These mini key lime pies are everything we love about classic key lime pie baked in individual servings. Each mini pie has a buttery graham cracker crust and smooth, creamy key lime filling. Top with homemade whipped cream and lime slices for a refreshing treat!
Summer and key lime pie go together like Ben and Jerry, mac and cheese, vacation and margaritas. Key lime pie is the type of dessert that takes minimal effort, which makes it perfect when the weather’s warm. As in, when there are a million other things you’d rather do than spend the afternoon in a hot kitchen.
What makes key lime pie even easier (and quicker)? Bake it in a muffin pan rather than in a pie pan. Less bake time, less slicing, less chill time. Plus (and this is the best part!) it is perfectly acceptable to have more than one. Not to mention, mini key lime pies are totally kid-friendly. Little hands, little appetites, little pies! I love these things.
Why You’ll Love These Mini Key Lime Pies
- Quick and simple to prepare
- Just as delicious as key lime pie bars
- Baked in a muffin pan
- Each bite is buttery, sweet, and a little tart
- Cool and refreshing
- Perfect for sharing at pool parties, picnics, and for your BBQ dessert
- The ultimate summer dessert
2 Parts to Mini Key Lime Pies
And only 7 ingredients in the entire recipe.
- Graham Cracker Crust: We use my favorite graham cracker crust for the base of today’s pies. I use this crust recipe for pies, cakes, cheesecakes, and more. The buttery and slightly crisp texture is the exact contrast I want with these little key lime pies. You only need 3 ingredients: butter, graham crackers, and sugar. To ensure a compact crust, make sure you press the mixture tightly into each individual muffin cup. You’ll use a little over 1 Tablespoon of crust mixture in each individual pie.
- Key Lime Pie Filling: Our key lime pie filling is tart, sweet, and creamy—exactly as key lime pie should be. Cream cheese acts as the base of the filling, providing a little structure and a subtle cheesecake flavor. (By the way, if you like key lime pie and cheesecake, you have to try my key lime cheesecake.) Also adding a little structure, as well as a rich texture, are egg yolks. To those, we’ll add sweetened condensed milk and key lime juice. For best flavor, make sure you use key lime juice, though regular lime juice works in a pinch.
An optional but tasty third part is a generous dollop of whipped cream on top 🙂
Use a Standard Muffin Pan
We use a standard size (12-cup) muffin pan for today’s mini key lime pies, not a mini muffin pan. Line your pan with liners, then layer in the graham cracker crust. Try to really pack it down—sometimes I use the back of a teaspoon to help along the edges. Pre-bake the crust for a few minutes, then pour the filling evenly onto each crust.
After they’re baked, let them cool at room temperature then place the entire muffin pan in the refrigerator for a couple hours.
By the way, if you’re looking for another fun key lime option, you will LOVE these upside down key lime pies.
Is it just me or do teeny tiny versions of food taste better? Individual key lime pies > actual key lime pie. They’re quicker to make, chill, and serve than a traditional key lime pie—and cuter, too! 🙂 This is the same process we use to make mini margarita cheesecakes (try those next!).
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Mini Key Lime Pies
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 16 mini pies
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
What’s better than key lime pie? Little mini key lime pies!
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 and 1/2 cups (180g) graham cracker crumbs (about 12 full sheet graham crackers)
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
Filling
- 4 ounces (113g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 4 large egg yolks
- one 14-ounce can (396g) full-fat sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) key lime juice*
- optional: lime slices and whipped cream for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-count muffin pan with liners and a second 12-count muffin pan with only 4 (since this recipe makes only around 16). Set pans aside.
- Make the crust: Before you begin, here are all of my tips for a perfect graham cracker crust. If you’re starting out with full-sheet graham crackers, you can use a food processor or blender to grind them up. Or crush them in a zipped top bag with a rolling pin. Mix the graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and granulated sugar together with a rubber spatula in a medium bowl until combined. The mixture will be thick, coarse, and sandy. Press a heaping Tablespoon of mixture down into each liner, making sure the crust is tight and compact. You might have a little crust leftover. If so, press a little more into each liner—if desired! Pre-bake the crusts for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven.
- Make the filling: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. On medium-high speed, beat in the egg yolks, scraping down the sides as needed. On high speed, beat in the sweetened condensed milk and lime juice until combined.
- Pour the filling evenly into each crust. Bake for 15–16 minutes or until the centers of the pies only slightly jiggle (I check this by wiggling the muffin pan—with an oven mitt on!—while it’s still in the oven). Allow the pies to cool at room temperature in the pan set on a wire rack. Once completely cool, place the pan in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.
- Once chilled, serve the key lime pies cold with whipped cream and a lime slice if desired. Store leftover pies in the refrigerator (covered) for up to 1 week. If they last that long!
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Up to 1 day in advance, you can prepare the crust ingredients and the filling ingredients separately. Store each covered tightly in the refrigerator until ready to assemble and bake. Likewise, as noted in set 4, you can bake the key lime pies and store in the refrigerator for 1 day before serving. Key lime pies freeze well, up to 2–3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Food Processor or Blender | Glass Mixing Bowl | Rubber Spatula | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- Key Lime Juice: For the best flavor, make sure you use key lime juice. You can juice your own key limes or buy it from the store. It is usually with the regular lime and lemon juice in the juice aisle. I buy Nellie & Joe’s brand. In a pinch, you can use regular lime juice.
- For a Full-Size Key Lime Pie: To make these as a pie, simply use this crust and filling recipe. Press crust into a 9-inch pie dish. Pre-bake for 12 minutes at 350°F (177°C). Pour in filling. Bake for 18 minutes, and then allow to cool at room temperature before chilling in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Adapted from Key Lime Pie Bars.
- Non-US Readers: Don’t have graham crackers where you live? Use 2 cups (200g) ground digestive biscuits instead (about 13–14 biscuits), the same amount of butter, and add a bit more sugar (about 1/3 cup, or 67g). You may need to add a few extra minutes to the pre-baking time, as digestive biscuits are not quite as crispy-crunchy as graham crackers.
Can I make these in mini muffin pans
Hi Pam, absolutely. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but it will be quite a bit shorter since they are so much smaller than regular muffin pans. Let us know how you like them!
These are delicious but how do you get them not to sink in the middle?
Hi Rosy, Sinking is normal with mini cheesecakes – you can see that ours did in the photos above. More room for toppings! BUT be sure not to overmix the batter which whips too much air into the filling causing them to sink even more.
Oh, that’s what I did! I definitely overmixed the batter. Thank you!
Loved the recipe! What baking time would you recommend for a 24 count mini muffin pan?
Hi Jane! We’re unsure about the exact bake time. It will be a little less since they are much smaller.
These are wonderful, and so cute! I mistakenly bought key LEMON juice (I didn’t even know key lemons existed!). I used it anyway, and the result was delicious! I’ll do lime next time 🙂
Crowd pleaser for sure…. easy to make ( excellent directions), easy to transport ( brought to an outdoor field day party in ziplock bags), easy to serve ( I put them on a large paper plate, and added
whip cream from a can to carnish) easy to eat( no utensils needed )
This recipe was amazing! I personally don’t like key lime pie (the texture is weird to me), but I made this for my dad’s birthday and he loved it. He said it was VERY rich, so I plan to use less butter next time, as everyone in the comments has been recommending. Overall, though, an amazing treat for any occasion (especially in this heat)!
fantastic. i grated a tiny bit of lime rind on each when they came out of the oven.
I’m ready to make these today! I was checking out your recipe for the full sized key lime pie and loved how beautiful it looked with the lime zest in it.
Any thoughts or considerations I should take into account if I add lime zest to the mini’s? I noticed the whole pie listed 1 tsp of lime zest. I’m unsure if I should slightly adjust the key lime juice amount (I’m using Nellie’s and Joe’s brand), or the amount of lime zest.
My instincts tell me to just toss in the lime zest and look forward to some yummy lime flavor but my inexperience in using lime zest with any regularity leaves me uncertain.
Any thoughts? Thanks so much, I can’t wait to pass these around this evening!
Hi Grammie B, you can absolutely add zest to these mini key lime pies without any other changes.
Love your recipes! Just a quick question about the mini key lime pies. Is it safe to pre-bake the crusts (and bake the mini pie) in the oven even though you’re using a paper cupcake liner? Thanks for your attention to detail in all your recipes!
i made these yesterday, you need the paper liners, you’ll never get them out of the cupcake tins intact otherwise
Just made these, they are cooling now.
A suggestion for those wondering how much batter to add – I found with 16, the available batter filled to about 1/4″ from the top of the cupcake liner.
It is super easy and tidy to fill them if you put the batter into a piping bag (think I used 16″) with a Wilton Perfect Fill tip on the end. It gives you a lot of control, because as soon as you stop applying pressure to the bag, the flow stops. So you can fill and then if batter is left, top up any cups that look a little lower than the others. No drips.
This probably sounds like an ad for the product, it’s not. Just making the suggestion because it’s such a low-stress way to add batter to muffin cups. Please remove if inappropriate.
Thanks for the tip, Tracy! Hope you love them.
I love this recipe. Made it as written the first time, other than using regular limes. Second time I used chocolate crumbs for the crust, and added lime zest to the filling in view of the more strongly flavored crust. Both turned out wonderfully, the neighbors we shared them with with loved them – one said they “absolutely devoured them”. This recipe is a keeper!
Why did my pies sink in the middle when cooled?
Hi Donna, Sinking is normal with mini cheesecakes – you can see that ours did in the photos above. More room for toppings! BUT be sure not to overmix the batter which whips too much air into the filling causing them to sink even more.
I had problems with sinking the first time I made this recipe. As mentioned below, I had whipped too much air into the mixture. Stir the mixture with a spoon or beat the pan on the counter a few times before baking to release some of the air bubbles. I did that the second time around and they came out perfect!
So amazingly delicious!! My family makes this a biweekly request!!
I made these using the Gingersnap cookie crust. The crust was very sticky. Only after making them I thought about the molasses in the gingersnaps. It made sense that would cause them to be sticky. They were also greasy and the color of the filling wasn’t vibrant. More of a drab yellow. I used quality store bought Egglands Best white eggs/yokes. I wonder if the egg yokes were too dark. I always use your recipes as they’ve never failed to be perfect. My next batch will be made with the Graham Cracker crumbs. I’m a descent baker but I failed at this one. What did I do wrong?
Hi Sherry, was the crust mixture particularly greasy before baking? We wonder if it wasn’t thoroughly mixed together. The yolks could definitely be contributing to the color of the filling; it could also potentially be the particular lime juice you used. All easy fixes for next time! Thanks so much for making and trusting our recipes, Sherry.
Could I substitute lemon juice instead of lime juice?
Hi Janet, yes, feel free to use lemon juice for mini lemon pies.
Hi Sally – This sounds wonderful, and I’m planning on making it for my golf buddies next week! I’m planning on tripling the recipe to get about 48 servings. How much whipped cream – double? Also, I noticed the key lime bars call for lime zest, but not these. They don’t need it? I did find Nellie & Joe’s key lime juice, and I will be using that!
Thanks! I love all your stuff!!
Pat
Hi Pat, that’s correct, these don’t need zest! Doubling the whipped cream should be fine! Enjoy.
If I bake and freeze, should I add the whip cream only after thawing?
Hi Andrea! Yes, add garnishes after thawing.
Hi Sally! Do you have a “no-bake” key lime recipe that I could use for small jars? I breed a recipe I can perhaps double or triple for party desserts. Your recipes are always my “go to.”
Hi Susan, thank you very much! I don’t have a no bake key lime recipe, but you could try adding a little key lime juice and lime zest to these no bake cheesecake jars or these no bake mini cheesecakes.
Can you make this without the cream cheese? Authentic Key Lime Pie very rarely has cream cheese and I staunchly refuse to use it (though I don’t disparage those who do.) As far as I’m aware, it shouldn’t be necessary for the mini pies to set, but I was wondering if you had any insight into it? I was planning on leaving the cream cheese out entirely, though that may mean more egg whites.
Hi Maren! You can use the filling recipe from our full size key lime pie recipe instead (or halve it – it yields quite a lot!).
Everytime I make cheesecake in muffin pans they fall is it the same with these? How can I prevent that? Would you recommend a water bath/ Bain Marie? Thank you!
Hi Kelsie, Sinking is normal with mini cheesecakes – you can see that ours did in the photos above. More room for toppings! BUT be sure not to overmix the batter which whips too much air into the filling causing them to sink even more.
Can fat free sweetened condensed milk and reduced fat cream cheese be used?
Hi Nancy, we don’t recommend fat free or reduced fat versions of either. The full fat versions are needed to help the pies set correctly.