Slice Up Some Breakfast: Key Lime Pie

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When the breakfast bars saw the key lime pie Alex baked, they did the only thing a breakfast bar could do in that situation: They flung themselves at the kids waiting for the school bus outside. Unfortunately, they only made it as far as the top of the organizing bin I put them in, before sliding back down, unceremoniously to the bottom. (If they wait long enough, someone might sprinkle them on pancakes or something. They’re a very hopeful bunch.)

So why are the breakfast bars so disheartened? Alex is planning on eating the key lime pie he made every day for breakfast this week. In his words, “If I can have anything I want for breakfast, and I want to make my own breakfast, why can’t it be a key lime pie?”

Why not? The one he made is absolutely delicious. We got a taste last weekend when he tried out the recipe he found online. The recipe is from the Just a Pinch Recipe blog, and the post is titled, “Real Key Lime Pie from Key West.”

If you make the recipe as-is, the filling is not green. Last weekend, Alex made the pie according to the recipe (there is no cream cheese—just sweetened, condensed milk cooked to perfection), and the filling was a lovely cream-colored filling with maybe a few flecks of lime zest poking through. Then, he veered from the recipe to create a topping, which actually tasted wonderful. He boiled down lime juice and sugar and green food coloring and poured it over the top (along with candied lime slices). The top formed a hard candy seal, which I thought would be difficult to cut through, but it wasn’t at all. The whole thing tasted fabulous.

The picture you see for the feature image is his most recent attempt, and he has veered from the recipe again to add some food color for fun. He also couldn’t find key limes, so he used the juice of one lime + bottled lime juice + lemon juice + triple sec. With all these experiments in the kitchen, he’s acting more like a chemistry major than a physics major, but I’ll just keep that to myself—and the nosy breakfast bars that keep trying to escape.

When we tasted his trial-run version last weekend, which also used bottled lime juice and some lemon juice (no triple sec), the key lime pie was perfectly tart and creamy. We had no complaints. Nate and I would love to try his latest version with the triple sec, but we don’t want to ruin his breakfast.

The health benefits of eating key lime pie for breakfast, I imagine, might look something like this:

–Improved attitude toward traffic

–Morning interactions filled with zesty conversation

–Sun-filled daydreams, gently shadowed by palm trees, waving in a tropical breeze

–Increased focus at work that’s also vaguely, but pleasantly lime-scented

Your Turn: What’s your favorite breakfast

Published by ckennedy

Author of the DIY blog: Fixin' Leaks and Leeks. Paper/Rock Writing Consultation, Sole Proprietor.

34 thoughts on “Slice Up Some Breakfast: Key Lime Pie”

  2. Language is an amazing thing.
    When you wrote breakfast bars, in my mind, I was thinking of a bench top with stools. In the sense that a breakfast bar is a place in the kitchen where people eat breakfast. When I understood that breakfast bars are convenience foods for breakfast, I then wondered why you’d discard them in organising bins. Then I realised what we call a bin, you call trash.
    The pie looks good and I fully endorse pie for breakfast for as many days as the cook can make it last and stop others from pilfering it.

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    1. Ha! Actually, the organizing bins are just what we (as a family) also call “stacky packs”–so they’re in a plastic container in the pantry–meant to organize snacks, but really, nothing is organized. And, yes. The cook always gets first dibs on the pie–I agree. Cheers!

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  5. I like pie for breakfast, but have only tried apple and pumpkin. But if I could have a slice soaked in fruit liqueur, I think it could make Monday mornings a lot more cheerful. This is a good and important innovation.

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  6. To answer your question: Nothing beats the quintessential Filipino breakfast combination of garlic fried rice, sunny-side-up egg, and a matching protein. The protein can either be meat jerky, cured pork, local sausages, or fish.

    That pie would definitely be a good breakfast, provided that I eat something savory first (such as a tuna turnover) and a mug of good black coffee is on hand!

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  7. That looks wonderful! Can the physics major invent a vegan version as well? It would replace my current favourite dosa (only because Srini has learnt to make them). The reasons why key lime pie is good for you are completely convincing!

    Liked by 1 person

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