
So I guess I’ll have to go back to my ordinary recipe with all these egg yolks, but I was so happy to find one without eggs, bc I have both a very strong smelling & tasting sense & easily feel only “egg taste” when it’s several eggs in such small amount liquid. 🙁
I have made this pie several times and love it. Several people have told me it is the best Key Lime pie they have ever had! Made a few small changes. I used farm fresh probiotic yogurt and added lime zest to the whipping cream and then topped with more lime zest.
Prepared this dish with shortbread crust instead and halved the recipe due to limited limes; also used lime juice concentrate with one lime to supplement juice and zest. Everyone loved it! Very tasty.
This recipe is fantastic. Used key lime juice and it came out great. Taste just like traditional key lime pie (even a little better) and much easier to make. The recipe will work for mini pies instead of two big pies. That allowed me to freeze some pies for later.
No eggs! YAAAAY! And the measurements are accurate, this recipe just made my day. I like Fage Greek yogurt because there is absolutely no whey to drain off. I use it for tzatziki sauce and it’s always perfect, not watery. It may cost a little more, but if you don’t want your pie to separate from the extra liquid they leave in store brands or companies that think they know how to make real Greek yogurt, but don’t. Use Fage. You won’t be disappointed! Thanks for the recipe. We don’t have Key Limes here nor bottled Key Lime juice, too far north I guess, but I bought some organic bottled lime juice and I will get a couple of limes for zest. I have never actually had authentic Key Lime pie so I have nothing to compare it to in that aspect.
I am eating a slice of this pie right now. Delicious. Very light.
As constructive criticism, my wife and daughter both thought the taste of the Greek Yogurt was too pronounced even with slightly less than the recipe called for. I did not, so this may just be a matter of personal preference.
Absolutely wonderful and so easy! I have made it several times this year already and have never made one before!
I have made this pie 3 or 4 times now and it’s wonderful. Always for guests who rave and comment that it is the absolute best they have ever had, hands down. I don’t add the sliced limes on the top. I just sprinkle a nice amount of zest to make it look pretty. That is the only change. I have also frozen individual pieces and that takes it to a whole other level!! It works. I don’t even let it thaw. You can but it tastes great frozen. Thanks for such a great recipe.