Just as Florida wouldn’t be the Sunshine State without the sunshine, the Florida Keys wouldn’t be complete without Key Lime Pie. I’m not sure if that analogy made any sense at all, but I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. If you ever travel to the Keys, you have got to try this dish! It’s no surprise that you can find Key Lime Pie on every corner there. This sweet and sour pie is wonderfully light and absolutely comes together with Florida’s hot weather. When I got home from my last trip to Florida I decided to create my own recipe, so here it is. No matter if you decide to make this pie for Mother’s Day or any other celebration – it’s going to be a huge hit. And nobody will ever know how healthy the pie is with its rather strange ingredients 😉 In any case, it’s really important to keep the pie refrigerated or cooled until serving.
Moving on to a few words about the ingredients of my recipe which I adapted from the original.
Typical Key Lime Pie recipes ask for sweetened condensed milk, many eggs and butter. All of which you can replace with more nourishing ingredients without compromising on taste. Also: This cake doesn’t have to be baked, which saves time and energy. Another advantage of this raw dish is that all the nutrients aren’t “burned” in the oven already.
Coconut butter isn’t essential for this recipe, I’d highly recommend it though. Not only because the crust tastes even better with it but also because it helps the crust to keep together really well after cooling. You can find coconut butter everywhere by now and it’s so versatile. If you need some inspiration on how to use it, check out my Raffaello recipe or the one for these delicious two ingredient white chocolates. If you want to make this carrot cake, you’ll need it for the frosting just as for the Christmas cookies. As you can see, there are many ways to use coconut butter. If you still aren’t convinced, you could try substituting it with coconut oil. I haven’t tried that yet, but I can image that it’ll work fine.
And then there’s the coconut milk or rather cream or rather wannabe whipped cream in my case today. Note to self: Never change a running system when it comes to whipping up coconut cream. For years I’ve been using the same two brands of coconut milk from the Asian- or grocery store to whip and end up with whipped coconut cream just as if it was regular dairy whipped cream without ever having any problems with it. Today I’ve tried it with a brand I haven’t used before (a store brand by a drugstore here in Germany) and guess what happened. Right, it didn’t work at all – and that happening on the day of the photo shooting (of the pie). Anyhow, that’s basically why the pie doesn’t look as smooth as it should on the picture. I can only recommend German brands for coconut milk you can whip up without a doubt (“Exotic Food” & “Aroy-D”) and therefore would recommend you to do some research for your country.
This Key Lime Pie is very refreshing and therefore perfect for a summer treat. This recipe makes a sweet and sour pie that is very light and takes you to the Florida Keys in no time.
- 2 tbsp coconut butter (20 g)
- 200 g almond slivers (200 g)
- 170 g dates about 7-8 Medjool dates
- 60 g (unsweetened) shredded coconut (60 g)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder (or vanilla pulp)
- 1 dash of salt
- 2 very ripe avocados
- 170 ml freshly squeezed lime juice from about 8-9 limes (170 ml)
- 80 ml maple syrup (80 ml)
- 1-2 tbsp coconut flour (or: ground almonds/ almond flour)
- 2 cans coconut milk (see notes)
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Melt coconut butter (if not liquid already) in a simple double boiler.
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Add almonds to a food processor together with pitted dates and shredded coconut and process for a minute or so.
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Add melted coconut butter, vanilla and salt. Process once more until the mixture is sticky and crumbly.
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Press crust into pie dish (e.g. spring form) and refrigerate.
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Add avocado pulp, lime juice and maple syrup to food processor and mix until smooth. If it ends up being too runny, add 1-2 tbsp coconut flour and mix once again. (You could also do this with a hand mixer.)
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Open coconut cans carefully (without shaking them too much) and spoon out the cream that has accumulated at the top into a bowl. Whisk with a hand mixer until stiff and thick (and thereby resembles regular whipped cream).
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Add avocado mixture to the coconut cream and fold in (with hand mixer) until well incorporated without over mixing. Pour filling into pie crust.
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Place pie in the freezer for about 2 hours and transfer to the fridge for another hour before serving.
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Keep the pie refrigerated at all times and take it out of the fridge right before serving.
- For the crust I recommend using the queen of dates: Medjool. It's very sweet and juicy. However, the recipe works just as fine with any other kind of dates. You may need to soak them in warm water beforehand though.
- Chill coconut milk cans in the fridge overnight or at least for a few hours before whipping the cream that has collected at the top.
