Pauline’s Key Lime Pie – Pre-op Pastry with my first Guest Star Chef

As I mentioned yesterday, today's clip features my Mom making a light and delicious Key Lime Pie. I joked in the post that it's an old family tradition to make pie before going to the hospital for surgery, well, to be honest it's not really an old tradition, she just wanted to make pie. Besides it beats sitting around worrying about getting a new shoulder! This is a longer clip than I normally do, and I may eventually split the demo into 2 recipes; one for her flaky pie crust, and another for the filling and finished pie. But for now you get the complete Director's Cut.

I've gotten many emails about how to make a nice pie or tart crust and I've always answered them with "sorry, that not really my thing." Well, you are all in luck. My Mother, and Aunt Angela, are known around these parts for their great pies, and make an incredibly flaky, and easy, pie dough. Many Chefs will tell you to let the dough rest in the fridge so that the flour can hydrate, and the crust will be even flakier. When I asked my mother if she was going to let hers rest, she said "No, I learned this dough recipe a long time ago and I'm not going to change it." So that was that.

If you don't want to add food coloring to give yours that lovely lime color, then don't. But, these days food colorings are made from vegetable dyes and are completely harmless. You decide, but I don't want a yellow Key Lime Pie. And while we're faking things, regular limes are fine if you can't get Key limes. Enjoy!

Crust: (enough for 2 pies, or one with bottom and top crust)

1 tsp salt

2 cups flour

3/4 cup shortening

5-6 tbl ice water

Filling:

3 large eggs

3 large juicy limes (1/2 cup of juice)

1 can (14oz) Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 drop green food coloring

lime zest for garnish

whipped cream to top