Margarita Pie

Summer is almost here, if the weather would ever actually get warm.  This means it's time for pool parties, barbecues, and frozen desserts.  All the better if said frozen desserts have booze in them.

My mom has been making this pie for years.  It's delicious and so easy.  It does have a tragic tendency to melt if one is serving it at an outdoor party, so keep that in mind.


Ingredients:

CRUMB CRUST:
1 ½ cups vanilla wafer crumbs
5 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
½ teaspoon grated fresh lime peel
STRAWBERRY FILLING:
1 pint strawberries
2 limes
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons orange-flavor liqueur
2/3 cup heavy or whipping cream

Directions:

1. Prepare Crumb Crust: Preheat oven to 375° F. In 9-inch pie plate, with fork, stir
crust ingredients until crumbs are moistened. Press mixture onto bottom and up side
of pie plate, making a slight rim. Bake crust 10 minutes. Cool crust in pie plate on
wire rack.

2. Prepare Strawberry Filling: Hull 2 cups strawberries; reserve remaining berries
for garnish. From limes, grate 1 teaspoon peel and squeeze ¼ cup juice. In food
processor with knife blade attached, pulse hulled berries with lime peel and juice,
undiluted sweetened condensed milk, and liqueur until almost smooth. Transfer
mixture to large bowl.

3. In small bowl, with mixer at medium speed, beat 2/3 cup cream until stiff peaks
form; reserve remaining unwhipped cream for garnish. Gently fold whipped cream
into strawberry mixture, one-third at a time.

4. Pour filling into cooled crust. Freeze at least 4 hours or until almost firm. (If not
serving pie on the same day, wrap frozen pie in foil or plastic wrap and freeze up to
1 week.)

5. If pie freezes completely, let it stand at room temperature 10 minutes before serving
for easier slicing.

This is the traditional recipe as taken by my mom from a Good Housekeeping cookbook.  I swapped 1 T. Blue Curacao and 1 T. Tequila for the triple sec, because that's what I had on hand.  It does give it a slightly less than ideal color, but it still tasted great.  I also accidentally used too much whipped cream in the filling, which I don't recommend as I feel like it dilutes the strawberry taste.

The crust.  The lime makes it so freaking good.

Pie.  Mmmmmmmm pie.