No.94 The 100 Most Popular Recipes Ever · October 2026

Key Lime Pie

Made famous by Jo Ann Bass and Richard Sax

Photo: Marc Averette, CC BY-SA 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons

From Eat at Joe's: The Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant Cookbook, 1993.

Florida's official state pie, and Joe's Stone Crab in Miami Beach serves the most famous slice of it.

Written in our own words and tested in a home kitchen. Get the original in Eat at Joe's: The Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant Cookbook.

Ingredients

• For the crust: 1 1/4 cups (150 g) graham cracker crumbs (about 10 crackers)
• 1/3 cup (65 g) sugar
• 5 tbsp (70 g) unsalted butter, melted
• For the filling: 3 large egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tsp grated lime zest
• 1 can (14 oz / 397 g) sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup (160 ml) fresh Key lime juice (or regular limes)
• For the topping: 1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream, whipped with 3 tbsp confectioners' sugar

Steps

1. Heat the oven to 350F (175C). Mix the crumbs, sugar and butter and press firmly into a 9-inch pie plate, up the sides.
2. Bake the crust 8 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool on a rack.
3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and lime zest with an electric mixer until very fluffy, about 5 minutes.
4. Beat in the condensed milk and keep beating 3 to 4 minutes, until thick. Lower the speed and add the lime juice, mixing just until combined.
5. Pour into the crust and bake 10 minutes, until the filling has just set.
6. Cool on a rack, then refrigerate at least 3 hours, or overnight.
7. Serve cold, topped with the whipped cream.

Chef's tips

• Key limes are small and tart; you'll need about 20. Bottled Key lime juice works in a pinch.
• Freeze the pie 15 to 20 minutes before slicing for clean cuts.

This is Chef Amazing's write-up of the dish, tested for a home kitchen. The original is in Eat at Joe's: The Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant Cookbook by Jo Ann Bass and Richard Sax: get the book.

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