With its outstanding macadamia nut crust, creamy yet thick key lime filling, and sweet whipped cream on top, this is truly the best key lime pie I’ve ever had. And after 1 bite, I think you will agree. You need 4 ingredients for the crust, and only 3 ingredients for the filling.
I originally published this recipe in 2017 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips.
One reader, Valerie, commented: “I have made this recipe multiple times and it is always a huge hit! The macadamia nuts in the crust really give it that extra ‘something’ that people love but can’t quite pinpoint. One of my favorite recipes from your site… ★★★★★“
Key lime pie will forever be one of my favorite desserts, and I know I’m not alone! This Florida specialty has been winning over millions for years. Between the buttery crunchy crust, fresh and tangy custard filling, and the essential creamy topping—no dessert can rival this one!
But can we make a good thing even better? Yes.
What Makes This the Best Key Lime Pie?
- Extra thick and nutty crust
- 3-ingredient filling
- Easy to make
- Totally refreshing
- Major key lime flavor
- Topped with homemade whipped cream
- Sweet, salty, citrus-y, buttery, creamy, and tangy all in one
One reader, Ellen, commented: “My son and I made this pie together for Thanksgiving. It is the first time we have ever made a key lime pie before. We followed the recipe exactly! Sally, it was the BEST PIE EVER! Absolutely delicious. Everybody loved it and we will without a doubt make this again. Today I am thankful for leftovers! ★★★★★“
Here’s How You Make This Key Lime Pie
This pie requires a few simple steps. Most of the “work” is hands-off as the key lime pie sets up in the refrigerator, so it’s perfect in the summertime. (A lot of readers make this easy pie for Memorial Day weekend, Father’s Day, 4th of July, summer birthday parties, and Labor Day gatherings.)
- Make the Crust: Use a food processor to combine the macadamia nuts and graham cracker crumbs. Combine with melted butter and sugar, then press tightly into a pie dish.
- Pre-Bake the Crust: Pre-bake the crust for about 8 minutes before pouring in the key lime filling. Pre-baking solidifies the crust and allows for easy slicing once the pie is ready to serve.
- Make the Filling: Whisk together the 3 filling ingredients—it will be thick! Pour into the warm crust.
- Bake the Pie: It usually only takes about 18–20 minutes in the oven. Let it cool completely, then cover and refrigerate the pie for at least 1 hour prior to serving.
- Garnish and Serve: This is extra delicious with fresh whipped cream on top. By the way, if you’re looking for an alternative way to serve it, try my individual upside down key lime pies. Basically the same filling as this pie.
Graham Cracker Macadamia Nut Crust
Key lime pie is traditionally made with graham cracker crust. It’s the most wonderful crunchy, sweet, and buttery bed for the fresh key lime filling. But you won’t believe the difference macadamia nuts make. I use about 1/2 cup of macadamia nuts in place of some of the graham cracker crumbs and the result is pure pie bliss. Macadamia nuts are often overlooked in the baking world, in favor of other nuts. Why, though? They’re so good!
You need 4 ingredients for this crust:
- Macadamia Nuts (I recommend salted)
- Graham Crackers
- Melted Butter
- Sugar
Pulse the macadamia nuts with graham crackers, then mix with melted butter and sugar. Because key limes are a little sweeter than regular limes, you will love the sweet/tangy key lime filling with the salty graham cracker macadamia nut crust.
Or you could use a Biscoff pie crust instead if you’d like.
3-Ingredient Filling
Yes, you need just 3 ingredients. (!!!) If you’ve tried my key lime pie bars or mini key lime pies, you’ll notice that today’s filling is a little different. I typically add a little cream cheese to those recipes for stability and structure. However, for a classic and custard-y pie, we’ll skip it. You just need egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and key limes.
My success tip: Do yourself a favor and buy a bottle of key lime juice from the store. There’s a brand of bottled key lime juice that I love called Nellie & Joe’s in most major grocery stores next to the bottled lemon juice. Otherwise you will spend 100 years juicing 500 tiny key limes yourself. LOL. You need 1 cup (240ml) of key lime juice. (Fresh lime zest is optional for this pie.)
How to Tell Key Lime Pie Is Done
One of the most common and easily remedied key lime pie problems is over-baked pie. It’s tricky to know when the pie is done, but here’s my secret: bake the pie until the filling is only slightly jiggly in the center (about 18–20 minutes). It should be firm to the touch, but not totally solid. The pie will continue to set as it cools.
Cool the pie completely on a wire rack, then cover and chill for at least 1 hour before garnishing, slicing, and serving.
How to Decorate Key Lime Pie
Let the refreshing citrus flavor stand out, and keep the garnishes simple.
- Homemade whipped cream; in the pictured pie, I used Ateco 826 which is a large piping tip. I piped large swirls around the pie.
- Since you’ll have leftover egg whites, make a meringue topping like the one on this bourbon sweet potato pie—you’ll have time to kill while the pie chills anyway 🙂
- Quartered lime slices
- Lime zest
- Whole macadamia nuts
- Graham cracker crumbs
I’ve sampled many key lime pies and I can confidently say this is the best one I’ve ever had.
Refreshing Dessert Ideas
When the temperatures rise, the last thing you want to do is spend time in a hot kitchen. You’ll appreciate these simple, delicious, and totally refreshing desserts:
- Creamy Lemon Pie or Lemon Berry Trifle
- No-Bake Cheesecake
- Ice Cream Cake
- Peanut Butter Pie
- Dirt Pudding Dessert (so fun for kids!)
- Strawberry Shortcake
7-Ingredient Key Lime Pie
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 35 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 servings
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This tangy-sweet key lime pie is deliciously simple with an extra thick and nutty crust. You need just 3 ingredients for the filling, and be sure to refrigerate the pie for at least an hour before slicing and serving.
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Macadamia Crust
- 11 (about 160g) full-sheet graham crackers
- 1/2 cup (62g) salted macadamia nuts (I use roasted)
- 2 Tablespoons (25g) granulated sugar
- 5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, melted
Filling + Topping
- 28 ounces (two 14-ounce cans/793g) full-fat sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup (240ml) key lime juice
- 4 large egg yolks*
- 1 teaspoon key lime zest
- garnish: lime zest, quartered lime slices, macadamia nuts, whipped cream, or meringue topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Make the crust: Using a food processor, pulse the graham crackers and macadamia nuts together into coarse crumbs. A few larger pieces of nuts is OK. Pour into a medium bowl and stir in the sugar. Add the melted butter and stir until combined. The mixture will be thick, coarse, and sandy. Try to smash/break up any large chunks. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie dish. Use your hand to pat down the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides to make a crust. Use medium pressure—simply pat down until the mixture is no longer crumbly. Tips: You can use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help press down the bottom crust and smooth out the surface, but do not pack down too hard. And run a spoon around the bottom “corner” where the edge and bottom meet to help make a rounded crust—this helps prevent the crust from falling apart when you slice into the pie. For more shaping technique tips, see the graham cracker crust recipe page.
- Pre-bake crust for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave the oven on.
- Make the filling: Whisk the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and egg yolks together (or use an electric mixer). Whisk in the lime zest. Pour into warm crust.
- Bake the pie for 18–20 minutes or until only *slightly* jiggly in the center. You want it mostly set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Once cool, cover and chill for at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before serving.
- Garnish as desired.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can prepare and pre-bake the crust up to 2–3 days in advance. Cover and store at room temperature. Likewise, you can mix up the filling up to 2–3 days in advance. Cover and refrigerate, then assemble and bake. Baked and cooled pie freezes well up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor or Chopper | Glass Mixing Bowl | 9-inch Pie Dish | Citrus Zester | Citrus Juicer | Whisk
- Graham Cracker Crust: If you purchase graham cracker crumbs, you need 1 and 1/3 cups (160g) for this recipe. Even though they are already crumbs, you can still pulse with the nuts. If you want to skip the nuts, use this graham cracker crust recipe instead and pre-bake for 8 minutes.
- Can I Use Regular Limes Instead? Yes, you can make this pie with regular lime juice and lime zest.
- Store-bought Key Lime Juice: If you don’t want to juice dozens of small key limes to yield 1 cup (240ml) juice, store-bought key lime juice works too. I really like a brand called Nellie & Joe’s, and you can find it at the grocery store near the bottled lemon juice.
- Leftover Egg Whites: Here are all my recipes using just egg whites, or you can make a meringue topping for the pie.
- Key Lime Bars: Here is my recipe for key lime pie bars. I add some cream cheese to that filling so the bars hold their shape well.
- Non-US Readers: Don’t have graham crackers where you live? Use 180g ground digestive biscuits instead (about 12 biscuits), with the same amount of nuts and butter, and add an extra Tablespoon (12g) of sugar. Pre-bake for 10 minutes.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can I use 1 1/3c. of ginger snaps for the crust? If so, should I still use the same amount of sugar and nuts as written? Thanks!
Hi Andi, You can swap the graham crackers for an equal amount of ginger snaps. Or if you wish to make a full ginger snap crust (without the macadamia nuts) you can follow the recipe for the crust of this Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake.
I have just discovered your web page and glad I did!! I am 78 and it is never too late to learn. I will be making your sweet potato pie for Thanksgiving and I am going to try to make Pecan pie for my brother-in-law! I lost my sister 4 years ago and he has not had that pie since! I was so glad to see you use King Arthur flour that is all I use so good! so wish me luck and say a prayer will let you know how i did.
Happy baking, Susan! Let us know how they turn out.
I have made this pie multiple times and always get compliments, I even won a pie contest with it a couple year ago. I lov.e these ease of using the store bought key lime.
Great recipe! So easy to make, but tastes as good as (or better than) any key lime pie I’ve had at a restaurant. Was a huge hit!
Can I use store bought lime juice?
Hi Christina, absolutely! Enjoy.
Hi Sally, can I use this crust recipe with your key lime bar recipe? Thanks!
That should work fine!
Sally, do you stabilize your whipped cream? If so, what do you use?
Hi Patrick, we find the whipped cream holds its shape nicely as written. You can try stabilizing it with gelatin to ensure it lasts longer, sometimes we’ll use this method with gelatin if we need to stabilize it: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18041/stabilized-whipped-cream-icing/
Going to make this today! Do you make your own whipped cream?
Hi Paige, We used homemade whipped cream on the pictured pie. Enjoy!
Can you use a 9×12 pan for this recipe
Hi Tincy! We’re unsure of the results of baking this pie in that exact size pan. You may enjoy these key lime pie bars instead (baked in a 9×9).
My grocery store sells key limes and I wanted to test if it was worth the effort to use them. I did a test with three small pies. 1: using fresh squeezed key lime juice
2: bottled key lime juice
3: fresh squeezed regular lime juice
We had a dinner party with 7 people and I did not tell folks which was which. The unanimous favorite was using bottled key lime juice.
Hi! I made this a couple days ago, and the crust was delicious. The filling was SUPER tart (which to me isn’t a bad thing, but other people were taken aback haha). I used 240 ml of a bottle of Nellie and Joe’s key lime juice “from concentrate”, so I’m curious if there is a different Nellie and Joe’s bottle that you reference here and I was supposed to dilute the juice I used. Otherwise, fantastic pie!
Question, on your absolutely wonderful Key Lime Pie (yup, made it and LOVE) recipe it doesn’t call for cream cheese but on the mini it does…just curious, why cream cheese for the mini?
THANKS!
Hi Robynne! We typically add a little cream cheese to our key lime pie bars and mini key lime piesrecipes for stability and structure. However, for a classic and custard-y pie, we skip it here.
Delish I have made it several times,my wife’s fave ,I had to print it. Too many pop-ups for my ADD.
Can I use almonds instead of macadamia nuts?
Hi Sarah, Any other nut would be great like cashews, almonds, or pecans. Or you can use our plain graham cracker crust recipe.
This was the best key lime pie I have ever made. That crust is phenomenal and I think would be great with coconut cream and banana cream pie as well. Thank you for the recipe. So tender and flavorful and the filling is perfection.
Hey Sally! I love your recipes, was wondering if I don’t have macademia nuts, can i substitute the crust with the oreo crust from your peanut butter pie?
Hi Sanya, you could definitely try that! Or use our standard graham cracker crust.
should i use some lemon juice as well if i am using only regular limes?
Hi Madison, you can use regular limes without changing anything else in the recipe.
I’m in Canada and haven’t found any key lime juice. We also have limes in the grocery store but I don’t know if they are “key” limes. Can I use any lime juice?
Hi Betts, yes, regular lime juice works. Same amount. Enjoy!
I’m in Canada as well and, although I do try not to shop on Amazon, Nellie & Joe’s is available there.
Is it possible to make this without milk? I tried replacing the condensed milk with coconut cream and sugar and it was a disaster.
Hi Marina, sweetened condensed milk is a key ingredient in this key lime pie recipe, and we can’t recommend any substitutes. Sorry we can’t help more!
Hello. What should the height of the 9-inch pie dish be for a graham cracker crust?
Hi Allison, we recommend a 9-inch pie dish that’s about 1.5 inches high.
Hi! I’m looking to make key lime pie cupcakes. Do you think I could try to gently cook/thicken the filling on the stove and then use it to fill cupcakes? Sort of like a key lime curd or custard. Thanks!
Hi Sophia, we would recommend swapping the lemons for limes to make this lemon curd into a lime curd. You can use that to fill your cupcakes!
Awesome, thanks!
Hi, i tried making this and if i could get a relatively speedy response from anyone to help- that’d be great. 🙁
i made this recipe and the filling came out WAY too liquify. i hand squeezed key limes to make exactly a cup. and i used the exact measurements of egg yolks and condensed milk, zest- whisked it- and it’s still super liquidy. its a disaster. can i please get some help as to how to salvage this?
i already tried cornstarch and it did nothing, im a nursing student w/o a job doing baking for mental health/fun so stuff is expensive for me and would really love some help to try and salvage it!!
Hi. I just saw your message. It sounds like you did fine, if you followed the recipe. It did say to use two can of condensed milk. Did you use two?
It will be a little runny. Did your bake it? That’s when the eggs will help bind it. I hope it turned out nice you baked it.
Hi. I just saw your message. It sounds like you did fine, if you followed the recipe. It did say to use two can of condensed milk. Did you use two?
It will be a little runny prior to baking. Did your bake it? That’s when the eggs will help bind it. I hope it turned out nice once you baked it.
I love macadamia nuts in the pie crust; they make the pie taste nutty. But I find the filling a little bit too sweet for me. Can I reduce the condensed milk to 1 can and substitute more egg yolk and regular milk in the recipe?
Hi Nat! You can certainly try changes, but the results will vary. They may not set with less sweetened condensed milk. Let us know what you try!
How do you pipe the homemade whipped cream to look like your photos?
Hi Morgan, in the pictured pie, I used Ateco 826 which is a large piping tip. I piped large swirls around the pie.
Can I substitute pistachio nuts for macadamia nuts?
Hi Lori, key lime and pistachio would be excellent together– you can definitely replace the macadamias in the crust with pistachios!
Tasty pie.
I have also made it with lemon juice (it’s slightly less tart) and also comes out perfectly. Another crust variation is Biscoff (Speculoos) cookies (one 35.2 oz. pkg. ground, 5 T melted butter, no sugar needed). Save a couple of tablespoons of the mixture to sprinkle over the top after baking – that way you can cover in plastic wrap without the filling sticking to the plastic.
Sally, no matter how many times I have bake this pie, I cannot get the graham cracker crumbs to stay together. This time I added a whole stick of butter and still had problems. I am using boxed graham cracker crumbs that are very fine. I have trouble getting the pie out of the pan because the sides crumble. Can you give me some help? Thank you, Linda
Hi Linda, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Have you tried using full graham crackers and grinding them in a food processor? I wonder if the storebought crumbs being so fine could be the culprit here.
Use a springform pan or tart pan. I hate trying to get a graham cracker crust into a regular pie pan!
I’m planning to take this for a birthday later today. If I put the whip cream on around 4 and left it refrigerated, how long do you think the whip cream would hold?
I use one packet of “whip it” stabilizer per cup of cream. It doesn’t change taste, but your cream will stay pretty for days! Most large stores have it in baking aisle or Amazon has it.
For this pie, is it all right if the crust is still warm? If I cool it, how long will I need to cool it for?
Hi Allison, yes, the pie crust can still be warm when you pour in the filling. Or, you can prepare and pre-bake the crust up to 2–3 days in advance. Cover and store at room temperature.
This sounds similar to a taste of home recipe for key lime pie that I’ve made at least 10 times and is a crowd pleaser. That’s a no bake filling with cream cheese but similar crust. I will have to try this one!
I’ve made the key lime pie and it was a huge hit. So easy followed the recipe as stated and everything worked perfectly. Sally is there a way to make the filling without the crust?
Hi Stephanie, we’re so glad it was a hit! We haven’t tested this pie without a crust, but you might enjoy these upside down key lime pies instead.
I’ve poured extra filling into a ramkin sprayed with a bit of cooking spray–no crust–and it baked fine. Just a little less than the pie.