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My Key Lime Pie Bars are outrageously delicious and you need less than 10 ingredients to make them! These squares are zesty, filled with lime juice, and are the perfect springtime dessert! And the crust is seriously irresistible!
Something about springtime just makes me CRAVE lime-y desserts that are citrusy and tangy. These key lime pie bars are always the first desserts I crave when spring finally hits. It makes me feel like the humid wind blowing through my hair came straight from the Florida Keys. Or like I’m on vacation or something!
Key Lime Pie Bars! Have you had them? For me, it all starts with the perfect crust and the creamy filling.
And my crust, I guarantee, is like no other you’d had before. That’s because I add a few not-so-traditional ingredients for key lime pies into the crust. I know you’re giving me the look, but let me say that cinnamon and ground pecans are going to take these bars to the next level. The Cheesecake Factory uses nuts in some of their cheesecake crust to make the flavor so unique, along with a pinch of cinnamon. The cinnamon flavor isn’t noticeable if you’re worried about that. Just a quarter teaspoon makes the crust so delicious but keeps the eater guessing what it is that makes these key lime pie bars so addicting. You’ll also find a few typical ingredients like a boatload of fresh lime zest and lime juice in the filling.
Overall, these are sweet but tart, and totally irresistible.
Key Lime Pie Bars Video
Ingredients for key lime pie bars
- Graham cracker crumbs: I like to buy whole sheets of graham crackers in a box and then break them down into fine crumbs in the food processor. You can also just buy premade graham cracker crumbs these days so it cuts down on the prep work a little bit.
- Ground pecans: Adds nuttiness and texture to the key lime pie bar crust.
- Granulated Sugar: Adds sweetness to the graham cracker crust.
- Ground cinnamon: Just a pinch works so beautifully with the other crust ingredients.
- Butter: You’ll need a stick of melted, unsalted butter to use from the pie crust.
- Large Egg Yolks: You’ll need to separate 3 yolks from the eggs. I find it easier to separate the egg whites from the yolks while the eggs are cold. You can use the leftover egg whites for breakfast the next day or to make a meringue!
- Sweetened condensed milk: Adds sweetness to the key lime pie bars and keeps the bars nice and firm. A lot of recipes call for cream cheese, but I opt for sweetened condensed milk here and it’s absolutely perfect.
- Lime Zest: You‘ll need a good bit of fresh lime zest for this recipe. Make sure to use a good zester to help get the lime zest nice and fine. We’ll add this to the filling and whisk it together so that the flavor of the zest carries throughout the lime bars.
- Lime juice: Feel free to use key lime juice or regular lime juice for this. Nellie Key lime juice is the stuff that comes in a bottle, usually in the juice section of the grocery store. Key limes have a slightly floral scent and make the bars so much more delicious, but I do understand they aren’t available everywhere. You can also use bottled key lime juice for this recipe, but I tend to like the freshly squeezed version better.
How to make the best key lime pie bars
- Set yourself up with the basics. You want to start by preheating the oven. You’ll also want to grab an 8×8 baking pan for this recipe. Spray with cooking spray then line with a sheet of parchment paper. This keeps the sheet from moving around too much when you the press mixture of graham crackers into the pan.
- Make the crust. In a small bowl, combine the crushed-up graham cracker crumbs, ground pecans, sugar, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and stir to combine. Make sure that all the crumbs are evenly coated in the melted butter. This will make it much easier to press the crust into the prepared pan. Dump this out into the 8×8 pan and press it out to an even layer. It helps to use round bottom glass sprayed with cooking spray to aid in this step. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.
- Make the key lime filling. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, whisk the egg yolks together for 2 minutes. You want to do this when they aren’t cold from the fridge, they mix much easier when they’re closer to room temperature. Then add the condensed milk and continue to whisk until the mixture is combined. Scrape down the sides of the mixer, and add the lemon zest. With the mixer running on low, slowly drizzle in the lime juice while the filling combines. Pour the filling into the prepared pie crust and then bake the key lime pie bars for 15 minutes.
- Have patience, let them cool. When the bars are out of the oven allow them to cool on a wire rack without attempting to remove them from the baking dish. The filling will continue to set as it cools.
FAQs about this recipe
Yes, absolutely! Many readers have mentioned that they’ve made and frozen my key lime pie bars recipe successfully.
I like to dip my knife in hot water before attempting to make cuts. Cut all the way down to the crust with a very sharp knife, then wipe the knife between cuts to help keep things clean. It also helps to redip your knife in hot water between cutting pieces.
I think compared to most key lime pie bar recipes, my recipe has an abundance of crust – some might say too much. Something to consider if you usually prefer significantly more filling to crust. I’m the kind of girlie that wouldn’t mind pushing the filling-to-crust ratio closer to 50:50. But this recipe has a 60% ratio of filling to crust and I love how they slice up beautifully!
I’ve also made these into lemon pie bars and they are absolutely fantastic! I love topping them with a dollop of whipped cream.
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
- Easy Mini Fruit Tarts
- Texas Blueberry Cobbler
- Classic Southern Banana Pudding
- Quick Warm Cinnamon Apples
- Easiest No Bake Nutella Pie
Key Lime Pie Bars
Equipment
- 8-Inch Square Pan
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups graham cracker crumbs 12 large rectangles
- 2 tablespoons ground pecans
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 stick ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 3 egg yolks room temperature
- 14 ounce sweetened condensed milk
- 4 teaspoons lime zest about 3 limes
- ½ cup key lime juice regular limes are fine too
Instructions
- PREP: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray an 8×8 square baking pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper, set aside.
- CRUST: In a small bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, ground pecans, sugar, and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and stir to combine. Make sure all the crumbs are moistened. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the baking pan and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven, leave the oven on.
- FILLING: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whisk the yolks for 2 minutes. Add the condensed milk and continue to whisk for another 2 minutes. Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides, add the lime zest. With the mixer on low, drizzle in the lime juice, let the mixer run for 2 minutes once added. The pie mixture will be slightly thicker when done. Pour the filling into the crust and bake for 15-17 minutes. The filling will finish setting when the bars cool, but it shouldn't be too liquidy.
- SERVE: Cool completely on a wire rack. Filling will set as it cools. Refrigerate for at minimum of 2 hours, and ideally overnight. Slice and serve chilled.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
Do you place the ingredients over the parchment paper & then peel it off after slicing each piece ?
Hi, Lisa! Yes, the crust would be pressed on top of the parchment paper to keep it from sticking to the pan. I use the parchment to lift the bars out of the baking pan and place of a cutting board. You shouldn’t need to ‘peel’ the paper as it doesn’t get stuck to the bars. Hope that helps!
When you say key lime juice, do you mean fresh or from concentrate? Thanks!
Hi Katie! Either would work here so I didn’t specify but if you have the option, fresh is best!
I want to make these but no pecans in house ~ I have everything else though. I have walnuts and also almonds – possible to swap the pecans?
Hi Karen! I’d use walnuts, think that should work out pretty well.
Hi! We dont get key limes or limes where we live. Is it possible to use lemon juice or will that affect the texture?
Hi Aleena, I have a recipe for lemon squares that uses lemon juice if you’d like to give that a try – they’re very similar to these!
Calories?
Love these!!+
Glad to hear it, Patricia!
This is made on a 8X8 pan. I need to use a bigger rectangular pan. Do you have the recipe for a bigger pan?
Hi Adry! You would just need to double or triple the ingredients based on the size of pan you use. Also, keep in mind that baking times could change significantly if it’s a much larger batch. I always suggest to try the recipe at lease once as written before making any changes 🙂
I made these for a small neighborhood get-together & everyone loved them, already printed out the recipe for one! I doubled the cinnamon because I love cinnamon, I was 3 graham crackers short so added 2 Tbs more of pecans. I will definitely make these again!!
I was lucky to get a piece it went so quickly! I made it with gingernuts (With the same butter and sugar amounts) as the base, as we don’t have graham crackers in NZ and it was very successful! Had to forward the recipe to everyone!
Happy to hear that, Michelle! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Great recipe! I have a electric oven so I had to bake the crust a little longer then what is said. Also I made it in a cheesecake spring pan and it worked great. These are very tasty. Best crust I’ve ever had with the pecans in them. Highly recommend for any occasion.
Isn’t the crust so good? Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
These were absolutely delicious. The crust is unbelievable. The pecans in the cinnamon made such a difference. Everyone who had them raved about them.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the addition of cinnamon and pecans – the crust is our favorite part 🙂
These bars were delicious! The crust was perfection. I don’t think I’ll ever make a plain graham cracker crust again. The crust was just right for keeping the bars from falling apart while serving and holding them. My boyfriend and I don’t like super sweet desserts so my only adjustment was that I did 8 oz sweetened condensed milk and 6 oz of evaporated milk that I boiled off until it was condensed, just to lower the sugar content a bit. I think they would have been wonderful with the full amount of sugar too though, still not too sweet. I topped them with a dollop of homemade whipped cream and some fresh lime and lemon zest and they were brilliant. They will definitely be a staple for us!
So happy to hear they were enjoyed, Charlotte! Thanks for sharing your tip on making these a little less sweet!
Perfect! Very easy to make. I used 1 2/3 cups of the graham cracker crumbs. Adding this to my roster of favourites!! The lime flavour was amazing and everyone in the family loved them. Thank you!!
So glad to hear it was enjoyed by all! Appreciate you taking the time to come back and comment!
These bars are perfect! I love keylime pie bars and my family destroyed these within minutes. Can’t wait to make more, they brought us happiness during a crazy time. Thank you for the recipe!
These are delicious!! And the crust! Worth making the crust vs premade because it’s easy and so delicious. I like the bars vs pie slices because they cut nicely and smaller for pie baby shower. Can you freeze these?
Glad to hear you enjoyed them! I think another reader mentioned that these bars freeze well 🙂
Made many times they are always a hit! Ever experimented with other juices? Lemon, grapefruit, or orange? I even wonder if mango would be good.
So happy to hear that! I think it could work as written if you wanted to swap the key lime juice for lemon or grapefruit. You may need to play around with the amount of condensed milk if you were to use mango juice though, I’m just worried the bars would be super sweet.
Sorry to hijack your question, Jessica but I didn’t see where else to ask this… Did I miss something? I don’t see how many egg yolks this recipe calls for. Thanks for the reply! 🙂
You’ll need 3 egg yolks for these key lime pie bars, they are listed on the recipe under the ‘ingredients’ section 🙂
I would love to make these, but due to recent medical issue I need to know the sugar content per serving. If unavailable, I’ll probably still make them but just won’t be able to eat any, ?
Thank you for your help
Hi Mary, I don’t have the nutritional information offhand but if you’d like to obtain it, you can simply copy the URL of this page and paste it into MyfitnessPal (there’s also an app) and it with calculate it for you. This way, you can put in the exact brands you’ve used and ensure more accurate nutritional content 🙂
I didn’t have an 8×8 pan, but really wanted to give these a try, so I did use a 9×13 and double the recipe. I cooked the crust 3 minutes longer and cooked the flan portion an additional 5 minutes. I have not yet cut them, but the concoction does look set, so my fingers are crossed! I’ll keep you posted!
Do you know if these bars would stack well? I would like to make these for a party, but I would need to be able to stack them in tupperware to get them there. Thanks!
I would use wax or even parchment paper between the layers (wax part touching the key lime layer.) They do stick if you place them directly on top of each other.
I made these for a July 4th party along with lemon bars from a different website. Hands down, these were the favorite!! I did have to omit the pecans as my son is allergic. When he goes back to college in the fall, I’ll make them again with the pecans for just my husband and me. Both of my kids asked if I could make them for our beach trip in August! Thank you for the amazing recipe!! Will check out your lemon bars as well 🙂