We met Darcelle’s daughter Kiki in a hotel we were staying at in Nashville. She worked there and we got chatting. Soon enough, we were video calling Darcelle to beg and plead she take us in for an afternoon of pie making. She graciously agreed.
We had no idea we’d be crashing a birthday party when we invited ourselves over. Darcelle’s great-grandbaby was celebrating her third birthday on the day we’d cornered her into sharing her special recipe with us. So into Candyland we went, a kitchen completely covered in giant papier-mâché sweeties and dotted with pastel-coloured balloons.
Grandkids and great-grandkids emerged from various rooms of the apartment as we rolled up our sleeves and rolled lemons underfoot. Still, the chaos didn’t seem to bother Darcelle one bit. She whipped this icebox (fridge) pie up for us in barely no time at all between breaking up fights, placating crying babies and reassuring hormonal teens. All in a day’s work for this granny.
Lemon Icebox Pie
Feeds 8–10
Takes 20 minutes, plus 2–3 hours chilling
Ingredients
70g butter, plus extra for greasing
300g Hobnobs or digestives (Darcelle uses graham crackers, if you can find them)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
For the filling
4 lemons (zest of 2 and juice of all 4)
2 x 397g tins condensed milk
Method
Grease a 25cm loose-bottomed tart tin with a little butter. Melt the rest of the butter gently in a pan and set aside.
In a food processor, blitz the biscuits until ground but not powdery.
Tip into a mixing bowl and add the cinnamon and salt. Stir the butter in well.
Transfer to your prepared tart tin, pressing into the bottom and most of the way up the sides. Put in the fridge for 1 hour to set. Don’t be confused by the ‘icebox’ title, this pie is set in the fridge.
Meanwhile, make the filling. Combine the lemon zest and juice in a mixing bowl. Add the condensed milk and stir well to combine. As you stir the lemon will thicken the condensed milk.
When the biscuit case has firmed up, remove from the fridge and pour this mixture into it, distributing evenly with a spatula or the back of a spoon. Put the whole thing into the fridge for 2–3 hours until set.
Gently remove the icebox pie from the tin and put onto a plate (you could dust it with a little more cinnamon or grate over a little more lemon zest, if desired, to decorate). Slice the pie with a warm knife to make a clean cut and serve with squirty cream.
