As I mentioned yesterday, today’s clip features my Mom making a light and delicious Key Lime Pie. I joked in the post that it’s an old family tradition to make pie before going to the hospital for surgery, well, to be honest it’s not really an old tradition, she just wanted to make pie. Besides it beats sitting around worrying about getting a new shoulder! This is a longer clip than I normally do, and I may eventually split the demo into 2 recipes; one for her flaky pie crust, and another for the filling and finished pie. But for now you get the complete Director's Cut.I’ve gotten many emails about how to make a nice pie or tart crust and I’ve always answered them with “sorry, that not really my thing.” Well, you are all in luck. My Mother, and Aunt Angela, are known around these parts for their great pies, and make an incredibly flaky, and easy, pie dough. Many Chefs will tell you to let the dough rest in the fridge so that the flour can hydrate, and the crust will be even flakier. When I asked my mother if she was going to let hers rest, she said “No, I learned this dough recipe a long time ago and I’m not going to change it.” So that was that.
If you don’t want to add food coloring to give yours that lovely lime color, then don’t. But, these days food colorings are made from vegetable dyes and are completely harmless. You decide, but I don’t want a yellow Key Lime Pie. And while we’re faking things, regular limes are fine if you can’t get Key limes. Enjoy!
Crust: (enough for 2 pies, or one with bottom and top crust)
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
3/4 cup shortening
5-6 tbl ice water
Filling:
3 large eggs
3 large juicy limes (1/2 cup of juice)
1 can (14oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 drop green food coloring
lime zest for garnish
whipped cream to top
34 comments:
Chef,
It reminds me of the baking I use to do when I was a kid. Thanks for bringing back memories!
That was awesome!! thank you chef mom!!
Wonderful recipe. Key limes are readily available here in TX, so I think I'll try the recipe w/those. Pie crust making is the bane of my existence - I can never do it right. So I'll probably buy one...lol Thanks for posting, and I hope everything turns out well for your Mom!
I think you mean docking? I have a question before this post why where you reposting? Awww...how nice you let your mom in your videos. :)When are you going to back in California? Hope you have the garbage plate soon ,I am soo excited to find out what it tastes like. XD
The pie looks really nice - would love to enjoy some together. Great job on the video and the nails look great, too! (What, no age spots?) Best of luck with your surgery, Pauline. We'll be waiting to learn that "all went well!"
Peggy
WOW, My dad LOVES key lime pie! I really want to make this for him for his birthday. By the way, I think when you prick the pastry, it's called docking ... not really sure.
Looks like I finally have to figure out where to get such alumninium pie tins here in Germany. I can not remember having seen such here yet...
But it looks really delicious.
now, THAT is a key lime pie...
for some reason most of the people do like a 20% lime mixture and a 80% baked whipped cream on top...
that is more 50% 50%....
and the velvety looking, cream thing *haven't seen the video just yet... looks like yogurt*
is a diferrent twist to the baked one whipped cream which I just hate because they over do it...
props pauline :D
looks wonderful!
many thanks, and best wishes of a speedy recovery
I just know that pastry flour is the true secret to the best crust, but I can't find it. Can you give me an idea of where to look?
THX
Leona
well, its in the regular grocery stores in SF, but I would try the higher end stores like whole foods. Or call a local bakery and ask them where they get theirs!
That looks absolutely delicious.
The only thing I would do differently is skip out on the green food coloring. Whenever my mother used to make key lime pie she wouldnt use any, so I'm accustomed to that pale color. However, if I was serving the pie to guests, I might consider using food coloring as that would make it more 'limey'. Not a word? Well I'm pretty sure you know all about making up words, don't you Chef John?
Great video and site, also, thanks for the comment on my blog.
In my eyes you are the George Clooneyer version of Alton Brown.
(Which is a compliment)
I call it poking the pie dough.
Looks good. I am going to look for Key limes, I saw them in the grocery store, but they are very small. Probably take 20 of them.
So what happened to the other half of the dough?
great question...stay tuned!
I've made this twice now and it's been a big hit. I used normal limes as I got a deal on them in Boston, 10 for $1, yoo hoo. One change I made was to finely grate the lime zest and add it into the egg mix, you get a very mild green color that way with tiny specks of lime, looks nice!!
shhhhhh...don't tell my mom, but that's what I do too.
I made your Mom's pie today. Yummmm! Thank her for doing it for us. My crust was great. Although I probably should wait until a less humid day to make it. It's very tender. I did find the pastry flour at Whole foods. It was whole wheat. It looked like your Mom's was white, this one was tan. Delicious though. :)
Can you also use ghee instead of shortening? Would you use the same quantity? Looks delish! I'm going to try this with gluten free flour, which won't quite have the same consistency but happy to experiment - I want to eat that pie!
not sure about the ghee, i dont know if it would have the same texture. If your going to use a butter product, use solid cold butter, that will work.
Can we use all purpose flour/plain flour instead? Awesome video! Yr mom has beautiful fingers!
yes you can. Thanks.
Ummm can u use lime juice in a bottle?????? i really want to try the recipe ive never made pie before......... i dont have any limes but this bottle of lime juice... will it work??????? P.S Could i skip out on the lime zest or use lemon? ill justr have to call it lemon lime pie but its alrite with me. THNKS SO MUCH FOR THE RECIPE I DONT LIKE SWEET PIE AT ALL!
Oh and by the way can i use a normal baking dish? should i cover it in aluminum foil first???? thnks!
yes you can use lime juice
depends on the size and shape, but i would highly recommend a foil pie tin
the size is 9 by 9 square glass baking dish.
try it and let me know!
any subsitutes for sweetened condensed milk??
no
I just had a piece of the key lime pie, I used butter rather than shortening and it tasted amazing.
I could not make it as beautiful as Pauline's pie but it is not about being beautiful, it's about eating pie.
Thanks chef John!
Am tempted to try this for a craft show in Florida. Mom could be a hand model!
It looks so super delicious! Of course I've tried to make one, but it was a kitchen nightmare. I think it's because I'm living in Norway and the ingredients just don't match! sweetened condensed milk which here is called VIKING MELK was probably not sweet enough or something and the filling wasn't creamy at all ;(. I add 6 (!!!) drops of food colouring and it was still yellow. and the result was super sour ;(
Can I add a bit of cream cheese?
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