LEMON ICEBOX PIE

As promised, we're on pies today. At the place where I use to work, I was often referred to as "The Queen of Pies" because on any given day, depending on my mood, I could walk in the front door with a pie that I had prepared. Desserts, of course, were my specialty. For today's entry, I have prepared a Lemon Icebox Pie. I love refrigerated pies with a graham cracker crust and I normally would make my own but I cheated a little bit on this one by using a prepared store-bought crust. This particular pie is one that I never got around to making for my co-workers. To be honest, I have tried to make it several times in the past and it just never turned out right for some reason. It was always too loose or runny but this time, it turned out P-E-R-F-E-C-T and I am so happy!!!

Now, there is a trick to this recipe because it is a combination of two different recipes that I found in the Southern Living magazine. I started out with 6 egg yolks because my intention was to make the “Zesty Lemon Pie” from the August 2010 edition but I realized that my crust was not deep enough to accommodate all of the ingredients. I then ran across a recipe for the “Key Lime Pie” from the July 2010 edition but I didn't have any key limes or an egg substitute. Hmm, what to do? I had two choices: either go to Wal-Mart and buy a deep dish pie pan to make my own crust or swap the key limes for lemons and figure out what the fresh egg equivalent was for 3/4 cup of egg substitute. Whew!

What happened next was sheer brilliance on my part (if I do say so myself.) I went online and found an Egg to Liquid Egg Substitute Conversion chart; figured out how many fresh eggs I needed out of the 6 that I had already cracked and then pieced together certain aspects of both recipes to make my own weird version of a Lemon Icebox Pie. (Disclaimer.....I am NOT advocating that you do what I did because in a perfect world, I would have just taken one of the recipes to the grocery with me and purchased everything that I needed to make that pie. But, since things didn't work out that way, I improvised and oddly enough, everything worked out fine.) I am including my haphazard version of the recipe and at the very bottom of the page you'll find links to the full versions of both of the other recipes that I mentioned.

Special Notes: As I mentioned previously, the Zesty Lemon Pie requires a deep dish crust and the instructions on how to make your own are included in the recipe. It also gives instructions on how to make the whipped topping. Just make sure that you have a deep dish pie pan. The Key Lime Pie requires an egg substitute but if you prefer fresh eggs, here is the link for that egg conversion chart that I was talking about: http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/faqs/f/eggsubstitute.htm.  As for the whipped topping, I cheated a little with that as well.  (I had a box of Dreamwhip in the cabinet and decided to use that instead of whipping cream.  It tastes exactly the same and actually seems to stiffen up a lot quicker.)

Final Thoughts: I have had some pretty good Lemon Icebox Pies at various local restaurants but with a little tweaking, I'd feel confident enough to put this pie up against any of them. After all, the best pies are usually the ones that are made in kitchen by some lady just like me:-)

Ingredients:

1 - 8" or 9" pre-made graham cracker crust

4 egg yolks
1 (14 oz.) can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp. lemon zest

For whipped topping:

1 package of Dreamwhip (follow instructions on box)
1/2 cup cold milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
or
1 cup cold whipping cream
2 tbsp. powdered sugar

Instructions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Mix egg yolks, condensed milk, lemon juice and lemon zest using hand or stand mixer until combined.

3.  Pour into prepared crust and bake for 15 - 17 minutes or until pie is set.

4.  Remove pie from oven and let cool on wire rack for about 1 hour.
5.  Cover and chill for about 3 hours.
6.  Top with whipped topping, garnish and then serve or refrigerate until ready to serve.

 

 
Zesty Lemon Pie.....Southern Living August 2010
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=2003422
 
Key Lime Pie.....Southern Living July 2010
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1206119