This Key Lime Pie has everything a great citrus dessert needs: a buttery graham-and-vanilla-wafer crust, a silky condensed-milk filling, plenty of fresh lime flavor, and clouds of stabilized vanilla whipped cream.
Using both graham crackers and Nilla Wafers makes the crust especially good—the graham crackers provide their familiar toasted flavor while the vanilla wafers add sweetness and a subtle buttery vanilla note. The filling stays luxuriously creamy thanks to sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, heavy cream, and egg yolks.
After a short bake and several hours of chilling, it slices into a cool, smooth pie that's sweet, tart, and especially good for warm-weather gatherings.
Ingredients
For the Graham-Vanilla Wafer Crust
- 1 cup (about 100g) graham cracker crumbs
- 1 cup (about 100g) Nilla Wafer crumbs
- ½ cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons (113g) unsalted butter, melted
For the Key Lime Filling
- 1 cup (240ml) Key lime juice, preferably freshly squeezed
- 2 cans (14 ounces each/28 ounces total) sweetened condensed milk
- ⅓ cup (80ml) heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup (120g) full-fat sour cream
- 1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract - 3 large egg yolks
For the Stabilized Vanilla Whipped Cream
The original whipped cream quantity is enough for approximately two pies, so this half-batch is plenty for one generously decorated pie:
- 1 cup (240ml) cold heavy whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons (22g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon instant vanilla pudding mix
Optional Garnish
- Fresh Key lime or regular lime slices
- Finely grated lime zest
- Graham cracker crumbs
- Nilla Wafer crumbs