Crustless Lime Pie

It's been a while since I've had time in my kitchen!  I presented some research at a conference last week for work.  SUCH a good conference, and you can't always say that.  Not only do the people who regularly attend it 'get me', but the sessions are really applicable and I take away a brain-melting amount of new ideas.

It doesn't hurt that it's on Jekyll Island, Georgia.

The conference always coincides with my wedding anniversary, so last year I took my husband and we celebrated together on a work/vacation trip.  It was so wonderful we decided to bring our two oldest boys with this year.  Neither had been on a plane, and neither had seen the ocean.  

 It. Was. Awesome.  Such a fabulous trip.  They embraced the history of Savannah, where we spent a day before heading to the island.  

 They loved the trees, the turtles, the birds and the lizards.  They took to the ocean like they were born for it, and both have mild sunburns to prove it.  We also filled them up with all kinds of Southern foods.  Shrimp.  Grits.  Fried okra.  Fried green tomatoes.  Pralines.  Blackened catfish.  Barbeque. 

 
And while they weren't in love with any fried vegetables (more for us!), our guy Izaak ordered key lime pie at every opportunity.  I, too, enjoyed a bit of pie at each visit because he would eat the top, but not the graham cracker crust.   

The first thing I wanted to make when we got home, to memorialize our trip, was a lime pie.  Sans crust.  Not a pudding, but a pie without the bottom.  Since the graham cracker adds something yummy to key lime pie, I went with a crumble approach.  This is what I came up with.
 

Oh my, it is good!  Refreshing.  Creamy.  Sweet, but the graham cracker gives it just a bit of buttery goodness that cuts some of the citrus.  You must try it!

I had some limes in my fridge, but they weren't key limes.  I ran with it anyway, squeezing the heck out of them until I ended up with a half cup of lime juice.

 
Since lime zest is so pretty, I scrubbed off about 2 tablespoons and used that, too.
 

Like many of the best desserts, this one contains sweetened condensed milk.  I could eat that stuff from the can.  I certainly always lick off the lid.  I know, that's gross.  I'm ok with that.

Though lime juice is green, it's pretty faint.

I wanted mine to look lime-ish, so I added a bit of green gel dye after I heated the mixture to 160 (it has eggs, and I am so uncool with raw eggs.....)  Even though it looks like just a teensy smidge of gel dye on a plastic baby spoon, it turned out quite a bit more fluorescent than I anticipated.  Go easy on that stuff!

While the pie mixture was cooling, I whipped some heavy cream and powdered sugar to deliciousness.  I started just spooning the pie mixture into glasses, but I kept getting it on the sides of the glass.  My OCD was disturbed by that, so I tried squeezing it into glasses from a Wilton frosting bag.

Truth?  It was just as messy, because it's not firm until it's refrigerated.  Oh well.  I squeezed in pie, then whipped cream, then a tablespoon of graham cracker crumble, then repeated.  It all went into the refrigerator for a few hours, and became something magical.

 
Well, maybe not this magical, but still, pretty dang good.  You should try it.  And maybe plan a trip to Jekyll Island, while you're at it.  If you go at the beginning of next June, I'll meet you there! 

Lime Parfait

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 6 limes)
4 eggs
2  14 oz. cans sweetened condensed milk
2 T lime zest
1/4 tsp green gel dye
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 T sugar
4 T butter, softened
1 cup heavy cream
4 T powdered sugar

Zest limes until you have two tablespoons of zest.  Squeeze limes until you have a half cup of lime juice.  In a saucepan, vigorously blend lime juice, eggs, sweetened condensed milk and lime zest.  Heat until it reaches 160 degrees, stirring very often.  Remove and allow to cool.   Then mix in green dye, if desired.

With a food processor or beaters, beat heavy cream and powdered sugar until it achieves the consistency of whipped topping.    

In a small bowl, combine butter, graham cracker crumbs and sugar until the butter is very well incorporated and the mixture resembles crumbles.

Into six parfait or wine glasses (or whatever you'd like to use), layer pie, whipped cream, and graham crackers twice: pie, cream, crumbles, pie, cream, crumbles.  Refrigerate until well chilled, at least two hours.  Enjoy!