Icebox pie

Last updated

Icebox pies are no-bake pies including ice cream pies, chiffon pies, and classic cream pies like key lime pie, lemon ice box pie, chocolate pudding pie, grasshopper pie and banana cream pie. The crust can be a crumb crust or blind baked pastry. [1] They are associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States. [2]

Contents

Ingredients

Common ingredients used in the filling include whipped cream, condensed milk, or pudding. The cookie based crusts are often made with crushed graham crackers or vanilla wafers, though other types of cookies like shortbread and gingersnaps can be used. [3] Variations can be made with the addition of ingredients like peanut butter, malted milk, dulce de leche and sliced bananas. Icebox pies are very often topped with whipped cream. [1]

Some ice box pie fillings are made with gelatin; a 1937 recipe for strawberry icebox pie starts by whisking fruit flavored gelatin to an egg white consistency and combining with fresh fruit. Poured over a vanilla wafer crust to set, the pie is topped with fresh whipped cream. The same basic recipe can be modified using other fruits like peaches or raspberries. Custard pies are made similarly, replacing the gelatin with a simple homemade custard filling, topped with fresh or canned fruits (especially cherries). [4]

History

Icebox pies were originally kept cool in an icebox, used to store perishables when most farming households in the United States had neither electricity nor refrigeration. Because they required no baking they were popular during the summer when it was too hot to bake. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Dessert Course that concludes a meal, usually sweet

Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Central Africa and West Africa, and most parts of China, there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.

Custard Semi-solid cooked mixture of milk and egg

Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce to the thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used in custard desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla; however, savory custards are also found, e.g., in quiche.

Trifle Custard dessert

Trifle is a layered dessert found in British and other cuisines. The usual ingredients are a thin layer of sponge fingers or sponge cake soaked in sherry or another fortified wine, a fruit element, custard and whipped cream layered in that order in a glass dish. The contents of a trifle are though highly variable and many varieties exist, some forgoing fruit entirely and instead using other ingredients, such as chocolate, coffee or vanilla. The fruit and sponge layers may be suspended in fruit-flavoured jelly, and these ingredients are usually arranged to produce three or four layers. The assembled dessert can be topped with whipped cream or, more traditionally, syllabub.

Hungarian cuisine Culinary traditions of Hungary

Hungarian or Magyar cuisine is the cuisine characteristic of the nation of Hungary and its primary ethnic group, the Magyars. Traditional Hungarian dishes are primarily based on meats, seasonal vegetables, fruits, bread, and dairy products.

Cheesecake Sweet cheese-based dessert, often with a crust

Cheesecake is a sweet dessert consisting of one or more layers. The main, and thickest, layer consists of a mixture of a soft, fresh cheese, eggs, and sugar. If there is a bottom layer, it most often consists of a crust or base made from crushed cookies, graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake. Cheesecake may be baked or unbaked.

Dulce de leche Confection from Latin America

Dulce de leche, also known as caramelized milk or milk jam in English, is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. The resulting substance, which takes on a spreadable, sauce-like consistency, derives its rich flavour and colour from non-enzymatic browning. It is typically used to top or fill other sweet foods.

Lemon ice box pie American custard pie

Lemon ice box pie is an icebox pie consisting of lemon juice, eggs, and condensed milk in a pie crust, frequently made of graham crackers and butter. It is a variant of key lime pie; in both, the citric acidity sets the egg yolks, with minimal baking. There are also no bake versions.

Cream pie Custard based pie

A cream pie, crème pie, or creme pie is a type of pie filled with a rich custard or pudding that is made from milk, cream, sugar, wheat flour, and eggs. It comes in many forms, including vanilla, lemon, lime, peanut butter, banana, coconut, and chocolate. One feature of most cream pies is a whipped cream topping. The custard filling is related to crème patissière, a key component of French cakes, and tarts. It is a one-crust pie, where the crust covers the bottom and sides but not the top. The crust may be a standard pastry pie crust, or made with crumbled cookies or a graham cracker crust.

Banana pudding Dessert made from banana

Banana pudding is a pudding generally consisting of layers of sweet vanilla flavored custard, cookies and sliced fresh bananas placed in a dish and served, topped with whipped cream or meringue.

Icebox cake Dessert

An icebox cake is a dairy-based dessert made with cream, fruits, nuts, and wafers and set in the refrigerator. One particularly well-known version is the back-of-the-box recipe on thin and dark Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers.

Cottage pudding is a traditional American dessert consisting of a plain, dense cake served with a sweet glaze or custard. The glaze is generally cornstarch based and flavored with sugar, vanilla, chocolate, butterscotch, or one of a variety of fruit flavors such as lemon or strawberry.

Sponge cake Type of cake

Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first of the non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognized today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge.

Instant pudding

Instant pudding is an instant food product that is manufactured in a powder form and used to create puddings and pie filling. It is produced using sugar, flavoring agents and thickeners as primary ingredients. Instant pudding can be used in some baked goods.

Mango float

Mango float or crema de mangga is a Filipino icebox cake dessert made with layers of ladyfingers (broas) or graham crackers, whipped cream, condensed milk, and ripe carabao mangoes. It is chilled for a few hours before serving, though it can also be frozen to give it an ice cream-like consistency. It is a modern variant of the traditional Filipino crema de fruta cake. It is also known by various other names like mango refrigerator cake, mango graham float, mango royale, and mango icebox cake, among others. Crema de mangga is another version that additionally uses custard and gulaman (agar) or gelatin, as in the original crema de fruta.

Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.

References

  1. 1 2 "What Are Icebox Pies and Why Are Southerners So Crazy About Them?". Southern Living.
  2. 1 2 "Ice box pie history". What's Cooking America.
  3. "Old-fashioned icebox pies are easy and delicious". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  4. The Star Press, Muncie, Indiana, 08 May 1937