Zing of Key limes proves too much for this Klime gal

What the heck is a klime?

That's what I kept asking myself after my husband went to the store to buy ingredients for this week's recipe, Key lime pie. Instead of bringing back a bag of limes, he brought back a bag of — get this — klimes.

They were small and green and looked like limes. They smelled like limes. But the label on the bag read KLIMES. Did this mean Key limes? A cross between kumquats and limes? Would I be hailed as the inventor of a new sensation, klime pie?

The klimes sat in the fruit bowl growing soft and mushy for — well, I'm embarrassed to say how long — while I tried to decide whether to use them or buy a bag of fruit labeled Key limes.

Weeks later, with the deadline for this column looming, I finally made the pie (no, not with the mushy klimes). My lips are still permanently puckered.

The pie is very, well, limey. Very, very limey.

If you enjoy the tartness of lime, you'll love it. If you are in the camp that believes pie should be sweet, you're better off making a run to Marie Callender's.

I chose this recipe, from a back issue of Gourmet magazine, because it sounded refreshing and, best of all, easy.

The recipe says it's important to use Key limes, not regular limes. They're smaller and have a yellowish tint and an extra-tart taste.

I wouldn't know because I never found Key limes. I did, however, discover bottled Key lime juice in the produce section.

I bought whipped cream in a spray can because, well, it's more fun. I redeemed myself by buying the ingredients to make the crust, even though a perfectly good pre-made graham-cracker crust was staring me in the face as I walked down the aisle.

Preparation was simple. I put the graham crackers in a zip-lock freezer bag and gave them a few whacks with a rolling pin. Mixing the condensed milk and egg yolks took only a minute or so. The bottled juice meant I didn't have to juice any limes.

The hardest part was waiting for the pie to chill overnight. I couldn't wait to taste it. But the taste was very disappointing. Even with whipped cream on top, the pie was so tart I could eat only a few bites. I guess I'm just not a Key lime person.

More of a klime gal.

Bee staff writer Kerry McCray can be reached at 578-2358 or at kmccray@modbee.com.

"Whoever likes limes will certainly love this pie. The recipe is easy to execute, once you have the lime juice at hand. Buying Key lime juice in a bottle would certainly save a great amount of time, but I'm retired; so I squeezed 26 Key limes by hand. I would do it again, eagerly, for the results were an unqualified success. The pie filling is creamy smooth, slightly tart and unmistakably limey. The whipped-cream layer on top is absolutely the right finish for this dessert. This recipe is a gift from the gods."

I used Nellie & Joe's Famous Key West Lime Juice. The graham cracker, sugar and butter amounts made a perfect 9-inch pie crust. It is very rich tasting and just a bit tart, maybe (I'll use) just 1 tablespoon more than the ½ cup of lime juice next time.

Key lime is one of my husband's favorite pies. His first bite — and last — confirmed that this dessert was a hit. When I asked him if it compared to what he had eaten in Florida, he said yes! So this recipe will supersede the others I had previously tried. This pie is easy to make. I would suggest that the crust be made an hour before the filling is poured into it. That is about the time for the crust to cool as directed in the recipe. The pie will be ready for dessert that night. Any form of whipped cream can be used. For an additional twist of flavor, I added lime zest on top of the cream. This pie is so refreshing and worth the effort to make.

The limes are tiny so it takes a while to squeeze them; I used the whole bag. The pie is very tasty but I think it's a little tart for my taste and my guests agreed. One of my cookbooks suggests serving with a mango or raspberry purée, which I think would be a delicious accompaniment to this tart pie.

I used regular bottled lime juice, so I guess I really just made a lime pie. But it was delicious. Very easy to throw together and bake with just enough tart and sweet. I've made Key lime pie before and don't remember how Key limes differ from regular limes, but this tasted as good as I remember any Key lime pie tasting! A definate keeper!

As far as the overall appearance of this Key lime pie, once cut it seemed to have more of a pudding texture that didn't quite hold its shape, unlike other Key lime pies I've made. However, this could have been due to the fact that the pie had been unrefrigerated for about 40 minutes while en-route to a party. Most of my friends who claimed to like Key lime pie seemed to think that the taste of this pie was very good, albeit tart. Although this recipe did not call for any sugar to be added in the whipped cream, I added about 2 tablespoons of sugar to the heavy cream, which seemed to be about the right amount. The sweetness of the graham crust also seemed to balance out the tartness of the filling.

If I were to make this Key lime pie again and wanted to cut down on the calorie and fat content of the recipe, I would use low-calorie graham crackers for the crust, as well as either low-fat or fat-free sweetened condensed milk for the filling. Although I don't think there's any substitute for the flavor of real whipped cream, another calorie saver would be to use non-dairy whipped topping in place of the whipped cream.

I had never made a Key lime pie before, much less tasted one made with real Key limes. Imagine my surprise when I received this recipe the same day I started reading "Key Lime Pie Murder," a mystery by Joanne Fluke. (These are fun books for foodies, as the author includes many recipes between the chapters!) While the pie in the book uses the saved egg whites for a meringue topping instead of whipped cream, I went for the cream, deviating from the recipe just a bit by adding some powdered sugar to balance the tartness of the lime curd. The end result was very tasty, with the Key limes making a tart, but not mouth-puckering, pie. The recipe is simple and easy enough — once all of the tiny limes are juiced, that is. Even after rolling each one on the counter and squeezing them with a fork (too small for the juicer), I wasn't able to get the required juice out of a bag of Key limes and had to add the juice of one regular Persian lime. Definitely a keeper, but next time I'll buy the juice and save a lot of time.

This story was originally published June 4, 2008 at 8:22 AM with the headline "Zing of Key limes proves too much for this Klime gal."