Versatile, perfectly sweet and citrusy, and quintessentially tropical, these mini key lime pies use nothing but fresh ingredients. Finally, a key lime pie that doesn’t use sweetened condensed milk!

The story

I have so many thoughts and feels about this recipe! First, the citrus. I love citrus-y desserts, which is convenient since I married into a Greek family. Fun fact: Greeks love lemon. And rightfully so. I mean, it’s universally awesome. It keeps fruit from browning. It brings out flavor in cooking. It keeps poultry from having that weird, gamey taste (I learned this from my husband’s YiaYia, and now I don’t hate cooking poultry!).

And citrus in desserts is wonderful. Some people love that super sweet flavor of candy or vanilla, and some want that rich, deep flavor of chocolate. But there is something refreshing about citrus desserts. The sweet and slightly sour taste makes me so happy. So I’ve been hunting for some good citrus desserts. Weirdly, I don’t have many. My raspberry tart uses a great lemon raspberry filling that’s very similar to this recipe, but it’s more gelatinous and works best as a tart filling, so it’s not as universal as the curd in these mini pies.

Second, the ingredients. Most citrus pies use sweetened condensed milk to create that creamy, sturdy filling. However, I try to avoid condensed milk if I can help it. I’ve spent the last several months searching for a good lemon pie filling, starting with my lemon curd recipe and working from there. I figure it has a bright lemon taste and is entirely from scratch, so there has to be a way to change the consistency to that of a lemon cream pie. It’s been a struggle, resulting in many a runny pie. They’re delicious, don’t get me wrong. But I was struggling to find the right consistency for a filling.

Knowing that I wanted to make key lime something for my friend’s baby shower (it’s her favorite dessert, so how could I not?), I kept at it. And I loved every taste-testing moment of creating this recipe. The key was in the right balance of citrus, eggs, butter, and gelatin.

Yep, gelatin is one of my go-to’s for stabilizing just about anything. It’s actually good for you, has no taste (at least in the small amounts used in baking), and is fairly simple to work with. I don’t own a microwave (one of the most common ways to prepare gelatin), and I still think it’s easy to use. But you also need to cook the eggs long enough or you will still get a runny filling.

Finally, the versatility. You can use the filling as a curd on scones (please, please have some tea with it if you do!). You can make a full blown pie or tart, made even better if you fold in some whipped cream. You can use it as a cake filling (but not a heavy dense cake or a super high one…let’s not pretend this is cement here).

Also, you can use any citrus! I used faux key lime juice in these mini pies (because no one had key limes anywhere???). I just might make my next batch with grapefruit, because it’s my favorite citrus.

Tips for this dessert

You can make faux key lime juice!

I searched high and low (okay, I didn’t have time to check Whole Foods), but I couldn’t find key limes. So I did some research on the difference and went with mostly regular lime juice mixed with some Meyer lemon juice (to create that somewhat sweeter, more fragrant taste). It worked! Ideally, you’ll make these with key limes, but I wrote the recipe for limes and Meyer lemons, since I have no idea how many little itty bitty key limes you’d need to zest and juice to get 3/4 cup juice.

Zest every lime/lemon/key lime you use before juicing it

Some recipes call for the zest of just one or two limes or lemons. I feel that’s a waste. I zest then juice one citrus fruit at a time until I have enough juice. Sometimes I wind up with more zest than others, but I feel you can’t ever have too much zest.

You can also make this with cornstarch

Instead of the gelatin, you’d mix 1 to 2 tablespoons cornstarch with equal amounts of water (or juice, as I do with the gelatin). Since the cornstarch needs to cook to thicken, you’ll add it at the beginning. I’ve only done this once, so you may want to look at other recipes that use cornstarch to thicken lemon curd to get a better sense of how best to use it. I prefer gelatin because it doesn’t leave a sticky texture or starchy taste.

Increase the butter and/or eggs for a richer curd

I started the search with a very rich, almost too buttery (I didn’t know there was such a thing) lemon curd. I’ve adjusted the butter and eggs for my taste, but if you want a richer, velvety curd, you can easily adjust it. I wouldn’t do more than 6 tablespoons of butter, as more will likely result in a runny curd. If you increase the eggs, use just the yolk, as more than 3 whites will just scramble, and know that more eggs means more thickening, so your cook times may differ.

Fold in whipped cream for a creamier curd

That was one of the more obvious sentences I’ve ever written, but it’s true. I chose to simply top with freshly whipped cream, to keep that strong citrus taste in the curd. However, you can tone it down by folding in 1 cup of cold heavy cream that has been whipped to stiff peaks, adding a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar to the cream if you’d like. This option is ideal if you are making an actual pie and not mini pies.

Whisk constantly and don’t cook too high!

Often, recipes like this call for tempering the eggs. I chose not to do that here, because I knew I would be able to whisk constantly as the mixture cooked. If you follow the recipe as-is, be sure you cook it on low or medium low and whisk constantly. If you prefer tempering the eggs, you’ll whisk them in a separate bowl, cook the sugar, salt, zest, and juice until sugar is dissolved and mixture is very hot, slowly stream about half of it into the eggs while whisking very fast and nonstop, then add back into the bowl and continue cooking as in my recipe until it thickens.

Watch the coconut!

The toasted coconut is optional but really gives a special something to these key lime pies. However, just remember that it can go from toasted to burnt in about 30 seconds.