With Bill Dixon
Sweet Afton's Key Lime Pie
INGREDIENTS
For The Ginger Snap Crust:
2 one pound bags Murry's Old
Fashion Ginger Snap Cookies
2 1/2 Sticks Butter (Melted)
For The Filling:
1 16 ounce Bottle Nellie & Joe's
Key Lime Juice
1 Dozen Grade A Large Brown Eggs
4 Cans Eagle Brand Sweetened
Condensed Milk
1 Large Persian Lime (Zest Only)
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Reconsituted Lemon
Juice or Juice Squeezed from 1/2
Fresh Lemon
DIRECTIONS
Prepare the crust:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
In a sauce pan, melt the 2 1/2 sticks of butter.
Place the ginger snap cookies into a robo coup (food processer), and grind
into fine crumbs.
In a mixing bowl, thourghly mix together the ginger snap crumbs with the melted
butter. I use a "Pastry Blender", (which is a kitchen hand tool, often with a wooden handle, that has about a half dozen U-shape wires attached), to blend the melted butter evenly into the crumbs.
Evenly distribute equal portions of the crumb-crust mixture into each of three 10
inch pie plates. For an authentic "Sweet Afton's Key Lime Pie", use three, ten inch,
non-stick, flutted, loose bottom, French Tart pans with one inch high sides.
Spread the ginger crumb mixture evenly accross the bottom of each pan, carefully
sculpturing the sides as you go. The sides should be a little over 1/8 inch thick. I use
a rounded top biscuit cutter turned upside down to smooth and level the crust, and
to firmly form the transition of the crust bottom to the sidewall.
Bake each crust for exactly ten minutes, in 350 degree oven.
Remove pans with baked crust to a wire rack and allow to fully cool.
For The Key Lime Filling:
In a mixing bowl, add the yolks only, of nine eggs, reserve the white of the ninth egg,
and discard the whites of the other eight. Add the sweetened condensed milk from
three of the cans. Blend well with the eggs using an electric mixer. Next blend in,
slowly, with the electric mixer, 1 1/2 cup of the Key Lime juice.
Once the egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk, and Key Lime juice mixture is
thoroughly blended together, laddle eqal amounts into each of the three fully cooled
ginger snap crusts which are remaining in the pie/tart pans.
Evenly spread the filling over the crust with a rubber spatula, taking care not to crumble the sides of the crust.
Next add the yolks of the three remaining eggs to the mixing bowl, reserving the
whites, and adding the whites to the one which was reserved from the ninth egg.
Add the cotents from the remaining can of sweetened condensed milk, to the last
three egg yolks and blend together well with the electric mixer as before. Now blend
in the remaing Key Lime juice from the 16 ounce bottle, and the tablespoon of
lemon juice, or the juice from 1/2 fresh squeezed lemon. Mix together well, as
before. In a seperate mixing bowl, add the four reserved egg whites, and beat
together on high speed, with the electric mixer, until stiff peaks are formed. Add the 3 tablespoons of sugar, and beat into the stiff peaked egg whites.
Now add the zest from the Persian lime, and blend into the stiff peaked egg whites. ( Zest is the grated peel of the lime).
Now gently, and thoroughly fold (by hand using the rubber spatula), the stiffed
peaked egg whites with the sugar and lime zest, into the other mixing bowl
containing the mixture you have made from the final three eggs, sweetened
condensed milk, and Key Lime juice. Take care not to over stir and blend, because you want this part of thefilling to be as fluffy as possible.
Now equally distribute the fluffy filling across the top of the filling already in the
three pie shells. Bake the now completely filled pies, at 350 degrees for 17 minutes.
Remove the baked pies to a baking rack to cool, taking care not to push up on the
bottom of the loose bottom tart pans, if used. After the pies have cooled for an hour,
they can be lifted out of the flutted tart pan ring by pushing up on the loose bottom
of the pan. Carefull slide the pie off the loose pan bottom onto an 11 inch carboard
round. I demonstrate how this is done in the video. Each pie will yield 8 normal size
slices. Top the slices with extra creamy whipped cream, and garnish with a thin slice
of lime. Enjoy the Best Key Lime Pie Ever!