Making pies can be such a daunting task. First you have to make the crust, then you have to make the filling.. then depending on what kind of pie you’re making, you have to either make some sort of a meringue or a pie crust lattice and make sure that looks nice and pretty. Every step requires much diligence to make sure the entire pie turns out nice and presentable in the end.
Talk about pressure – if the whole pie doesn’t turn out to be as photogenic as you imagined it to be, you’re either left with nothing to show for, or you’ll just have to try to capture the best angle of your pie.
For those reasons, I haven’t been brave enough to tackle a pie yet – maybe I can try to check that off of my to-do list this summer during my break from school.
On the other hand, cookies, bars, cupcakes, truffles are much easier to make. If some don’t turn out as pretty as you hoped, at least you still got a bunch more to choose from to be part of your picture.
That being said, I opted for some easy key lime pie bars instead of making a whole pie. When you think of summer, you think of key lime pies – they’re light, tart, tangy, and sweet all at the same time.
Waiting for these babies to cool in the fridge was probably the most difficult part, but the end result was totally worth the wait!
- 2 cups finely crushed gingersnap crumbs
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
- 4 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup key lime juice
- 2 teaspoons lime zest, plus more for garnishing
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x9" cake pan with foil, leaving some overhanging on the sides and spray with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Using a food processor, pulverize the gingersnap cookies into fine crumbs.
- Pour crumbs into a medium bowl, combine with melted butter.
- Press firming into cake pan. Make sure the crumbs are evenly distributed throughout. Bake for 10 minutes.
- Using a handheld mixer (I was lazy and used an electric stand mixer), beat cream cheese on high until smooth. Slowly incorporate the egg yolks. Beat in the sweetened condensed milk, key lime juice, and lime zest. Mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour into pan with warm crust.
- Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until the edges just begin to brown slightly.
- Remove from oven, garnish with additional lime zest if desired. Let the bars cool in the pan on a wired rack, then transfer them to the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or until completely chilled.
- Once chilled, remove the bars from pan with the overhanging foil and cut into squares.
I brought this to work last weekend for a pot luck and received plenty of rave reviews. Everyone loved it, except for the hubs, who is a wimp when it comes to anything tart… he had an expression as if I made him eat a whole bag of Sour Patch Kids at once (I would’ve taken a picture of his facial expression if he would’ve let me). Trust me, these bars are delicious and are just perfect for summer! Plus it only requires a few ingredients and little baking time!
Enjoy!
Recipe adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction
