Sous Vide Key Lime Pie

The directions might seem long, but this pie is really very quick and simple, and you end up with only about 3 dishes to clean. It's probably not much more difficult to cook it traditionally, but cooking sous vide makes it fun and easy and we could all use another sous vide dessert recipe.

Enjoy!

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Sous Vide Key Lime Pie

Adapted from AllRecipes.com "Easy Key Lime Pie I" (especially the comments in the reviews) and Cindy Kowalyk's recipe in her book, Simply Sous Vide:

This pie is super tart and super sweet. A homemade graham cracker crust just seals the deal. This recipe is for two 9" deep dish pies.

Graham Cracker Pie Crusts:

Ingredients:
8 oz honey graham crackers (about half a box of store-bought graham crackers)
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup white sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 F with one of the racks positioned in the middle.
2. In a one gallon ziplock bag, crush the graham crackers by hand or with a rolling pin. Don't be afraid to leave some coarse chunks in there.
3. Add the sugar to the ziplock bag and give it a good shake.
4. Melt the butter in the microwave and pour it straight in the bag.
5. Shake the bag vigorously.
6. Divide into two 9" deep dish pie pans.
7. Use a sheet of saran wrap to press the crust firmly and evenly into bottom and sides of the pans. It's okay if it's a little thick in the corners.
8. Place pie pans on middle oven rack and bake until just browned, for about 8 minutes total, checking frequently near the end to prevent burning.

Pie Filling:

Ingredients:
2 lb fresh key limes (or 1 cup store-bought key lime juice, if you must)
2 - 14 oz cans sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks

Directions:
1. Preheat your water bath to 165 F.
2. Squeeze the key limes to obtain about 1 cup of juice.
3. Pour the key lime juice and sweetened condensed milk into a large bowl and mix well.
4. Whisk 4 egg yolks in a small bowl until smooth.
5. Add a few spoonfuls of the lime juice/condensed milk mixture to the egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
6. Add the egg yolk mixture back into the lime juice/condensed milk mixture in the large bowl.
7. Whisk thoroughly until very smooth.
8. Vacuum seal the pie filling in your vac sealer. I used a single 8" by 11" FoodSaver bag. If, like me, you don't have a chamber sealer, just move your FoodSaver-type vac to the edge of your counter, and let the bag hang down the side of your counter while you seal it. The filling is very thick, so you can let the vacuum pull nearly all the air out before sealing. Pulse mode also helps with this.
9. Place in the water bath for 2 hours, pulling it out and shaking it vigorously a couple of times during the bath.
10. Snip the corner off the bag and pour/squeeze the pie filling into the pie crusts.
11. Chill for at least 2 hours before serving. A 24 hour chill is ideal.