Key Lime (Cheesecake) Pie

Key Lime Pie was invented by American settlers of Florida to use what they had to hand - fresh-laid eggs, tinned condensed milk and fresh key limes. The original pie filling used nothing more than this and relied on the acidity of the lime juice to coagulate the eggs and milk alone.

In these days when we get our eggs from the supermarket of an unknown age, modern recipes lightly cook the pie in order to ensure the raw egg yolks are pasteurised.

This variation bulks out the condensed milk filling with some cream cheese, which makes it a little less sweet, and a bit more cheesecake-like.

• 6oz digestive biscuits
• Melted butter
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tin Sweetened Condensed Milk
• ~400g ( 2 normal supermarket sized packs) of Soft Cream Cheese.
• 4 fl.oz FRESH lime juice - that's the juice of 4 average limes.
• (optional) a little lime zest, finely grated

Pre-heat the oven to 150C.
Grease and line the base of a springform tin.
Crush the biscuits into crumbs and combine with melted butter.
Press the crumbs into the base of the tin.
In a large glass bowl, combine the egg yolks, condensed milk, cream cheese and lime zest, if using.
Squeeze the limes into a cup.
Whisk the cheese mixture together until smooth.
Pour in the lime juice and whisk until the mixture is thick and smooth.
Pour the thickened filling into the tin.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Chill thoroughly before releasing from the tin and serving.

Categories: dessert cheesecake american key lime