make: icebox lemon pie

The New York Times published a recipe for an easy, no bake, icebox lemon pie. I only had stale graham crackers in my pantry, and so I trekked to the store for Meyer lemon cookies to crush instead.

  

Combine the crumbs (made by processing in the Vitamix) with melted butter and press into a pie plate and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Note to self: use more crumbs than called for in a recipe to make a crust that extends all the way to the pie dish's edges. In the mixing bowl, combine two blocks of cream cheese (one was lowfat Neufchatel, but next time, I'd like to try Greek yogurt or use 2 blocks of the lowfat cream cheese), heavy whipping cream, and lemon curd (bought a jar at World Market).

After combining the liquid ingredients, I scooped the mixture into the pie crust. I recently read a column of Chris Kimball who made a key lime version of the icebox pie, and he used gelatin to firm up the filling. And so if I used Greek yogurt instead of cream cheese, I would probably have to use gelatin. I then put the icebox pie into a neighbor's freezer as there was no room in mine for a couple hours. Supposedly after freezing, the pie will stay firm if then placed in the refrigerator.

I zested and sliced thinly one lemon to embellish the pie.

The pie was shared with neighbors and tasted lovely. I'm thinking I'll make this again to bring to a friend's housewarming dinner (she bought her own condo)if I don't bake her cookies instead.