Earlier this month Chad mentioned that he wanted key lime pie. And if you say something like that around me, you are going to get a key lime pie. Especially if you keep repeating it and staring at me. And following me around. So yeah, he got a key lime pie, or something like that. I don’t know where to find key limes right now, and those are too hard to zest anyway. Regular old limes worked just beautifully.
You can see that I used a store bought crust here, but when I am experimenting with a new recipe that has temperamental ingredients like agar, I don’t want to waste my precious energy on making a crust. Don’t judge me. Luckily, it worked out with the first shot. If it hadn’t I was planning on pieing someone with it. In any case, a graham cracker crust would be great choice, too.
The texture resembles a creamy panna cotta. There’s no tofu here, it’s a coconut milk base but the coconut flavor wasn’t strong enough to warrant a title change. The flavor is pucker your lips tangy, and will definitely satisfy the lime lover in your life. Remember to zest your limes before squeezing out the juice. It took me 8 small limes to get the right amount of everything, your mileage my vary.
Latchkey Lime Pie
Makes one 9 or 10 inch pie
1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest
2/3 cups fresh lime juice
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk, at room temperature
2 tablespoons agar flakes (or two teaspoons agar powder and skip the soaking step)
1 16 oz can coconut milk at room temperature
2 tablespoons tapioca flour (or try it with corn starch or arowroot – but I like tapioca best)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 9 inch prepared pie crust
In a small sauce pan, soak the agar in almond milk for about 15 minutes. Bake your pie crust for 8 to 10 minuties, then remove from oven to cool.
In the meantime, mix together coconut milk, tapioca, sugar and vanilla. It’s really important that your coconut milk is at room temperature so that it doesn’t affect the agar when you add it to the pot.
After soaking agar, turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Keep a close eye so that it doesn’t boil over. Immediately reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, until agar is dissolved. If using powdered it will only take about 5 minutes to dissolve.
Once dissolved (you can check by dipping in a tablespoon and seeing if there are any agar flakes left), very slowly whisk in the coconut mixture and then the lime juice and zest. Adding it too fast will make the agar gel up, which you don’t want it to do just yet. Once added, whisk often for about 10 minutes, until mixture has thickened. If it isn’t thickening, turn the heat up just a bit, but you don’t want it to boil.
Pour into pie shell and let cool on the counter for about half an hour, just so that it isn’t steaming like mad. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours, until fully set. Garnish with lime slices. Serve with some vegan whipped cream, store bought or do the coconut whipped cream thing. (scroll down)
I’d like to make this for a friend, but she doesn’t eat cane sugar. Could you use maple syrup to substitute? I’m worried about the pie setting correctly…
You might have a shot with half the amount of agave syrup.
For those that can’t find key limes (or don’t want to juice them), the brand Nelly and Joes is great. I used to use it for regular key lime pies and tried it with this one too. Was delish.
After a two hour hunt for agar, I decided that this keylime pie would have to be made without it. it was delicious!! The flavoring was just perfect – a bit on the liquidy side due to the lack of agar, but it was delicious as it was nonetheless. I made this with the grahamn cracker crust recipe from the pumpkin cheese cake and despite numerous attempts at displaying some sort of will power, I was unable to stop myself from eating the crust and the keylime filling while it was still warm. Luckily there was still enough for a cold batch of keylime cupcakes, but just barely. Isa, thank you for sharing this recipe! Half of my cookbook shelf is filled with your cookbooks, but I think this recipe has just convinced me that I also need to get pie in the sky.
This was great! Will definetly make it again. I used a walnut/oatmeal crust and it turned out great. Thanks for sharing. I have dairy, soy, and egg allergies in my house, so this was great to find!
janae, I am also allergic to Cane sugar. I buy organic beet sugar from Hain. You can get it from http://www.iherb.com online. I also use agave without too much trouble in some recipes as well.
I’m glad someone mentioned Nellie & Joe’s key lime juice. A must for making this pie! I live in the south where we do get key limes in the regular grocery stores, but I still skip juicing all those tiny limes and always use Nellie & Joe’s. Key limes have a much nicer taste than big limes, so I would recommend getting the juice instead of using regular limes. I often find it in the baking aisle with the pie fillings.
And THANK YOU so much for this recipe! Key lime pie is my absolute favorite and I’m so glad that since going vegan at home (in the south!!) I can still make this delicacy. I mean, I really really adore this pie. I’ve seen recipes with tofu cream cheese, but no thanks. Real key lime pie certainly doesn’t have cream cheese. I knew there had to be a way to substitute coconut milk for condensed milk. 😀
I am sad to say I have made this twice now and the texture is unbearable, like stiff Jell-O. Any tips for what I might be doing wrong?
I have made MANY of your recipes and they are all fantastic! But this one is super special & has to be one of the best desserts ever (vegan or non- vegan). I usually can’t help tinkering with recipes to make them a bit more my own – but – with this one I follow your instructions exactly and it is just perfect. Ok – tonight when I made it I did add a little twist. I sprinkled some raspberries on the bottom before pouring the filling into the crust – they floated throughout & made it so very pretty & fancy!
My non vegan boyfriend loves Key lime pie so I surprised him with this! The texture was spot on perfect and it held together with no problem. He loved it, thanks so much Isa!
Key lime pie! One of those things on my to do list, thanks.
Great flavor. You can’t taste the coconut, just the tart lime. This will be my go-to key lime pie recipe! Working with the agar powder was easier than the flakes. I sweetened to taste, adding a little more sugar because that’s how I like it. Like others mentioned, don’t worry if it is very liquidy when you first pour it in. Because the agar works as a gelatin it will firm up fine.
Can you use light coconut milk, or does it have to be the full fat kind?
Joy: I’ve used both, either works for me
I get his post is super old so I hope someone sees it. I ,are this and I’m trying to figure out what I did wrong. The pie has cooled and instead of creamy it’s really firm. It’s tastes fine but has a horrible consistency
This looks delicious
Does it improve our production ofcolageno hidrolisado
Hi Jennifer! I’ve made this recipe COUNTLESS times! (I’m Floridian) So you may have cooked all if it a little too long at the last step. Or you might not have used the 16 oz of coconut milk (my cans are only 13.5 oz from Trader Joes). Did you use Tapioca Starch or Corn Starch? Corn tends to make it thicker than Tapioca, I’ve found…
Let me just say —- WOW! This was the perfect summer treat. I have been an on again off again vegetarian (sometime vegan) for the past twenty years. I’m back to being a vegetarian for now, but don’t do any dairy. When I came across this recipe, I thought the consistency would be liquidy and not creamy like regular dairy filled key lime pie. BOY, was I so wrong. This was amazingness + perfection. I tweaked a few things. I halved the recipe because I didn’t want to eat a whole pie (which I am fully capable of doing and I have no shame about that – just not today). I then crushed up some graham crackers added some melted soy free Earth Balance spread and then pressed the mixture in a muffin tin with paper liners. I baked the crust for about 5 minutes so that the crust would be solid by the time I added the filling. Will be making this for the rest of my days. Thank you for sweet goodness!