I had planned on doing one more post about my son’s nursery this morning, but after making these key lime pies in a jar over the weekend I felt utterly responsible for sharing the recipe as the crowd they were served to said they were the best things they had ever tasted. Okay I made that part up, but I am pretty sure they were very thoroughly enjoyed. Besides what’s a Monday without a dessert-in-a-jar recipe?
I have toyed around with key lime recipes over the years but have never been truly satisfied with my creations. Store-bought always tasted better. I do not claim to be a mastermind baker, so that could be part of the problem, but the stuff I made was never lime-tasting enough for my liking. I remember making key lime squares once and my husband asked me (immediately after he scarfed one down) what they were supposed to be. I mean, really?
After a few adaptations to some of the (many) key lime pie recipes out there on the web, I think I finally came up with something that satisfies my taste buds. Hopefully it will satisfy yours as well.
The 8oz Ball jars I ended up using can be purchased at your local Target or Walmart. I debated between the 4oz and 8oz jars for a minute, but then decided that 4 ounces isn’t quite enough dessert AND who doesn’t want extra room for whipped cream?
MINI KEY LIME PIES IN A JAR (serves 8)
CRUST ~
- 2 cups crushed graham crackers
- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 5 tablespoons melted butter
FILLING ~
- 2 – 14 oz cans sweetened condensed milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- 1.25 cups lime juice (bottled or squeezed)
I had intended to fresh-squeeze enough limes to make the entire 1.25 cups of lime juice, however after squeezing 8 key limes I gave up and used regular bottled lime juice for the remainder … maybe that’s the secret!
DIRECTIONS ~
- Preheat oven to 350 F and place jars in baking dish or on baking sheet.
- Add crushed graham cracker crumbs and sugar to bowl and stir with fork.
- Add melted butter to graham cracker/sugar mixture and stir with fork until combined.
- Divide graham cracker mixture among jars and press gently into bottom of jars.
- Add sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, lime zest and lime juice to bowl and whisk until combined.
- Divide filling mixture among jars evenly.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until filling is set.
- Cool at room temperature for 45 minutes, then cover with lids or foil and refrigerate for a few hours.
- Before serving, top with whipped cream. Garnish with more lime zest and a lime wedge to make it really pretty! You’ll see in the pictures I failed to do that – I had the best intentions though.
L Claire Designs 