Sort of Pie for February

While we were in Florida recently, one of my top priorities was to sample the regional specialty Key Lime Pie. Unfortunately, I didn't quite have the time to scour every nook and cranny for a great piece of pie and that is sad - because the one we tried our very first night in town was pretty awful. (This photo, by the way, was not the awful one and I did not taste this particular pie.)

The up side is that I'm serving a lime ice cream on the menu right now that I swear is quite frankly the S_ _ _T . . . or the bomb, whatever. It is like the smoothest, creamiest key lime pie filling you've ever tasted and since I like that particular pie partially frozen anyway it works out. So I may have been disappointed but I am certainly not deprived.

I took some home yesterday and sandwiched a scoop between two ginger snap cookies. It was pretty good, but actually I think that if I had made a crumb crust from the cookies and molded the ice cream into a pie, it would have been even better. I'm not big on frozen cookies so while trying to soften them enough to eat, the ice cream melted a little too much and it turned out to be a fairly messy experience - which is a no-no in my book.

See, I do not like to do battle with my food -- so every dessert that I test for work I have to actually eat (not just taste) the final, composed dessert with all its components to make sure it will be accessible to the diner. Granted, there is a time and place for playing with food and really digging in. But, I'd rather the flavors and textures not have to compete in a wrestling match if you know what I mean.

ANYWAY . . . I did, however enjoy the presentation of the ice cream sandwiches on my new, adorable lime green and robin's egg blue vintage melamine dessert plates from http://www.vindeelyndee.etsy.com.Thanks Marnie! I adore them!

So for this month's pie of the month I'm giving you the recipe for Key Lime Pie Ice Cream, which is delicious served as is or you can try my suggestion with the gingersnap cookie crumb crust ( we serve it with pineapple beignets which is pretty good too.)

8 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
zest and juice 6 regular limes (not little key limes) to equal 6 oz lime
juice
4 oz unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar
4 cups heavy cream
2 TBS vodka

Combine the first five listed ingredients in a large sauce pan and whisk over medium heat until it thickens and just begins to boil. Strain the resulting lime curd through a fine mesh strainer. Add the remaining sugar, cream, and vodka and chill thoroughly before churning in an ice cream machine. When it is done, either pour into prepared pie crust (topping with sweetened whipped cream if you'd like) and freeze or just freeze in a container with a lid.

Notes:

• Slice the pie while frozen and then allow the individual pieces to sit at room temp for about 5 minutes before serving.
• Please do not be tempted to use any kind of bottled lime juice, even if it says fresh and you bought it at Whole Foods or even if it says it is "real Key lime juice" - the fresh squeezed regular supermarket limes are far superior and you need the zest anyway. Bottled juice is what gives a lot of pies that strange, off flavor.
• To zest, I use a Microplane and I strongly suggest you get one if you don't have one already.
• Cuisinart makes a fairly affordable ice cream machine ($50) that works great, especially for home use, but we used it at the restaurant with great results before we finally got our kick butt $1500 Italian gelato machine.
• If you think making your own ice cream is too much trouble, please just try it some time and you will be amazed at how easy it is to make something so much better than you can buy and that you can trick out however you want with all kinds of ingredients and flavorings.
• Why vodka? Because vodka does not freeze it keeps the ice cream from turning rock hard and you won't have to let it sit on the counter for twenty minutes before you scoop it. Commercial ice creams have all sorts of weird stabilizers in them to keep them soft.