Rich, creamy, and only slightly sweetened, these key lime pie bars are perfectly tart, enough to make your mouth pucker just thinking about them. Fans of my lemon bars will love these tart treats (and perhaps even more they’ll love how easy these bars are to make in comparison).
Served on a crumbly, perfectly sweetened graham cracker crust, today’s recipe is obviously inspired by my key lime pie, but look closely at the ingredients (which I highlight below) and you’ll see that there are some noteworthy differences.
What You Need
Sweetened Condensed Milk. This is the base of our pie filling and serves as our sweetener. Do not substitute evaporated milk (this seems to be a common mistake, please note they are not the same thing and your bars will not only taste right but they won’t set properly if you use evaporated milk). Sour cream. To make this recipe easy (and, incidentally, egg free), I ultimately ended up swapping out the the 6 egg yolks that I used in my pie recipe with sour cream (I can’t help wanting to change things up from recipe to recipe!). The results are rich and creamy and a bit more tart/sour than my classic pie, but every bit as good!Key limes. Key limes are tiny (ping-pong-ball-sized) limes that may be either green or yellow (or a spotty combo of the two colors) that have a flavor that’s distinct from their more common grocery store counterparts (which are typically Persian limes). While I recommend using fresh key limes if you can find them, unfortunately I have always had a lot of trouble finding these in any grocery stores within 20 miles of me. If you can’t find key limes, don’t use “regular” limes, instead find yourself a bottle of key lime juice! Nellie & Joe’s brand is what I use, it’s typically sold near the lemon juice and I included a photo above.
SAM’S TIP: Here’s a hand-saving tip if you’re able to find fresh key limes: Use a garlic press!. Halve your limes, place them in the press (rind-side up) and then squeeze the juices into a measuring cup. So much easier than hand-squeezing! Then of course you’ll also need graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter to make your graham cracker crust. Salted or unsalted butter will work equally well in the crust. I like to use a Tablespoon of brown sugar to help enhance the flavor of the crust, but if you don’t have any you can use all granulated sugar. While it’s not strictly necessary, I highly recommend topping your bars with dollops of homemade whipped cream before serving. It adds a light, sweet, contrast to the otherwise tart bars!
How to Make Key Lime Pie Bars
SAM’S TIP: Lining the pan with foil isn’t absolutely necessary, but it does make it much easier to remove the key lime pie bars from the pan after baking. Make sure you use a long enough piece of foil that it hangs over two of the sides of the pan (creating a sort of sling). After baking and completely cooling the bars, use the excess foil to carefully lift them out of the pan, then easily cut and serve on your counter. Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Related Recipes
This recipe was originally published June of 2017. The recipe remains the same, but I have updated the text to be more informative and have updated some of the photos and added a video.
