Key lime pie for two
A no-bake filling that sets itself, no oven needed
plus 3 hours chilling
Doubles into four glasses from one bowl of filling. The biscuit base softens once the filling sits on it, so fill and chill the glasses the same day you crush the crumbs.
Key lime pie usually needs an oven, three egg yolks and a very particular tin. This version needs none of that. Sweetened condensed milk and fresh lime juice do the setting between them, the acid tightening the milk into something halfway between a curd and a mousse within a minute of whisking, long before the fridge even gets involved. Whipped cream folded through afterwards keeps the whole thing light rather than dense. The colour comes from nowhere but the lime itself, a pale greenish ivory rather than the postcard green of a dyed pie, going almost translucent where the filling meets the glass. Press the crumb base down hard with the back of a spoon, or it slides apart the moment a spoon goes into it.
Ingredients
Contains: Gluten, Milk
- 100 gplain biscuits, Rich Tea or a similar plain white biscuit, crushed to fine crumbs. Not digestives, which are wholemeal
- 40 gunsalted butter, melted
- salt, a small pinch, for the crumb base
- 200 gcondensed milk, sweetened, about half a standard 397 g tin
- 60 mllime juice, juice only, no zest or segments, from about 3 limes
- 150 mldouble cream
Method
Crush the biscuits to fine, even crumbs, either in a food bag with a rolling pin or in a food processor. Mix with the melted butter and the pinch of salt until it looks like wet sand.
Divide the crumb mixture between two small glasses or ramekins and press it down firmly into an even layer with the back of a spoon. Chill while you make the filling.
Put the condensed milk in a mixing bowl and whisk in the lime juice a little at a time, until the mixture thickens visibly and turns a shade paler. This takes about 2 minutes of steady whisking.
The thickening happens almost as soon as the acid meets the milk. Do not be tempted to add the whole amount of juice in one go, or it can thicken unevenly.
In a separate bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks, floppy rather than stiff.
Fold the whipped cream through the lime mixture in two additions, until no streak of white remains and the filling is an even, pale greenish ivory throughout.
Spoon the filling over the chilled biscuit bases and level the tops with the back of a spoon. Chill for at least 3 hours, or overnight, until fully set with no wobble at the centre.
Watch-points
- Use a plain white biscuit such as Rich Tea for the base. Digestives are wholemeal and are off the list, however plain they look on the shelf.
- Lime juice only here, with no zest grated in and no segments left in the fruit. Juice alone gives the flavour without any of the fibre.
- Keep the glasses covered in the fridge and eat them within two days, since the filling is set with acid and uncooked cream rather than heat. Make them on the day if you are having chemotherapy.
Make it more nourishing
- Use 200 ml of cream instead of 150 ml, whipped just as softly, for a lighter but larger portion with more calories.
- Beat 2 tablespoons of mascarpone into the condensed milk before the lime juice goes in, for a denser, richer filling.
- Whisk a tablespoon of skimmed milk powder into the condensed milk first. It dissolves in completely and adds around 3 g of protein without extra volume.
Swaps
- Instead of double cream, use crème fraîche, folded in cold
- a sharper, slightly tangy filling that still sets the same way
- Instead of plain biscuits, use shortcake biscuits, crushed a touch coarser
- a slightly sandier base that holds together just as well