Key Lime Bars

(426)
Yield:
16

This recipe is based on the famous Key lime pie from Joe's Stone Crab restaurant in Miami Beach. If you can't find Key limes, use regular fresh lime juice.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup plus 2 ½ tablespoons finely ground graham cracker crumbs

  • cup sugar

  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

  • 3 large egg yolks

  • 1 ½ teaspoons finely grated lime zest

  • cup fresh Key lime juice (about 23 Key limes total)

  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces)

  • ¼ cup heavy cream

  • 2 Key limes, thinly sliced into half-moons

Directions

  1. Make crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a small bowl. Press evenly onto bottom of an 8-inch square glass baking dish. Bake until dry and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. (Leave oven on.)

  2. Make filling: Put egg yolks and lime zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on high speed until very thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add condensed milk in a slow, steady stream, mixing constantly. Raise speed to high; mix until thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add lime juice; mix until just combined.

  3. Spread filling evenly over crust using a spatula. Bake, rotating dish halfway through, until filling is just set, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate at least 4 hours (or overnight).

  4. Cut into 2-by-2-inch bars. Put cream in the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the clean whisk attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Garnish bars with whipped cream and a slice of lime.

    sd101475_1205_keylimebar.jpg

Cook's Notes

The bars will keep, wrapped in plastic, in the refrigerator for up to three days.

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