Key Lime Pie – Lime Cream Pie – vegan, true to the original

Key Lime Pie – a delicious lime cream cake! With tangy lime juice in a cream with my homemade vegan condensed milk on a crispy cookie crust and whipped cream topping. Plus a generous portion of joy, because cakes with citrus fruits are always scrumptious!

Vegan Key Lime Pie with homemade, plant-based condensed milk

In the original, this juicy lime cake is baked with Florida Key Limes, a type of lime from Florida. Otherwise, the cream filling consists of condensed milk and eggs.

Here is my vegan version, with any type of lime for the sake of simplicity. And my recipe for this lime cake is of course purely plant-based! Vegan Key Lime Pie, just as delicious and creamy as the original. With my homemade vegan condensed milk. Sweet pie with a fruity freshness on a cookie crust.

What is Key Lime Pie?

This pie is a classic American dessert that originated in the Florida Keys. This delicious American pie consists of a crispy cookie crust, a creamy filling made from lime juice, originally with egg yolk and sweetened condensed milk, and a fluffy topping made from whipped cream. Sometimes this pie is also baked with a meringue topping.
This lime pie is known for its refreshing taste and its perfect balance between sweetness and acidity. My recipe is indistinguishable from the traditional recipe in terms of taste and consistency, but it is purely plant-based.

When is the best time to serve Key Lime Pie?

This refreshing and delicious dessert is perfect for hot summer days. But even in winter, when local fruit is rare here in cold Germany, and people tend to reach for citrus fruits, this lime cream pie is a real highlight for special occasions. The combination of crispy crust, creamy filling and airy topping makes it a favorite cake for everyone who loves the sweet and sour taste of limes.

Vegan lime cream pie – a refreshing, sweet treat

My vegan lime cream pie is a real treat for anyone who loves the combination of fresh, aromatic limes and sweet cream. I’ve seen other vegan Key Lime Pie recipes that simply use cream with lime. That, firstly, doesn’t seem particularly stable and, secondly, can’t compete with the sweet, creamy, bombastic taste experience of an original Key Lime Pie. So at this point I can only recommend: go the little extra step and make vegan condensed milk for this great cake!

The creamiest Key Lime Pie – and it’s purely plant-based

The cream is the most important thing in the original version of this American pie. It has to impress with its balanced mixture of fresh lime flavour and creamy consistency. But also stability when it is cut. On a crispy crust and with the right garnish, the typical lime cream of this pie creates the original taste experience. When all these elements come together harmoniously, you can look forward to a really delicious dessert. I managed to do this in this recipe. And it’s purely plant-based. Vegan Original Key Lime Pie.

More veganized cake recipes

Do you love baking? Then browse through my ‘Baking and Sweets‘ category. Or try out the classic cakes I’ve veganized:

• Apple rose tart with shortcrust pastry and marzipan custard filling
• Peanut butter and salted caramel rolls with cream cheese frosting
• Strawberry cake – vegan, with sponge cake and vanilla custard
• Pumpkin bread, spicy, with chocolate and walnuts
• Delicious rhubarb meringue tartelettes
• Pastéis de Nata, Portuguese custard pies
• Crunchy pretzel cupcakes with salty peanut butter
• Poppy Seed Streusel Cake – a whole baking tray – vegan

Key Lime Pie – preparation in pictures:

Here you can see the preparation for the vegan Key Lime Pie step by step in pictures. Then we go straight to the recipe.

Ingredients for a 26 cm Key Lime Pie:

Biscuit base:

400 g vegan wheat cookies, or oat cookies if you cannot get wheat biscuits
130 g vegan butter or solid margarine, melted
100 g sugar

Lime filling:

400 g plant-based, sweet condensed milk
200 g vegan creme fraiche
3 heaped tablespoons chickpea flour (gram flour), mixed with 70 ml water
2 tablespoons lime zest (organic, untreated)
200 ml fresh lime juice

Cream topping:

100 ml vegan whipped cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon lime zest

Preparation:

Cake base, pie crust:

The original Key Lime Pie is made with graham crackers, which are sweet whole wheat cookies. These are not vegan, however, but with egg and honey. So I always use other wheat cookies, but oat biscuits also work. For this key lime pie, I think English digestive wheat biscuits are best. They are usually vegan by nature and you can also find them in European supermarkets (an maybe also worldwide).

1. Crumble the cookies into very small pieces. This works best if you first roughly crumble the cookies by hand and then wrap them in a tea towel. Then roll over them with a rolling pin until only small crumbs remain.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F) top and bottom heat.
3. Mix the cookie crumbs with the sugar and the liquid vegan butter.
4. Then press the dough into a cake tin to form a cookie crust about 0.5 cm thick.
5. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.
6. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Vegan Key Lime Pie Filling:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (360°F) top and bottom heat.
2. Mix all the ingredients for the filling together on the highest setting.
3. Pour the lime filling into the pie crust.
4. Bake for 35 minutes.
5. Let the lime cake cool down completely.
6. Then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
7. It will keep fresh in the fridge for 2-3 days.

Cream topping:

1. Whip the purely plant-based cream.
2. Then mix in the sugar.
3. Spread over the cake and sprinkle with a little lime zest.

Bon apetit!