- [Dexter Voiceover] My secret ingredient,
sodium Pentothal, coma in half a minute.
Pancuronium stops her breathing and then, peace.
- You finally brought me,
the perfect pie.
- [Instructor] Hey, whats up Guys?
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish,"
where this week we're taking a crack
at the perfect key lime pie from "Dexter."
The pie for which we're gonna need
a cocktail of euthanizing chemicals and some key limes,
both pretty hard to get ahold of, much like true champagne
has to originate in champagne France,
true key limes must be grown in the Florida Keys.
Most of the key limes you find at the grocery store
are going to be imported,
and are apparently significantly more bitter
than the genuine article,
but I don't know, tastes like lime to me.
Just make sure if you use conventional limes
to add a little bit of lime oil,
and if you're using key limes to buy a whole lot,
because to make a single key lime pie,
we must yield two thirds of a cup of key lime juice,
which could take anywhere from 15 to 30 key limes.
Once you've got all your juice, juiced.
Go ahead and set that aside because first things first,
we gotta make us a Graham cracker crust.
If you wanna make your own Graham crackers from scratch,
check out the link in the upper right-hand corner right now.
But honestly, I really don't think
you're gonna taste the difference.
Both homemade and store-bought Graham crackers
are plenty bland, either way, we're placing them
in our, oh my God, I did not know
that food processors could do that.
Make sure your food processor is off
before securing the lid,
and we're processing about one and a half packs
worth of Graham crackers to a fine Graham cracker dust.
Then once done and dusted,
we're gonna measure out about 200 grams worth,
to which we're gonna add about 40 grams of powdered sugar,
or you can use regular sugar,
just make sure to measure out the same amount.
And a big old pinch of kosher salt
before tiny whisking until thoroughly combined
making sure to crush any bits of powdered sugar,
then we're adding 100 grams of melted unsalted butter
to the party, we're gently mixing this together
using a spatula thingy combo until the Graham cracker crumbs
are evenly saturated and they keep their shape
when pressed together but are still crumbly like wet sand.
This means that they're ready to dump
into an unprepared pie plate.
where we're gonna gently press them into all the corners,
press them up at the sides of the plate,
using our fingers and maybe a nice flat bottomed ramekin
to make sure that everything is smooth and even,
and compacted.
Then this guy's headed into a 325 degree fahrenheit oven
for 15 minutes before being removed to cool completely
on a wire rack.
Just enough time to make our key lime curd
in this technique courtesy of King Arthur Flour,
into the bowl of the stand mixer goes three egg yolks,
separated from their whites.
The zest of one large lime or three key limes,
this is optional, but it's gonna amplify the lime flavor
without adding any extra bitterness,
then we are fixing wire whisks
and beating the egg yolks until,
you got to plug in the machine stupid,
beating the egg yolks for about three minutes
on high speed.
During this time they're gonna slightly increase in volume
and become nice and thick and ribbony like a hollandaise.
Next up, one 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.
This is where both the sweetness and a milkiness
of this recipe is gonna come from.
We're beating this together with the egg yolks,
this time with the pedal attachment on medium high speed,
for about five minutes until it's light and pale
and slightly thickened.
Now last but decidedly not least are two-thirds of a cup
of key lime juice, which we're gonna add
while the mixer is running on low and mix
until just combined.
The acid from the limes
should slightly thicken the mixture.
Give it a couple of folds to make sure that,
everybody's gotten to know everybody.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature
for 30 minutes.
30 minutes later and it looks exactly the same,
but during this time it should've gotten a little thicker
and our Graham cracker crust should be cooled completely.
So we're gonna pour the filling into the prepared crust,
don't worry if it looks a little low,
it's going to expand slightly in the oven.
Give it a little wiggle to make sure that,
it's evenly dispersed and pop it back
into a 325 degree fahrenheit oven for about 25 minutes
until set around the edges and registering 145 degrees
in the center.
Don't stress too much about your temperature hole,
you can cover that up once this guy has cooled completely,
at room temp for about two hours.
Then to really drive home the cooling concept,
we are wrapping in plastic wrap and popping in the fridge
for at least four hours ideally overnight.
The pie in "Dexter," was festooned
with a decorative, piped whipped cream topping.
So we're gonna mix together a pint of heavy cream,
two tablespoons of sugar and a dash of vanilla extract
and beat until stiff peaks have been achieved,
dump it into a pastry bag with a fluted tip
and begin trying and failing miserably
to recreate the pattern seen on the show.
I am really bad at decorating things,
I like to think it's part of my charm.
Then annoyingly, we are also garnishing
with slices of key lime, which I hate
'cause you can't really eat it,
and then the savior of bad decorations everywhere,
a generous zesting of key lime zest,
which will instantly improve your shoddy piping.
All there is to do now is cut yourself a generous slice
of the perfect key lime pie,
oh, that doesn't look terribly perfect, does it?
Nothing a little food styling won't fix.
Smooth out the edges, cut off any crumbs,
polish the cut side and look at that,
now that's the perfect key lime pie.
All this needs now is a whisper of sodium Pentothal
and Pancuronium.
Again, I'm terrible with pies,
but I'm guessing no more than five or 10 mil.
And let's dig in, and I gotta say,
this is the perfect key lime pie,
once you get rid of the stupid lime slice,
it is sweet, tart, crunchy and smooth,
and a definitive member of the clean play, um
clean play, um, I'm gonna take a nap real quick.
(upbeat music)