He took a fishing trip with his brother and came home proclaiming of a new favorite pie...
(and lots of catfish, but that’s a recipe for another post).
Having never made this new “best”
pie, I knew the place I should start my recipe research was on Allrecipes.com. I
combed through several submitted recipes and even more reviews, littered with
suggestion after suggestion. I always feel that the simpler, the better.
A good
dessert doesn’t need a litany of steps and ingredients to taste wonderful.
I
think I ended up with a gem!
The secret to this recipe? Bring all the ingredients to
room temperature before you do anything else.
Starting with the cream cheese block and a hand held
mixer, beat the cream cheese into a smooth, creamy base on medium-high speed.
Mix in the sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla. If you can’t get
it perfectly smooth, don’t worry. It’ll taste just as good with a few beads of
cream cheese. (In other words, I couldn’t get my super smooth, so I guess I
meant to do that, right?)
Pour the mixture into a ready-made graham cracker pie
crust. (If you make your own crust, give
yourself a pat on the back. If you make your own graham crackers and make a pie
crust with it, you’re my hero!)
Cover the filled pie and put it in the
freezer for 4 hours. Then transfer it to the fridge. Let it chill for at least
8 hours before serving.
For a luncheon presentation, make star shapes with an aerosol
whipped cream container around the pie rim and one in the center. Cut into 8
wedges.
The hubs oooh-ed and aaaah-ed all about this pie, and he
ate nearly half of it. That might sound normal for me, but for my "he-who-doesn’t-eat-sweets" man,
that speaks volumes! Even my picky eater son likes it. Where has this been all
my life? And, since there are only 5 ingredients, I consider it a “win” for
simplicity.
The original Allrecipes.com recipe was just a base. I took some of the suggestions from the reviews and then added
a splash of vanilla. Who doesn’t love vanilla? The full recipe is given below. Ladies, start your mixers!
Lemon Icebox
Pie
1 prepared graham cracker crust
8 oz. cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Bring ingredients to room temperature. With a hand mixer,
beat the cream cheese block until smooth. Add the milk, juice & vanilla
and continue to beat on medium-high speed until well mixed. Pour mixture into
the crust and even out the top. Cover & place in the freezer for 4 hours.
Then, transfer to the refrigerator for at least another 4 hours. Slice &
serve plain or with whipped cream.
