(Key) Lime Pie

I happen to be fascinated with what I see as typically American food, and I love introducing my family to weird and wonderful desserts that they'd never contemplated eating. Red Velvet cupcakes are now a huge favourite for my family, and I've blown their minds on a couple of occassions with a great Pumpkin Pie recipe that I found. "Pumpkin in a dessert?!" they exclaimed when I served it up a couple of Christmas's ago. Key Lime Pie is another one of these desserts that I've always been interested in trying, but haven't had the chance. Until now. I had my sisters over for dinner after work one night and I decided to make this recipe from the Martha Stewart website. Unfortunately, Key Limes aren't widely available in Australia - the only place I could think of that may have the juice is USA foods, but I didn't have time to get to the store - but this time I decided to see how the pie would come out if I used normal limes in the mixture. Now, I haven't tried a true blue Key Lime Pie, but I absolutely loved how my Lime Pie turned out. It was very similar to Lemon tart or Lemon meringue pie, but I thought the cream on top added something different - and really tasty.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Chocolate Ripple Biscuits
6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
5 tbsp sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tbsp grated lime zest, plus more for garnish
1 1/2 cups cream, chilled

Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Combine biscuit crumbs, butter and 3 tbsp sugar in a bowl; mix well. Press into a 9 inch pie plate, and bake until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack until completely cool.

2. Lower oven to 162 degrees Celsius. In a bowl, gently whisk together condensed milk, egg yolks, lime juice, and zest. Pour into the prepared, cooled crust.

3. Bake pie in oven 15-17 minutes, until the centre is set but still quivers when the pan is nudged.

4. Shortly before serving, combine cream and remaining 2 tbsp sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk on medium speed until soft peaks form, 2-3 minutes. Spoon over cooled pie. Serve immediately.

Recipe Source:
Martha Stewart website
adapted from the Key Lime Pie recipe