No Bake Key Lime Cheesecake

Today I felt housewifey (and my cream was about to expire) so I decided to finally make that Key Lime Pie I've been dying to eat.

I used this (modified) recipe from All Recipes. 

Ingredients 

For the Key Lime Pie:

• Homemade or Store Bought Crust
• 2 - 8oz packages of cream cheese
• 3/4 cups of lime juice
• 2 - 14 oz cans of sweetened condensed milk 
• 1 teaspoon of lime zest
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt 

For the Topping: 

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
• 3 tablespoons confectioners sugar

The hardest part about this pie is zesting the limes and squeezing enough juice out of them. I used way more than what's shown in the picture. I grabbed a whole bag from HEB and used all but one. 

Directions

1. To Make Lime Filling: In a large mixing bowl, whip cream cheese until fluffy. Add condensed milk, lime juice, lime rind, and salt. Whip until mixture is smooth. Pour into graham cracker crust. Cover with plastic wrap and chill thoroughly.

This is what the pie looks like before it's chilled and topped. 

I did not have a fine mesh sieve because...really? So instead to make the topping I just...

1. Creamed the heavy whipping cream, added the vanilla, and confectioners sugar. Once everything was in I continued to cream until it was almost like frosting. Chill until ready to serve. 

This is the final product, after it's been chilled overnight.

As you can see it didn't really set. I don't know why. It was super tasty though. Very tart on its own but sweet and creamy when you add the whipped cream topping. When I cut it the slice didn't stay pie-shaped but rather kind of pudding-ed in a bowl. Some of the reviewers on All Recipes called it a Key Lime Cheesecake more than a Key Lime Pie and I guess I'd have to agree but even though I've never made a cheesecake from scratch before either I do know that those are supposed to set.

Anyway....

It's really good either way. Just grab a bowl instead of a plate. And don't even worry about putting it in a pie crust since you can just eat it with graham crackers on the side.

Besides the not-setting fact I loved the flavor but next time I'll probably look for a recipe that requires baking (at least a little bit) and then chilling.

Do you have a favorite, NO-FAIL key lime pie recipe? Let me know. You'll save me a lot of time.