By Lori Ross

When we moved to South Florida for the winters, our native Florida friends told us this is the way to make REAL key lime pie. Northerners like to top key lime pie with meringue and they like a graham cracker crust. Native Floridians tend to use a plain flour and butter crust with a dab of whipped cream. I personally like graham cracker crust because it requires no cooking at all.

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
4 oz. key lime or lime juice
1 tbsp grated lime peel (optional)

Combine milk and eggs. Slowly add juice, mix thoroughly. Pour into 9 inch graham cracker pie crust shell. Refrigerate 4-6 hours.

Graham Cracker Crust
1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs (put crackers in plastic bag and crush with rolling pin until crumbled evenly)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
Pinch of cinnamon

Mix together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until well-combined. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate or tin.

Variations:
Lemon: replace lime juice with lemon juice and lime peel with lemon peel
Grapefruit: replace lime juice with grapefruit juice and lime peel with grapefruit peel
Chocolate Crust: Replace Graham cracker crumbs with chocolate cooking crumbs
Ginger snap or Vanilla Crust: Replace Graham cracker crumbs with ginger snap or vanilla wafer crumbs
Fruit topped: Top citrus pie with chopped fruit or berries