Frozen Key Lime Pie is the most refreshing pie of Summer
Cold, creamy, and just the right amount of sweet, this frozen key lime pie will bring some much needed refreshing end to a good Summer meal.
You can make this 4-ingredient almost to entirely no-bake pie in 5 minutes flat, which is the perfect kind of dessert on days when you’re living next to a fan.
| Taste | Texture |
| Tangy, cold, limeade | Creamy |
Why frozen key lime pie is the no-bake dessert you’ll want to make on repeat
- Nifty chemistry: The specific pH of key lime juice when mixed together with sweetened condensed milk naturally thickens the milk proteins into a creamy dreamy consistency. This is a great pie to make with kids to talk about how acids and proteins interact.
- Absurdly easy: This is a mix and go kind of recipe. If you can stir, you can make this pie. Literally the toughest thing you need to do is juice the limes.
- Low time, high reward, and make-ahead: This pie tastes like creamy limeade, with all the refreshing brightness of such a drink. It’s not too often when you can get this much flavor in such a fall-off-the-log easy summer dessert. AND, you can make this ahead, and pull it out of the freezer when you want it.
- Make your crust or not: I say this is almost to entirely no-bake because you can make this pie with a store-bought graham cracker crust or make your own graham cracker crust. One thing I like about making my own is being able to control the amount of sugar in my pie. For this pie, I used vanilla tea biscuits in place of the graham crackers. These were definitely less sweet, which was perfect for my tastes.
Ingredients for Frozen Key Lime Pie
Key Lime Filling
- Key Limes or standard limes
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Heavy whipping cream
- Vanilla extract
Graham Cracker Crust (or store-bought)
- Graham crackers or vanilla tea biscuits
- Butter
- Granulated sugar
I suppose so, but all bottled citrus juices have preservatives in them that make them taste off. There are so few ingredients in this recipe, just go for the real thing. The whole lime will give you both the zest and the juice in one go, making for the brightest, best flavor with a tiny extra bit of color.
Equipment needed
- Pie pan, preferably straight-sided
How to make frozen key lime pie
- Make a graham cracker crust: Again, no shame here if you want to buy a crust. When it’s 98 degrees outside, there’s no way I’m turning on an oven to bake a crust! If you’re feeling super smart, you can buy a bunch of disposable pie pans and make a huge batch of graham cracker crusts to freeze for those 98 degrees. Making your own convenience foods is willing all-around!
- Whip: Whip the cream with the vanilla until it holds its shape.
- Mix: Mix the key lime juice and zest and the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream.
- Freeze: Scoop the filling into the pie shell and cover to freeze.
- Serve: Top the frozen pie with the zest and slices of 1 more key lime for a little extra bit of color.
Tips for making the best frozen key lime pie
- Use a straight-sided pie pan: I used one of my ruffled edge pie plates and getting all of the crust out of the pan was not the most successful. Straight-sided pie plates are much easier to serve clean slices from on a frozen pie.
- Definitely save limes for the top: This is a very white, bright pie, so be sure to save a lime to grate on the zest and then slice up for some decoration on the middle of the pie.
- Defrost slightly before serving: This pie isn’t particularly difficult to cut through when it’s frozen. Still, if you let it sit out for 5-10 minutes, you’ll be able to cut it easier. Bonus: you’ll get the perfect creamy texture when the pie is just starting to defrost not unlike a scoop of ice cream.
Variations for your key lime pie
- Blackberry lime: Cook 1 cup of blackberries with 1/4 cup of sugar over medium heat. When the berries release their juices, mash them with a potato masher . Continue to cook the berries until they thicken, but not so much that the jam holds its shape on a spoon. You can choose if you’d like to press the blackberries through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. Mix the blackberry compote into the filling and freeze as normal. When I was catering, I used to make gallons of blackberry limeade, and it was always a hit.
- Cherry lime: Chop up whole cherries into bits. Place them on the bottom of the pie shell, saving a few for the top.
- Vegan: Use coconut sweetened condensed milk and Coco-whip in place of the heavy cream.
- Gluten-free: Use the vegan swaps above if you also need dairy-free, and use a gluten-free graham cracker crust (or make it yourself with gluten free graham crackers).
Frozen Key Lime Pie
- Total Time: 8 hours 5 minutes
- Yield: 8 large pie slices 1x
Description
The easiest freezer pie ever is also one of the best. This pie tastes like limeade in pie form!
Ingredients
- 9″ Graham cracker crust (store-bought or homemade graham cracker crust)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream (236 mL)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- Zest from 2 key limes
- 1/2 cup key lime juice, from about 4-5 key limes (118 mL)
- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 more key lime for garnishing
Instructions
Make a graham cracker crust (if not using store-bought).
- Follow the recipe for a graham cracker crust if you’re not using a store-bought crust.
Make the filling
- Whip the cream with the vanilla until it holds its shape.
- Mix the key lime juice and zest and the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream.
- Scoop the filling into the pie shell and cover to freeze.
Garnish and serve
- Top the frozen pie with the zest and slices of 1 more key lime for a little extra bit of color.
- Let the pie sit out for 5-10 minutes before cutting.
- The pie tastes best eaten within one week. To keep it longer, wrap the pie well to cut down on ice crystals. A domed pie lid is helpful, and from there I would wrap the whole pie in a plastic bag. Wrapped well, you can easily keep this pie for up to 2 months in the freezer.
Notes
Make it dairy free/vegan: Use a vegan crust, use a coconut whipped topping like Coco-Whip and coconut sweetened condensed milk. It won’t thicken quite as well, but you’re freezing the pie, so it won’t matter much.
Make it gluten-free: Either buy a gluten-free graham cracker crust for this pie or make your own graham cracker crust using gluten-free graham crackers like Mi-Del.
Key Lime Pie Bars to feed a crowd: if you want to use a store-bought crust, you can simply cut your pie into squarish pieces instead of traditional wedges. Otherwise, double the graham cracker crust recipe, baking the crust in a 9 x 13 pan. From there, double the filling recipe and top the crust. Freeze as you would the pie and cut into squares for serving. This is an AWESOME recipe for a backyard BBQ or Summer potluck.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- 8 hours freezing:
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Category: Pies
- Method: Freezer
- Cuisine: American
