Icebox pies are no-bake pies including ice cream pies, chiffon pies, and classic cream pies like

key lime pie Key lime pie is an American dessert pie. It is made of lime, egg yolks, and sweetened condensed milk. It may be served with no topping, topped with a meringue topping made from egg whites, or with whipped cream; it may be cooked in a pie cru ...

lemon ice box 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 ba ...

, chocolate pudding pie,

grasshopper pie Grasshopper pie is a no-bake mint-flavored mousse pie with a chocolate crumb crust. Typically light green in color, it is associated with spring, and especially with Easter celebrations in the United States. The pie takes its name from the Gra ...

and

banana cream 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 ...

. The crust can be a crumb crust or blind baked pastry. They are associated with the

cuisine of the Southern United States The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several regions, including Tidewater, Appalachian, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, and Floribbean cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread ...

Ingredients

Common ingredients used in the filling include whipped cream,

condensed milk Condensed milk is cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of ''sweetened condensed milk'' (SCM), to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened conden ...

, or pudding. The cookie based crusts are often made with crushed

graham crackers A graham cracker (pronounced or in America) is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour that originated in the United States in the mid-19th century, with commercial development from about 1880. It is eaten as a snack food, usually hon ...

or vanilla wafers, though other types of cookies like shortbread and gingersnaps can be used. Variations can be made with the addition of ingredients like

peanut butter Peanut butter is a food paste or spread made from ground, dry-roasted peanuts. It commonly contains additional ingredients that modify the taste or texture, such as salt, sweeteners, or emulsifiers. Peanut butter is consumed in many countri ...

, malted milk,

dulce de leche ''Dulce de leche'' (; pt, doce de leite), also known as caramelized milk, milk candy 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, w ...

and sliced bananas. Icebox pies are very often topped with whipped cream. Some ice box pie fillings are made with

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...

; 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 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 f ...

filling, topped with fresh or canned fruits (especially cherries).The Star Press
Muncie, Indiana, 08 May 1937

History

Icebox pies were originally kept cool in an

icebox An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refri ...

, used to store perishables when most farming households in the United States had neither electricity nor

refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...

. Because they required no baking they were popular during the summer when it was too hot to bake.

References

{{reflist American pies Cuisine of the Southern United States Frozen desserts Meringue desserts Milk dishes

Ingredients

History

See also

References