THE BEST KEY LIME PIE I'VE EVER HAD: Recipe from The Fish House in Pensacola, Florida

Hi everyone, I'm Marci and this week I was fortunate to tag along with my husband on a work trip to Pensacola, Florida. Whenever I travel I love to try the local foods and then when I get back home I try to see if I can duplicate one of the things that I tried. So I thought I'd bring you along. First do me a favor hit that subscribe button if you're not already subscribed to this channel and let's get inspired together. Known for its sparkling white sandy beaches and emerald green waters, Pensacola is a laid-back beach town on the Florida panhandle. It's home to the renowned Blue Angels and it has a diverse culture that translates to the food. While in Pensacola we tried a few local must-haves. Look at the size of this. From homemade bagels and to fish tacos and grilled oysters at Felix's. That's about a pound and a half right there. We even looked for inspiration at Joe Patti's Seafood, a market where you can find everything you could possibly need to prepare your own seafood meal. But it was at the fish house where we had our most memorable meal. Grits Ayaya, which is grilled shrimp and portobello mushrooms served over creamy gouda cheese grits. And soul rolls, spring rolls filled with chicken and collard greens served with the peach chutney and wasabi cream. So we were all set to leave fully content with our wonderful meal when we found out that the fish house is also known for its key lime pie. So we went ahead and split a slice. My husband doesn't even like key lime pie but he liked this one and I got to tell you it's the best key lime pie I've ever had. And it turns out that their exact recipe is on the internet. So I think I found my inspiration. So I'm back home now and I've got everything I need to make this key lime pie from the fish house in Pensacola. For the crust you need a cup and a half of graham cracker crumbs and that should be about 10 of these individual graham crackers. Five tablespoons of sugar and one third of a cup of melted butter. For the pie filling you need half a cup of freshly squeezed key lime juice. Now I have no idea how many key limes that's going to be but fortunately I have a key lime tree in my backyard and if this isn't enough I'll just go out there and pick a few more. And you definitely want key limes and not regular limes because the difference is key limes are less acidic and that's what you want for this pie. And if you don't know the difference between a regular lime and a key lime when you go to the grocery store just compare the size and the smaller ones are the key limes and that's what you want. And you'll also need one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk and four eggs at room temperature. The recipe calls for using four egg yolks in the pie filling but then using three of the egg whites for the meringue. Now also for the meringue the recipe calls for three fourths of a cup of super fine sugar. I don't have any of that this is just regular granulated sugar and hopefully that'll still work out just fine. And finally you'll need one fourth of a teaspoon of cream of tartar. So let's go ahead and get started. First preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Then place your graham crackers into a food processor and puree them until you've got a fine sandy consistency. If you don't have a food processor you can put the crackers in a big ziplock bag seal it and then use a rolling pin to crush them. Next add in the sugar and the melted butter and puree again. When it's fully combined place your graham cracker crumbs into a pie plate or nine inch springform pan and press it down along the bottom and the sides to form a pie shell. I'm using an old measuring cup for this part. When you've got it all formed and it looks smooth place it in the oven to bake for 10 minutes. Now we can make the pie filling. We need half a cup of fresh key lime juice. So I'm going to cut my limes into halves and start juicing into a measuring cup topped with a fine mesh strainer to catch any seeds. Okay last one. Look at all the seeds that the fine mesh strainer picked out. Definitely recommend using that. Let's see. Oh so close. I think I need probably like one more but this was 14 limes that I used. I'm going to go pick just one more and I think it'll be exactly half a cup. I think I'm just going to take all four of these. Good thing we have a tree. Okay perfect. Once you've got half a cup of fresh key lime juice pour it into a mixing bowl. Add the sweetened condensed milk and the four egg yolks reserving the egg whites for the meringue. Now again this recipe only calls for three egg whites for the meringue but I'm going to use four because I don't want this fourth one to go to waste. Oops and I got some egg yolk in there. Oh I'm gonna have to get it out. That is never good for meringue. Maybe if I had followed the directions that wouldn't have happened. Now with my electric hand mixer I'm going to mix together the lime juice, sweetened condensed milk and the egg yolks until smooth. This is still warm but that's okay. Go ahead and pour this in. I'll pour the filling into the prepared pie crust. Give it a little shake to level it. All right now back in the oven for 10 more minutes. While the pie is baking you'll again need the electric hand mixer to beat together the egg whites and the cream of tartar. When it starts to form soft peaks start adding in the sugar a little at a time and continue beating until it forms stiff peaks. Take the pie out of the oven at the 10 minute mark. Spoon in the meringue on top of the pie and use a rubber spatula to spread the meringue evenly across the pie being careful to bring it all the way to the edge of the crust. Place the pie back in the oven once more for 10 more minutes or until the meringue tips start to brown. This pie looks so beautiful but now we gotta let it cool down completely and then I'll put it in the refrigerator to chill at least a couple of hours before we can cut into it. All right it's time to try this and I can hardly wait. I really really hope it tastes like the one at the restaurant. Getting out the first slice is always so tricky. Now let's see how it tastes. That's as good as I remember. It is so yummy. You know one of the things that I love so much about this pie when I was at the restaurant was that unlike a lot of key lime pies that tend to be really tart that you can't really enjoy it this one is just a real subtle tartness and it's more sweet and that's what I really love and then also in terms of presentation a lot of times you'll see swirls of whipped cream and maybe a wedge of lime or you'll see the rind from the lime itself in the custard but not so with this one. It's just really simple. It's not flashy but it tastes really good and I hope you try it so that you can taste for yourself. I'm going to enjoy the rest of this. Thanks so much for checking out this video. If you liked it, show some love by giving it a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel if you haven't already. You can also follow me at marciinspired on Instagram and Facebook. Until next time, blessings from my kitchen to yours.