I love lemon, but limes tend to get overlooked. We all love key lime pie, so why not a little bit of lime lovin’ to a dessert? Granted, to technically make these Key Lime bars, you’d want to use Key Limes. I think I ended up with non-Key Limes, but the recipe is still pretty swank.
Notice the dessert isn’t green? That’s OK. True key lime pie isn’t green–it’s actually yellow. You can add green food coloring to change the hue of these bars, but a color little goes a long way, so be careful.
I have included helpful tips for the recipe below, so be sure to read everything, and you’ll be set! Love this recipe? Be sure to send your friends the link.
Note: There is no nutritional information at this time, but these bars are supremely low in carbs, with the only appreciable carb amount coming from cream cheese (if used in place of marscapone, 8g for the whole recipe), heavy white cream (6 g for the whole recipe), and coconut/nuts (24 g total for the recipe), and about .5 carbs per serving in lime juice. That’d make the recipe roughly 5 carbs per serving, based on 9 servings.
The Key Lime Bars to my Heart
Crust:
1 cup unsweetened, flaked coconut
2 cups unsalted, roasted almonds
2-3 Tbsp coconut oil (or butter)
Filling:
1 cup Your Lighter Side’s Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 carton (8 ounces) marscapone or 8 ounces cream cheese
1 tsp lime zest
3 egg yolks
juice of 1 lime, about 1/4 cup
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a Ninja, blender or processor, chop nuts and coconut until a fine meal (coarse flour). Pour into a bowl and mix with just enough coconut oil to moisten the mixture (2-3 Tbsp). Line an 8X8 pan with tin foil. Press crust mixture into pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until top begins to brown lightly.
Reduce heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
In separate bowl, combine condensed milk recipe with marscapone, lime juice, yolks and lime zest, mixing until smooth. Pour over crust. Bake 30 minutes. Don’t worry if the center is not set! The bars will continue to set up with refrigeration. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Cut into bars.
Makes about 9 bars at about 5 carbs per serving.
Tips:
1. To juice the lime, first I zested what I needed with a cheese grater. Then I cut the lime in half and squeezed the heck out of it over a bowl to measure. No difficult pieces of equipment needed!
2. For best flavor and texture: Refrigeration of these bars is they key. The flavors and texture improve the longer they are refrigerated, so making these ahead for the next day is absolutely perfect!
3. Advanced Prep: The only real prep required here is to get the easy, sweetened, condensed milk recipe ready to go ahead of time.
4. Options: The super-easy dessert whipped topping recipe and a lime wedge can be added for a quick, fab, dollop of creamy goodness and some color.
5. To achieve those cool diagonal slices, first remove carefully the thoroughly chilled bars from the pan. Start with a large knife by cutting from one corner of the dessert pan to the other at 2″ intervals. Next, make a lengthwise cut through the middle of the dessert pan and space those cuts every 2″, forming diamonds. Note not every piece will be a diamond, but that’s OK!
Now I'm hungry!
Looks good – as usual!
If you vigorously beat the lime zest with the egg yolks, it'll be green 🙂
Ooh! Good thing to know, Erica!
Anne– Thank you. I really am a coconut fan now…
Oh my! These look just fabulous Jamie!
Thank you! I am still working the ingredients angle and making better ingredients choices where I can.
These look so good, however, I don't like coconut flakes (I like coconut oil and coconut milk, just not the flakes – I know I'm weird like that)- can I just sub more almonds for the crust?
I doubled the recipe and made these for my family gathering last night. They were absolutely amazing.
I am so glad you liked these! I am such a lime lovah! I appreciate you taking the time to let me know how they worked out!
Yum! Yum! Looks Fab-O, as usual, Jamie. Can’t wait to try this recipe. TY
I love your site so far! I just went Gluten Free last month and also have to watch out about most dairy, especially cream. Any way to make these with coconut or almond milk?
Hi, Jess! If you’re using canned coconut milk and use the thicker stuff in the can, you should be able to. The advantage of the heavy white cream is the thickness, so if you can eke that thickness out of canned coconut milk, you’re golden!
You DONT want the Key Lime pie or bars to be green!! Anyone who knows the true authentic deserts recognize how this ‘cheapens’ the finished product. Usually the green ones are a red flag of an awful spinoff with shortcuts/substitutions galore, which affect quality & taste.
You can buy real key limes in most Latino grocery stores which are in most cities. And, bottled key lime juice is available too.
I cant wait to make this recipe!
Native FL girl
YUMMMMMMMMY! This was my husband’s birthday cake. Big hit!
Craving something sweet and tart! Perfect!
Do you think the Nestle Table Cream (sweetened with Xylitol) would work for the Sweetened condensed milk?
It could for sure! I’ve never tried it, but you definitely should. It is thicker.
May I ask why half xylitol and half erythritol? Can I just use all erythritol? I don’t / won’t use xylitol …. I have two beautiful Boxers :).
Thank you for this recipe, I can’t wait to try it, I LOVE Key Lime pie!
Hi there! Both sweeteners have opposing tendencies (erythritol cooling + lower melting point), xylitol (less cooling, higher melting point), so by combining the two, they net better results. I use xylitol with pets; that said, if that’s not something that’s preferable (and I totally get it), you can sub in Splenda or another sweetener for the xyltiol, or use erythritol. I just find that erythritol on its own can be a bit disappointing. Another option is Just Like Sugar, a sweetener made with chicory root (almost 100% fiber).
Thank you for your speedy reply. I will try another sweetener if I can figure out the measurements :(, hardest part is trying to convert all these different sweeteners! I have Erythritol, Stevia in the Raw (don’t like it), Truvia, Truvia Baking Blend, Swerve, NuNaturals stevia liquid as well as KAL stevia powder!
And you’re probably a better Mommy than I am, I give my doggies way too many treats and people food so would be too afraid to use the xylitol.
Thank you again,
Roye
These look awesome-licious!