Recipe: Sky high, plant-based key lime pie
This bonus post is a recipe I tested 17 times, because the key lime pie gods are always watching
Pale Blue Tart comes to you weekly, except in cases of over-caffeination such as this one. When I create a paid subscription option later this summer, I’ll channel my excess dessert energy there. But for now, expect the occasional bonus post.
Growing up in Florida, key lime pie is religion. You find it in the bakery section at Publix, stacked in neat plastic clamshells. You find it at school picnics, on most self-respecting restaurant menus, and at riverside cookouts along the Ichetucknee. It’s a pie that tolerates no false idols, so it must do two things to be successful: Its citrusy coolness should make you temporarily forget it’s a billion degrees out and as humid as the inside of an alligator. And it’s gotta wobble.
This dutifully wobbly key lime pie is a project bake requiring a few parts, but each part is eminently doable. I typically make the tart and pie filling the day before I want to serve it, so it can chill overnight. Then I make the optional aquafaba (bean water!) meringue the day of. Both the filling and the meringue call for agar agar, a gelatin alternative that’s become a key ingredient in my plant-based baking pantry. In trials for this pie (17 of them!) I found agar agar outperformed other thickeners like cornstarch, creating a smooth filling your fork slides through like an oar through water. For a simpler pie, the meringue can be skipped entirely or replaced with coconut whipped cream.
This is the first of three recipes that follows my post on reimagining pie for the climate era, which you can read here.
Ingredients
Plant-based graham cracker crust
Adapted from Kelly Field’s The Good Book of Southern Baking
260g (2 cups, or 18 crackers) plant-based graham cracker crumbs, like Nabisco
3 tablespoons sugar (you can buy vegan sugar if you’re so inclined)
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
110g (½ cup) oil, like melted coconut or canola
Filling
200g silken tofu, blended smooth
400g (1 14-oz can) coconut cream (not coconut milk!)
90g sugar
½ teaspoon agar agar
¼ teaspoon salt
80g lime juice (⅓ cup, from ~3 limes)
Zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon vanilla
(Optional) aquafaba meringue
This is a genius recipe from The Hidden Veggies. I’ve tweaked it slightly by adjusting the sugar syrup method and adding almond extract, a flavor I love with key lime pie. It makes a lot of meringue, so get a spatula and your wrist motions ready: the ‘sky high’ part is all in how you swoop it.
125g aquafaba (½ cup, or the liquid that drains off one 15-oz can of chickpeas)
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
100g (½ cup) water
¾ teaspoon agar agar
150g (¾ cup) sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Prepare the crust: Make graham cracker crumbs by blitzing the crackers in a food processor (or if all else fails, use a ziploc bag, a rolling pin, and your pent-up rage). Then combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Press the mixture evenly into the bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie pan. Bake the pie shell for 8-10 minutes, or until it’s dry.
Then prepare the filling: In a Nutribullet or food processor, blend the silken tofu until it’s perfectly smooth. In a medium saucepan, combine the blended tofu, coconut cream, salt, sugar, and agar agar. Whisk until all the ingredients—especially the agar agar—are well combined. Then heat the mixture over high, whisking here and there, until it comes to a boil. Set a timer and boil for three minutes, which is how long it takes to activate the agar agar. You can reduce the heat as needed to prevent overly aggressive bubbling. Then remove the saucepan from the heat to let it cool slightly while you do the next step. First zest a lime, then juice the limes, and then add those and the vanilla to the saucepan. Whisk to combine. Pour the warm filling into the prepared pie crust. (You don’t want to wait too long, because agar agar sets as it comes to room temperature.) Refrigerate the pie for eight hours or preferably overnight, until the filling is completely set. It will wobble just a little if you give it a shake.
Optionally, once the pie is chilled, prepare the meringue: In a large mixing bowl, combine the aquafaba and cream of tartar, and mix with a hand-mixer or in a stand mixer until stiff peaks form. Add the vanilla and almond extract and mix again until stiff peaks re-form. Set the meringue aside.
Prepare the sugar syrup for the meringue: In a small saucepan, combine water, agar agar, and sugar. Mix until no lumps remain. Heat the mixture over high until the sugar has fully dissolved, then bring to a boil and boil for three minutes. Using an oven mitt to pick up the hot pan, gently pour the syrup in a steady stream into the meringue while the mixer runs on low. Do not splash yourself. I simply cannot afford to be sued. Once the syrup is completely incorporated into the meringue, raise the mixer speed to high and mix until the meringue is glossy and stiff peaks re-form.
Working quickly before the meringue sets (you have a couple minutes) swoop it onto the prepared pie with a spatula, lifting it up to make Grinchy mountain peaks. Top with lime zest or sliced limes.
If you try this recipe, I want to know what you think: If you were, say, the mustache-twirling inventor of sweetened condensed milk, would this plant-based key lime pie pass muster?