Since all of this gloomy and now freezing cold weather makes us only wish that we could be laying on a beach in Aruba, or on one of those awesome looking huts standing in the water in Bora Bora, I’d like to offer an escape from Michigan icky-ness with one of the most quintessential tropical flavors: lime. This tart and refreshing flavor has been used and documented for the last 2 millennia and works just as well in any recipe as it does for chasing a shot of tequila.

A cousin to lemons within the citrus family, limes are 1.5 times as acidic as lemons and are abundant in tropical areas. They’re frequently used in cuisine from India, Mexico and other countries near where they are harvested. There are three basic types of lime: Tahitian/Persian, Mexican, and key. Tahitian limes are large, with a pale, finely-grained pulp and a very acidic flavor. Mexican limes are smaller, with bright green skins and a very aromatic taste.  Rounding out the bunch are key limes,  which are closely related to the Mexican varietyand are a pale yellowish-green fruit, very juicy with a strong, sharp flavor (might want to use a different word than flavor because you already used it two sentences prior). They emit an extremely distinctive aroma from its thin green rind, making the zest crucial to a fantastic key lime pie.

I found a few bags of key limes at Meijer on sale and decided to take on the task of juicing them all for key lime pies. You only need 1 cup of juice, and although that might not sound like much, boy is it hard to squeeze that much juice out of those tiny little limes.

If you wanted to make key lime pies but without the hassle, toil, and acid burn on your fingers, feel free to use key lime juice that you can buy at the store. However, make sure you still buy at least 10 key limes so you can still get the amazing aromatic zest from them.

Instead of making 1 large pie, I decided to make mini tartlets by pressing the crust into muffin tins and spooning the filling into the tins. After baking and cooling, a spoon wedged into the side of a tartlet was sufficient to pop them out of the tins completely intact.

A special touch that makes these pies better than any you’ve tasted before is the whipped cream. Whipping your own whipped cream only takes a few minutes and is definitely worth the work for difference in taste. For presentation, a dollop of whipped cream, and some fresh zest over the whole pie makes these quite possibly the most amazing tasting and looking key lime pies you and your friends have ever had.