10-minute lime cracker pie

from Food 52 and Serious Eats

J claims he doesn’t like cake. I have made some cakes that he’s liked, so I’m not sure if that’s entirely true, but let’s just continue with that premise for now. I wanted to make him something for his birthday, so I found what I thought would be the perfect easy recipe: lime cracker pie from J Kenji Lopez-Alt. This is a columbian-inspired dish that he got from his wife; an ice box cake make of simply buttery crackers (ritz to substitute the brand they use in columbia), lime juice, condensed milk and whipped cream. J loves his mom’s lemon ice box pie made from condensed milk and lemon juice, and this seemed like pretty similar flavors.

I deviated from the recipe a few times: the condensed milk and cream are combined together at the beginning, but one of the commenters said that was a bit runny and suggested whipping the cream first, so I did that (by hand, no less!). Then I added the lime juice, but I wasn’t getting enough tartness from the called for amount, so I added a good bit extra, maybe a quarter cup. Lime zest was added to the mixture, and then this was layered between ritz crackers and topped with more lime zest. The pie is then refrigerated overnight to let all the liquid soaked into crackers. The result is an addicting, creamy lime concoction that is cut with salty and buttery soft crackers. I loved it.

Now J, as it turns out, also does not like whipped cream. When he took a bite I could tell he wasn’t into it. He insisted that I had been told this, but it was news to me. So next year, no cake, no whipped cream, I guess.