This pie is so good! It's sort of a cheesecake, key lime pie, ice cream pie and white chocolate cream pie wrapped into one. When we were in Miami a few weeks ago visiting family, I had the t.v. turned on to The Food Network a lot while we were lounging (we don't have t.v. at home besides the internet and netflix, so it was kind of a treat) and saw a lot of Paula Deen's shows. Later when I was looking up a recipe that I saw on her show for home-made lollipops (I'll show you how to make those later, promise!) I came across this recipe and knew I had to try it, because the filling was totally starch free and looked delicious. I decided to make it for Pi(e) Day and was not disappointed.
To make it starch free, I made a pie shell out of almond meal instead of her graham cracker crust. I also halved Paula's recipe because hers looked enormous, and I didn't need to feed a million people. And really, I just wanted it too look like a pie and not a cheesecake. (Even with halving the recipe, I still had a little extra filling. I just put it in a little container in the freezer to have separately.) If you live near a Trader Joe's, their almond meal works perfectly for this (and a lot of other recipes) and is much less expensive than other brands of almond flour that I've seen.
Ingredients:
makes 1 standard pie (8-10 inches)
for the pie shell:
3 cups almond meal/almond flour
4 ounces unsalted butter
(a little less than) 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (not baking powder-that's starchy)
1/8-1/4 cup cold water as needed
for the pie filling:
3 tablespoons fresh key lime juice
1/2 envelope of unflavored gelatin (a little more than 1/2 ounce)
1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided
5 ounces white chocolate, chopped or as chips
12 ounces (1 1/2 packages) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 tablespoon lime zest
To make the crust:
1. Combine the almond meal with the baking soda, salt and sugar. Add the butter and some water, but don't add too much water! You just need enough to moisten the dough so that you can mix it.
2. Knead to combine, and don't worry if some of the butter still shows through the dough. Form the dough into a flat disk, cover completely with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Remove from the fridge and place between 2 sheets of baking paper. Roll the dough out to a round disk a little larger than the pie dish. Remove the top sheet and invert the shell onto the pie dish. With your hands, mold the dough to fit the pie dish, making the edges a little thicker than the bottom. Put into the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crust has browned and is firm. Remove from the oven and cool completely.
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| {rolling out the dough} |
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| {baked crust, cooling} |
To make the filling:
1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the lime juice. Whisk in the gelatin and 1/2 cup of the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the white chocolate and stir until smooth. Allow to cool.
2. Using an electric mixer, blend together the softened cream cheese, sugar and lime zest in a medium bowl, until smooth. Slowly beat in the cooled white chocolate mixture into cream cheese mixture.
3. Using clean, dry beaters, beat the remaining 3/4 cup heavy cream in a small bowl, until it forms soft peaks. Fold it into the white chocolate mixture and pour into the pie crust. Cover and freeze overnight.
4. Remove from the freezer and cut into wedges with a knife that has been dipped into hot water. Serve immediately and store the extras in the freezer.
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| {juicing the limes} |
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| {cream cheese and white chocolate mixture} |
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| {whipped cream, soft peaks} |
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| {folding cream cheese mixture and whipped cream} |
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| {filled pie, before freezer} |
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| {yum!} |
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