Key Lime whole Pie
(c) Rosalie E. Leposky

The key lime pie became Florida’s official state pie in 2006 through an act of the state legislature and the signature of then-Gov. Jeb Bush – but most people don’t know how to make it!

The only right way yields a pie with a yellow filling, a meringue topping, and a Graham-cracker crust.

Stop and think. When was the last time you ate a piece of key lime pie with a real meringue topping? Nowadays, most come with whipped cream – real or artificial.

Key lime pie is never green. It shouldn’t have a flour crust. It should never be terribly sweet.

Key lime Pie
© Blond Giraffe

Florida bakers and restaurateurs offer a lot of excuses for why they don’t serve meringue-topped pies. They say a meringue pie takes too much time to make, is hard to make and cut correctly, takes up too much refrigerator shelf space, and has too much waste potential because they can't predict how much pie they will sell in a day. They may think these excuses are valid, but for the prices they charge, we deserve the real thing.

Restaurateurs do a good job of predicting how much food they need to prepare, so key lime pie predictions should not be that hard for them.

In restaurants, my family has become accustomed to my penchant for questioning waiters about how their key lime pies are made. I won’t order one unless it has a meringue topping.

Meringue makes it so

“The true key lime pie has a meringue topping,” Mike Paynter, a baker and owner of The Cake Box Bakery, told me more than a decade ago. After 19 years in Marathon, Florida, he relocated to Canton, Ohio, in 1991. Recently I tried to contact him again, without success.

“The first key lime pies were made over 100 years ago in Key West with whole pelican eggs,” he said. “They were topless. Later, Key West homemakers switched to chicken eggs and discovered that the whites ruined their pies. Since nothing was wasted, the homemakers added meringues to the pies to make use of the whites of the chicken eggs.”

Paynter suggested using a warm, wet knife to cut the crusty meringue toppings without tearing the meringue.

Years ago I made proper key lime pie for a guest from Marseille, France, who was born in Algeria to French parents. I thought I was making something special, but she was not impressed. “We make similar pie from a similar lime,” she told me as she ate my pie with delight. In true French style, she thought hers was better, even as she consumed every morsel on her plate.

A few years ago, my daughter and I entertained a college friend of hers from Sweden, who liked the pie so much that she emailed her mother with her discovery. They asked for my recipe, which I gladly shared along with information on how they could buy more key lime juice online.

Although a pie made from bottled juice is not quite as good as one with fresh-squeezed juice, it’s better than doing without key lime pie. I sent my daughter’s friend home with a couple of bottles of key lime juice in her luggage.   

Two source of key lime juice are:

Florida Key West, Inc.

Key Lime Pie Factory

From time to time, small pie shops open in southern Miami-Dade County, just before U.S. Highway 1 leaves the mainland for the Florida Keys. They sell key lime pies for limited hours on weekends. The best way to find them is to drive as slowly as traffic will allow along US 1 south of Homestead and watch for signs. Carry a cooler wide enough to hold a pie. Be prepared to pay cash.

A better pie solution

In 2002, a branch of Key Lime Pie Factory, Blond Giraffe , opened a store in South Miami. The company now has four stores in Key West, one in Marathon (in the middle Keys), and the one in South Miami. I’ve wondered why a store called Blond Giraffe sells key lime pies. The answer turns out to be very simple. Pease Note: This branch is now closed.  Blond Giraffe pies are still available in the Florida Keys.

“In November of 1999, I entered a Key Lime Pie Festival contest at the Pier House Resort and Caribbean Spa in Key West,” says Tania Beguinati, co-owner of the Blond Giraffe, a vegetarian restaurant on Duval Street in Key West. “I entered the contest with a recipe given to me by my grandmother, Edith Ambrosini. It beat out the completion and won first place.”

Soon after, Beguinati and Blond Giraffe co-owner Roberto Madeira started making and selling proper key lime pies sold by the slice and the whole pie at the Blond Giraffe. They are natives of São Paulo, Brazil, who moved first to Miami and later to the Florida Keys.
   
For decades, the food and beverage service at the 142-room Pier House Resort and Caribbean Spa has been proud of its meringue-topped key lime pie. To partake of it, you must dine at or be a guest of the Pier House. It is sold only at the resort.

The Pier House Resort and Caribbean Spa is at One Duval Street, Key West FL 33040, USA. Tel: 305-296-4600, 800-723-2791, Fax: 305-296-7569

Blond Giraffe’s pie factory is at 107 Simonton Street, Key West FL, Tel: 305-9174. Retail stores are at 802 Duval St., Key West; 1209 Truman Ave., Key West; 412 Green St., Key West; 614 Front St., Key West; 5187 Overseas Highway, Mile Marker 50, Oceanside, Marathon FL; and 6022 South Dixie Hwy., South Miami FL, Tel: 305-661-2744.