Oh So Creamy And Fluffy Key Lime Pie

Total Time: 4 hrs 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 4 hrs

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 5 egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1.5 (21 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
• 2/3 cup key lime juice (ex ( nellie & joe famous key west key lime juice)
• sweetened whipped cream (to garnish) or cool whip (to garnish)

Recipe

• 1 crust:.
• 2 preheat oven to 350.
• 3 combine all the ingredients and then press onto the bottom and up the sides of a 9" glass pie plate.
• 4 bake for 8 minutes or until golden.
• 5 remove from oven and let cool completely.
• 6 turn the oven down to 300.
• 7 *~or use a store bought deep dish graham cracker crust~*.
• 8 filling:.
• 9 meanwhile, whisk cream cheese, condensed milk, egg yolks and lime juice to combine.
• 10 in a seperate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks begin to form. (when you lift up the beaters, the peaks should hold and still look glossy).
• 11 fold into the cream cheese/lime mixture until just combined. don't over mix - this is what gives the pie it's fluffy texture.
• 12 pour into the cooled pie crust and bake for 25 minutes or until set. pie will be solid with just a little wiggle in the middle when moved.
• 13 remove from oven. cool and refridgerate until firm, at least 4 hours.
• 14 to serve:
• 15 garnish with whipped cream or cool whip and a little key lime sauce from debloves2cook key lime sauce.
• 16 gf variation:
• 17 mix 1 1/2 cups crushed gluten free chocolate chex and 5 tablespoons melted butter for the crust (don't need to add any extra sugar because the chex is already sweetened.)
• 18 continue with directions above.