Key Lime Pie With Sour Cream

Our family has been fortunate to spend many a summer vacation at Hilton Head Island. The Southern Oak trees with their draping Spanish moss grace the streets filled with beautiful Southern homes. The lawns are pristine and only broken by pops of colorful flower bushes. Biking around the flat bike trails that meander around the island makes my whole body just relax and take a deep breath. But my Hilton Head Island vacation is not complete without a piece of Key Lime Pie with sour cream and whipped topping.

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The local grocery store, on the island, has one of the best tasting key lime pies! It the perfect contrast of sweet and tangy.

And since vacation time never lasts long enough, I wanted to make a pie so that I can enjoy some old-fashioned key lime pie at home. That’s why I just love this Key Lime Pie with Sour Cream recipe.

Too often Key Lime pie is either tasteless or it is so tart, it will make your mouth pucker! But this key lime pie recipe is creamy and sweet with just the right amount of tartness from the limes! With just one bite, you’ll feel like you are in the deep south, enjoying a sunny day.

Preheat your oven to bake your pie crust.

I like to make my pie crust and typically, I make a simple flour pie crust. You can buy a graham crust, but I prefer the focus to be on the key lime base. You can use my easy pie crust that comes together in the pie pan and there is no rolling out your pie crust. So simple!

Prebake your pie crust for around 10-12 minutes. Pull out of oven and allow to cool on a cooling rack. While that is cooling, let’s make our key lime pie base.

The lime flavor is at the heart of your key lime custard pie. So make sure to use fresh lime juice! Key Lime pie is typically made using key limes, which are slightly smaller than limes. But they are often hard to find in the grocery store, except in the summertime which is when they are in season in the USA. Often I choose to use limes, as they are easier to purchase and bigger, so you will need to squeeze fewer limes to get your juice!

To make extracting your lime juice easier, you’ll want to have a mini hand juicer like this lemon and lime juicer with glass base. I prefer the hand juicers with the base so that I can measure out my juice. Wash your limes and grate a couple limes. Then slice your limes in half and use your hand juicer.

Next, you’ll want to open 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk and add to your mixer. You don’t need to add any sugar to your key lime pie base as there is plenty of sweetness in the sweetened condensed milk. Mix together the lime juice with the sweetened milk.

Then add in your sour cream and grated lime. Mix together before pouring into the slightly cooled pie crust.

Place in oven and set timer for 6-8 minutes. Pull pie out of oven when key lime pie is slightly set and tiny pinprick bubbles appear.

Allow pie to cool before placing in the fridge. Then put in fridge to finish chilling. Serve chilled with whip cream and a decorative slice of lime.

Tips to Making Easy Key Lime Pie

Here are a couple things to keep in mind as you make your key lime pie

Use Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice. It is worth the extra effort to buy limes and squeeze the limes for fresh lime juice. But if you can’t find a lot of nice limes, then you can use a mixture of bottled juice and fresh lime juice.

Place Limes On Counter Beforehand. To make squeezing your limes even easier. place them on the counter a 1/2 hour beforehand. As they warm their juices will flow even easier.

Chill Before Serving. Key lime pie is best served chilled for a perfect blend of sweet creamy tang that explodes in your mouth.

Serve with Whip Cream. It may be just me, but a big dollop of sweet whipped cream goes perfect with Key Lime Pie with Sour Cream. So don’t forget to pick up cool whip or a can of whip cream. Or you can make fresh whipped cream with 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and a little sugar and beat until whip cream forms (about 4-5 minutes).

Enjoy!