Sour Cream Is The Answer For Better Key Lime Pie

Key lime pie, the iconic Floridian dessert with contentious origins, is beloved for its sweet, zesty custard filling and buttery graham cracker crust. It's a classic treat that's simple to make and sure to impress each and every time. You might already know that the subtle addition of cinnamon can improve your key lime pie's flavor, but what if there was a way to elevate your key lime pie's richness with another staple ingredient? Enter sour cream, which makes the dessert even creamier while simultaneously preserving the classic key lime pie flavors we all know and love.

It might sound unusual to put sour cream into a dessert. After all, we typically think of sour cream as merely a topping for baked potatoes or tacos. But, when added to a key lime pie, the sour cream's decadent richness balances out the acidic flavors from the lime, creating an indulgent experience that's not overly sharp in flavor. Given the dessert's ample sweetened condensed milk content, the addition of sour cream prevents your key lime pie from being cloyingly or overpoweringly sweet. It's not just the flavors of the key lime pie that are improved, either. Sour cream lends itself beautifully to the pie's creamy custard filling, adding richness to the texture while still being structurally sound enough to hold up in the oven. Arguably, the best part of this sour cream addition is that you don't need to make any major adjustments to the base recipe.

To make a key lime pie with sour cream at home, prepare your graham cracker crust as usual. As for the filling, start with your go-to key lime pie recipe. Our sweet and tart version uses a combination of egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, the juice and zest of fresh key limes, and a pinch of salt. From there, simply fold in a small amount of sour cream, around ½ cup. Bake until set, place in the fridge until cooled, and enjoy!

With a simple-to-execute recipe that takes just a few hours to make, it's a dessert that's guaranteed to put a smile on your face. While this key lime pie is a show-stopper when made all in one day, it pays to mix up key lime pie filling in advance, as letting the mixture sit for a few hours removes any remaining air bubbles in the custard, creating a beautifully smooth, irresistible texture.