I sometimes make a shortbread crust for my lime pies, but I do not use Key limes, since I have a Bearss lime tree. I prebake the shortbread crust before adding the filling and then bake again after I add the filling. It comes out a bit crunchier than the graham cracker crust, but if you make it thin enough, it should be okay.

I have been using the Oreo chocolate cookie pre-made crust you can pick up at the grocery store. Lime and chocolate - delicious!!

You can use a pate brisee crust - or any plain piecrust, really. It needs to be prebaked.

LOL! Cindy, thanks for the idea, but it's not like I have oreos or an oreo crust either. :) I''d probably make my own chocolate cookies for the crust though, so it wouldn't be so sweet--but I don't have time for that, even though I have the ingredients. I'll try to remember that for another time.

I think Lars's shortbread crust may be what I had in Florida, but I'd been wondering if pâte brisée might work. Thanks, Carol, for the reinforcement on that. I like that it's not as assertive. Whichever, I just don't want it to be too buttery. Oh, duh. I could use half shortening. :) But now I'm wondering if I'll have the fridge space!

Pâte brisée is shortcrust; flour, butter, water. Salt. You can add sugar but I wouldn't.

I think the secret to light, crisp, melt-in-the-mouth is good butter, and lots of it. More than half the weight of flour in butter. I like about 65% butter. I often add an egg yolk to enrich it. You can substitute yogurt of crème fraiche for the water if you want an even better pastry. You can't go wrong.

So much better than crushed biscuits imho! It's the butter quality that makes the pastry. I'll come and make your pastry if you feed me pie!!!

Ages ago, BF said he loved key lime pie, so I decided to make one as a surprise. Lots of work juicing those limes by hand, yada yada. When presented with said pie, BF asked what it was. Key Lime Pie, of course! ‘Oh‘, he said, ‘I guess the pie I like is a lime meringue pie‘. Luckily we had a mutual good friend who would eat it all. :)

I always thought a lime pie would be great with a coconut crust. Put the lime in the coconut, you such a silly woman. ;^) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LxC3M-Yngs

If i needed to shop my pantry and use what i have on hand without ordering...matzo, oats, some pecans, little brown sugar, pulse in cuisinart until a course crumb...butter. Probably pre-bake a bit.

Saltine crust!

I would use the crust in this recipe for Beach Pie. Which tastes like key lime pie without the graham.

For the crust:

1 1/2 sleeves of saltine crackers (about 6 ounces or 60 crackers)
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
3 tablespoons sugar

For the filling:

One 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice or a mix of the two
Fresh whipped cream, for garnish
Coarse sea salt, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350° F. Crush the crackers finely, but not to dust. You can use a food processor or your hands. Add the sugar, then knead in the butter until the crumbs hold together like dough. Press into an 8-inch pie pan. Chill for 15 minutes, then bake for 18 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. While the crust is cooling (it doesn't need to be cold), beat the egg yolks into the milk, then beat in the citrus juice. It is important to completely combine these ingredients. Pour into the shell and bake for 16 minutes until the filling has set. The pie needs to be completely cold to be sliced. Serve with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkling of sea salt.

"Oh, duh. I could use half shortening."

No problem...I often make pâte brisée with part butter/part shortening. My own choice for a key lime pie crust alternative would be shortbread.

You could make a pate sucree or pate sablee instead. I don't find them excessively buttery. The sugar in the crust won't be too sweet with a tart key lime filling (think tarte citrone). They are generally not too buttery. There are variants like Julia Child's that include shortening.

Thanks for the all the responses! Linda, thanks for the confirmation. I hit the proverbial wall and am still really tired, so I may put off the pie until Wednesday. Personally, I've never been enamored of graham cracker crust either, but if made thin, it goes well enough. Those quarter inch thick "professional" crusts are all about being strong, not about being better to eat. ;)

Maddielee, thanks for the recipe, but I don't have saltines either. I have TJ's Everything crackers and Lesley Stowe Raincoast Crisps (If they haven't gone stale or rancid). I actually thought about making crust out of the raincoast crisps but i have cherry and fig, neither of which I think would match well, and by the time I took out the fruit, there wouldn't be enough bulk. :D

Sleenvendog, I do have crumble-esque ingredients--I never thought of that! I love that idea. I'll probably do the brisèe, though I'll have a think about the alternatives brought up by Gooster (I almost never put sugar in pie crusts, but the stability from egg might make it easier to go thinner), but I'm going to try your idea. I bet it would be great with apple pie. I usually make whole wheat American pie crust with a touch of cinnamon, but then I have to sell it. It's not very pretty, but really delicious. I wonder if I could half bake a crumble crust to make a top? Or even cutouts? Lots of interesting ideas there, and I have that glut of oats!

Chloebud, thanks for the affirmation of the shortening.

PM, I bet you're right about the coconut crust. It sounds like it should be great. Other than the part where I'm allergic to coconut and it even tastes poisonous to me. I have a good imagination, though, and I'd think slightly sweetened and not very toasted would be good for those who can eat it.

IC, any time you want to come for a pie fest and make the crusts, I'll happily fill and bake them for you!

I do have a couple of recipes for brisèe, but usually I just stick to three recipes for American crust (which isn't very different from brisèe really, except that it is in the end). One is a generous double crust by pinching, one single crust FP, and one whole wheat FP. I used to do the pastry blender thing, but have found that FP and pinch develop less gluten and make better crusts. I think this is teaching me I need to expand my repertoire!

you could crsh up some vanilla wafers in lieu of the graham crackers ... i like the saltine idea too ... soda cracker pie-ish

But Dave! I don't have Graham Crackers, Oreos, Nilla Vafers or any other boxed cardboard! I have a few delightful little lemon cookies, which I wouldn't want to not have, and of which I don't have enough to make a whole crust. Sleevendog mentioned things she knows I have in my pantry, for which, I'm grateful, and I have plenty of staples of the flour, butter, salt, sugar, eggs variety for making an actual pastry crust.

So, I just read over my recipe. I don't have enough key limes for a pie! The cake takes half as many. Good grief!

Oy!

I was just going to suggest adding lime zest to the crust. I'd love to add coconut somehow?

Enjoy your cake!

Crusts made with biscuits are never very good imho. like eating cardboard. Whereas a good pastry, whatever variety you fancy, is always a thing of beauty. Was it you that bought the book with the spectacular pastry designs? Maybe now's the time to get all fancy and creative LOL

Yes, I got the book. Her secret is the European crust with egg, and she also rolls it thick.

Crumb crusts are as classic in American pies as pâte sablée is for French tarts. If they're like eating cardboard they're made wrong or the cookies were stale to begin with. I joked about graham crackers, Oreos, and Nilla Wafers being cardboard, but that's for their texture when fresh and crisp. They're also mighty tasty. Crumbled and mixed with butter they are as well. If your tongue is expecting a delicate pastry, I can see how you'd classify them as cardboard, but since we know and like crumb crusts, we savor them for what they are. But they still have to be thin, IMHO! For commercial use, primarily to cut down on breakage,, they make them, as well as pastry and tart crusts, like a quarter inch thick! Anything will taste like cardboard, or greasy cardboard, that thick! And then they've filled the whole tin with crust and you hardly get any filling, so they do double duty in reducing costs because crusts are cheap and everything dear goes into the filling.

For me, the choice of fat makes a big impact on the pastry. I don't bake with lard, but it's true that lard crusts are the tastiest and flakiest. A big part of that is the big fat globules. I usually use butter, and it tastes fine, but only special if one adds something to it. I mean, flour, butter and salt is pretty bland. But pleasant. I will not eat all shortening crust. It tastes almost chemical, though the shortening is just vegetable fat. I haven't tried margarine. Its melting point is a lot higher, and I don't know what that would do. It also has a different sized fat globule than butter. It might taste good, though. Half butter and half shortening is another popular one. The two different sizes and hydrations make a difference in the flakiness, and the butter hides the shortening flavor. But I usually do all butter.

Another reason not to make the pie, besides needing double the number of limes, is lack of fridge room. ;) But I'm whipped and haven't even gone near making the cake yet... I tend to get even lengthier when I'm tired....

But JC make your own nilla wafers ...

Bdt DB, I could just make pâte brisée in a few shakes, and making cookies just to crumble them would take hours.

This is a lovely recipe that is a bit different.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/raspberry-tart-almond-pastry

Thanks!

I've made a very similar almond crust. It is lovely for berry or stone fruit tarts, but not for key lime pie. :) But...whole raspberry tart? Wouldn't the seeds be obnoxious?

There was an interesting thing at the bottom of the page. I didn't like the sound of the recipe, but the idea is cool. They filled the openings in a head of a blanched cauliflower, coated in crumbs and baked it. Fascinating!

The clue to a crumb crust is not to buy boxes of already crumbed crackers, but to crush your own leaving more varied size pieces. Less likely to be cardboard-ey.

Wow! Linda thanks for cluing me in. I didn't know about the premade crumbs!

Yes, crush your own, for sure. The Pie and Pastry Bible from Rose Levy Beranbaum has some tips and variations on crumb crusts I've found helpful., including baked versus unbaked crumb crusts. I've often used Nabisco's Famous Chocolate Wafers for a crumb crust. Rose feels those are best unbaked since the "...chocolate wafer crust is darker in color, better in texture, and more delicious when not baked and is slightly more sturdy than other crumb crusts." She also says the addition of melted butter to the crumbs makes them much more tasty than the cookies themselves. Not exactly surprising IMO.

Don't you eat fresh raspberries? No, the seeds aren't a problem. They're so small you don't notice them. What kind of seeds do you get in your rasps? LOL

I don't find my raspberries seedy at all. Just little juicy jems. I find my blackberries almost repulsive at times if even slightly under-ripe. Spitters. Probably different varieties. Some seedy berries are furry, lol. Now that is weird.

Must be a texture thing some do not like about a crumb crust. I'm not much of a dessert person but do like it. Not a 'sandy' texture that maybe too much sugar brings. I plan on making something like this one, HERE...but less sugar. MarthaStewart's recipe uses 1/4 cup of sugar.

I have a dozen meyer lemons on my tree. Maybe make a few 6inch tarts and give to neighbors. Keep one for a taste test.

We get big honkin' sticks between your teeth unpleasant as all get out seeds in raspberries. The blackberries that grew wild at the friends’ ranch in Oregon had barely noticeable seeds, but the commercial ones can have seeds the size of small lentils! different varieties for sure. Come to think of it, raspberries were very rare and very dear when I was a kid, and the seeds were no bother. Maybe the newer, hardier for off seasons, shipping, storage, etc., berries have bigger, harder seeds. To me, raspberry sauce or jam means a few times through a sieve.

That tart has gone to my must try list. Perfect for Passover, too.