Key Lime Pie-a Birthday Hit

Recently my daughter threw herself a birthday "Indoor Crawfish Boil" inviting family to enjoy treats she and her husband loved when living in New Orleans. Her Key Lime Pie was a big hit, as she put it: "actually, it was about the only hit. No one had any Ramos fizzes and it turned out that most of the crowd didn't like crawfish!" After consulting several cookbooks, she went online and found a recipe she adapted from "Catahoula's Restaurant" at: www.outofthefryingpan.com

Here's the recipe for this good looking pie:

Brooke's Key Lime Birthday Pie

Crust:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

3 tbsp. sugar

15 graham crackers

Filling:

1 cup Key lime juice (depends how big they are but I ended up using 30 Key limes)

2 14 oz. cans Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks (use the egg whites to make yourself 2 Ramos Gin Fizzes)

1 tsp. lime zest

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Either food process the graham crackers into homogeneous crumbs or do like I did and put them in a ziplock and beat them mercilessly with a rolling pin. Combine melted butter, graham cracker crumbs and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Press mixture into a pie tin with fingers. Bake for about 8-10 minutes being careful not to burn. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

2. Add eggs and egg yolks and mix with beaters until thick and light yellow. Add condensed milk and ½ of lime juice and blend until very smooth like pudding. Add lime zest and the rest of the lime juice and blend on low for a few seconds. Pour into cooled pie crust.

3. Bake for about 15-20 minutes until center is firm but pie filling is still a bit jiggly. Allow pie to cool then refrigerate. Top with freshly made whipped cream and a little lime zest.

My granddaughter loooooves dessert--any kind of dessert. She's a great audience for testing recipes and she gave this pie two thumbs up! Annie