Key lime pie & passion fruit & other tropical pies

(and passion fruit, and other tropical treats!)

Celebrations mean time for pie at Casa Bouquet. Key lime pie is a favorite and the recipe can also be used with other tropical juices. Try this with my coconut crust for an instant island trip!

You will need a piecrust in an 8- or 9-inch pan (coconut, graham cracker, or pastry), a small mixing bowl and whisk, citrus juicer, and small bowls or cups for separating the eggs.

• 3 egg yolks (large eggs). With two small bowls available, gently crack each egg in the center, open the egg carefully, and pass the yolk back and forth between the two egg halves, letting the egg white fall into one of the bowls. Place the egg yolks in the other bowl. You can discard the whites, save for another use, or make a meringue.
• ½ cup Key lime juice. You can purchase Key lime juice (I use Nellie & Joeʻs, in the bar drinks section) or squeeze Key limes. At our grocery, they are in the tropical fruit section with the coconuts, star fruits, and mangoes. You will need to juice about a dozen limes. (I zest these first before juicing. I use the zest for another recipe – coming soon!)

• one 14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with a rack in the center. Place the egg yolks in a small mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Add the full can of sweetened condensed milk. Whisk until fully combined. While stirring, very slowly pour in the Key lime juice. You will be able to see when juice reacts with the milk/egg mixture.

Pour the filling into the piecrust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Refrigerate before serving. You can eat it as is, bake with a meringue, or serve with soft whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Variation: This method will also work with other tropical juices. I have found that you still need a small amount of Key lime juice to get the reaction to form the “curd” and for taste. I put 3 tbsp of Key lime juice in a liquid measuring cup, and fill to the ½ cup line with passion fruit juice. Try pineapple or guava or papaya juice.

Related links

• http://www.epicurious.com/archive/seasonalcooking/winter/key-lime-pie
  • The Curious Case of Key Lime Pie from Epicurious
• http://www.currymansion.com
  • The Curry Mansion bed and breakfast
• http://pepeskeywest.com/full-width/pepes-history/
  • Pepeʻs Café and Steak house, Key West
• http://www.keylimeshop.com/category/key-lime-recipes/desserts
  • Kermitʻs Key West Lime Shoppe
• http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodpies.html#keylime
  • Key lime pie history from Food Timeline
• http://www.auntylilikoi.com/syrups-and-juices.html
  • Unsweetened passion fruit juice from Aunty Lilikoʻi
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp5TbwpCmxI
  • Oh Joyʻs pancake video shows expert egg separation

Letʻs talk story

Key lime pie was a very unusual treat when I was young. Key West once had key lime groves but a hurricane wiped them out in 1926. Now commercial growing of these tiny limes (Citrus ×aurantiifolia) takes place in Mexico, Brazil, and other Central and South American countries. You might read that there are no Key limes in the Keys, but residents grow them, just not in commercial operations.

Size comparison lemon with Key lime

Aunt Sally was the cook at the Curry Mansion in the 1850s and she is often credited with the first Key lime pie recipe. Hers had a graham cracker crust and was topped with soft whipped cream. The Keys did not have ice or refrigeration before 1930, so keeping milk or cream was a problem. A boon to cooks there was the invention by Gail Borden of sweetened condensed milk in the 1850s. This pie could be made without cooking, another bonus in the hot summer in the Keys.

The extra tart Key lime juice actually makes the egg yolk and condensed milk mixture seize up and form a pudding-like filling (which is yellow, not neon green!). Today, because of salmonella, you need to bake the pie for a short time to cook the eggs, or use pasteurized eggs if you want to try the pie without baking. Because the pie filling uses only egg yolks, you may wish to use the whites to make a meringue – just be sure to adjust your oven temperature and timing to cook both the pie and the meringue.

One of our best adventures was driving from Miami to Key West for a Thanksgiving vacation. Starting in Florida City, we tried Key lime pie all along the way through Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, and so on all the way to Key West. I highly recommend this trip theme, and let me know which pie is your favorite!

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