The Making of a Key Lime Pie Tart

Hive’s Executive Pastry Chef, Amber Felton, moved to Palm Beach almost two years ago and due to Covid, had several extra months to work on menu development before the grand opening of Hive Bakery & Cafe.  During this time, Amber baked for the lucky staff at Hive often, and owner Sara McCann in particular did a lot of taste-testing and gave extensive feedback. At first, Amber and Sara were not set on having Key Lime Pie on the menu, it seemed too predictable.  However, for Sara’s birthday, she was heading to the Keys and Amber took the occasion to bake her first ever version of this classic Florida dessert.  The birthday pie made it down to Islamorada and was enjoyed in the company of several other Key Lime pies, and to Sara and her friends the decision was clear – it had to be on the menu.

How Amber put her own twist on the Key Lime Pie

First off, Amber decided to go with a tart, not a pie.  Next her focus was on texture, she really wanted to offer something different than the traditional Graham Cracker crust, so she created a shortbread-like dough of crushed Graham Crackers and baked it twice into tiny nuggets.  To keep the nuggets crisp when they were mixed in with the Key Lime curd, she lightly coated them in white chocolate.  For the creamy curd she not only juiced, but zested the tiny limes. As a finishing touch, Amber piped meringue in a wave pattern (intentionally to evoke the ocean) and toasted it for a delicious caramelized flavor.

If you’re a Key Lime Pie fan we hope you will come taste our version that’s creamy, sweet, sour, packed with the zing of bright citrus, and ends with a pop of crunch.