Key Lime Pie

This is the perfect summer pudding. Silky smooth filling with a citrussy ‘bite’, a delicious spiced buttery biscuit base and topped with rich marscapone cream. There are a few steps to this recipe, but all of them are straightforward and you can make it ahead if you want to prepare the day before and serve it the next day as a no-fuss dessert for a barbecue or gathering.

In spite of the name of the recipe, this pie isn’t really made with Key limes. Any shop or supermarket limes can be used and will be delicious. And another thing - real lime pies are not green, as box mixes and commercial bakeries will have you believe, but are in fact yellow due to the glorious fresh free-range egg yolks in the creamy lime custard filling. A sprinkling of lime zest on top adds a touch of green and hints at the lime flavour inside, so I don’t think the colour of the filling matters too much!

Ingredients

For the biscuit base crust:

350g spiced biscuits (I used Lotus biscuits)

50g salted butter, melted and slightly cooled

1 medium free-range egg white (reserve yolk for the filling)

For the filling:

397g condensed milk

Juice of 4 limes (approx. 150ml)

4 free-range egg yolks (AND the yolk reserved from the crust, so 5 yolks in total)

125g Greek yoghurt

120ml double cream

For the topping:

200ml double cream

125g marscapone cheese

Lime zest to taste (less than half a lime)

Equipment

Tala Performance pie dish

Large mixing bowl

Whisk

Disposable piping bag fitted with a large round open tip nozzle

Fine grater

Serrated Knife  

Tala Work Top Saver 

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius fan (302 Fahrenheit fan).
2. Reduce the biscuits to fine crumbs by blitzing in a food processor (or place the biscuits in zip-lock bag and bash them with a rolling pin until they are ready).
3. Add the melted butter and the egg white and blitz again (or mix together in a mixing bowl) until the crumbs clump together easily.
4. Turn out the crumbs mixture into the pie dish and spread them out over the base and sides of the dish, pressing down with your fingers so that the crumbs make a biscuit base that uniformly covers the base and sides of the dish. You can use the base of a flat object, like a drinking glass, to tamp down the crumbs if you find it helpful.
5. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven to cool and switch off the oven.
6. When you are ready to make the filling, preheat the oven to 140 degrees Celsius fan (284 degrees Fahrenheit fan).
7. Place the condensed milk into the large mixing bowl and whisk in the lime juice, followed by the Greek yoghurt, the double cream and finally the egg yolks. This won’t take long - just whisk briefly until smooth.
8. Transfer the mixture to the pie dish containing your pre-made biscuit base and bake for 35 minutes. Expect a slight ‘wobble’ in the centre of the mixture at the end of the baking time. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely, then place in the fridge.
9. Prepare the topping by placing the cream and the marscapone in the (cleaned) mixing bowl and beating with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
10. Transfer the mixture to the piping bag and pipe a ring of peaks encircling the top of the pie. Make each peak by squeezing the piping bag to release a small amount of cream mixture then pressing down slightly before pulling upwards sharply. You might find you are left with extra cream mixture, which you can serve on the side in case anyone would like extra.
11. Use a fine grater to remove some lime zest from a lime (the zest of about half a lime will be plenty) and sprinkle the zest over the cream peaks.
12. Refrigerate until need and then cut into slices and serve.