What a great week we are having in the midwest! It nice enough today to be out in a sweatshirt and have the front door open for at least part of the day. I must say that despite being an "Iowa girl," I wonder how I survive when the temps fall below 50F in October and don't return until late April!
Well it has been a long time, since I blogged out Week 13 on the Wednesday before Easter, because we had travel plans to my brother's in St. Jo, Missouri. Good thing...it inspired this week's dessert: Pina Colada Pies.
Whenever we go to my brother's, it is usually a holiday. He and his lovely wife always invite their close friends and "singles" who might not have another place to go for a holiday. So there always lots of faces and good conversations. This past weekend was no different. We met a new face, B, who happened to bring a dessert that I had never heard of nor tried before...an icebox pie.
As the name suggests, you keep this in the fridge to keep it set. She used a recipe from the cookbook inspired by the movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes" that was called, Miss Sipsey's Icebox Pie. She told me that it was sweetened condensed milk, lemonade, whipped topping, and cream cheese and that was it. Wow...simple, but it tasted delish!
So off I went to research this pie and how I could make it my own. I found several recipes, all of which used cream cheese, whipped topping, and sweetened condensed milk. Some used real lemon juice, others lemonade. But as you might have figured out, I love coconut. In order to bring in that twist, I had to figure out what to replace the lemonade with given that coconut milk is not that sweet. So I wandered through the frozen juice aisle and stumbled upon my find: Bacardi mixers. Now we don't drink, but these mixers are non-alcoholic and they had a pina colada one. Perfect! With more research, I found one person that had tried coconut milk in place of sweetened condensed milk, only because they were vegan (they also used tofu cream cheese...sorry, but that just didn't sound good to me).
After finding some different recipes for the crumb crust, I was ready to get to work. I ended up making a chocolate graham cracker crust for one dozen desserts, a coconut crust for another dozen, and then used my remaining chocolate crust for the coconut milk variety.
Chocolate crust - this is really tasty, but please make sure your graham crackers are finely ground. I had a few chunks and wished I had rolled them out more.
Coconut crust - this was my favorite, as it was more moist.
For both crusts in the tins, I would use half as much in the future. I got 12 tins from the coconut recipe, and I should have thinned the crust and spread it over 24 tins. The chocolate crust made 12 tins plus an 8x6 pan. I probably could have gotten another 12 tins from the chocolate crust too.
Personally, I like the filling with the sweetened condensed milk better because it is sweeter. But the other filling is good when you don't want a really sweet dessert, and the crust does add a nice lift.
So for week 14, I have decided to post the Pina Colada Icebox Pie. Enjoy!
Pina Colada Icebox Pie
Crust
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1/2 c quick cooking oats
1/2 c sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t sea salt
1/2 c butter, unsalted, melted
Mix all ingredients together, except the butter. Then add the melted butter, and mix with your hands until the butter is fully incorporated and crumbly. Spoon a heaping tablespoon into 24 baking-cup-lined muffin tins. Using a small glass, press down crust into the liner. Bake at 350F for 7 minutes. Let cool.
Filling
8 oz cream cheese, full fat, at room temperature
14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3/4 c Pina Colada mixer concentrate, thawed
8 oz whipped topping, thawed
In a stand mixer, whip softened cream cheese. Add in juice and milk and mix on medium until fully incorporated. Remove bowl and fold in whipped topping. Spoon into baked tins to the top. Refrigerate to set (about 1 hour). Keep in fridge until ready to serve.
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