Summer is around the corner and bringing an awesome homemade dessert to a potluck or family gathering is always appreciated. In our house, my go-to picnic dessert is easily my mom’s recipe for Blueberry Icebox Pie. It’s a simple recipe with mouthwatering results. This pie consists of three parts. A graham cracker crust, a rich filling based on cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk and a blueberry topping. As kids, this was one of the first recipes that we made with our mom. I was responsible for crushing the graham crackers for the crust and my sister and mom made the filling together. The blueberry topping we used came from a can, but today I favor a simple and less sweet home made topping made from frozen blueberries.
Blueberry Icebox Pie
1 graham cracker crust
Filling
- 1 (8-oz) package of cream cheese, softened
- 1 (14-oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp of vanilla
- Pinch of salt
- In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the cream cheese for 3 or 4 minutes.
- Add the sweetened condensed milk to the cream cheese and continue beating until smooth.
- Add the lemon juice, vanilla and salt.
- Stir to combine.
- Pour the filling into the pie crust and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
Blueberry Sauce
- 1 (14-oz) bag of frozen blueberries, thawed and strained. Juice and berries separated
- ¼ cup of sugar
- 1 Tablespoon of cornstarch
- Combine the sugar and the cornstarch in a small sauce pan.
- Add the blueberry juice and whisk to combine.
- Bring the juice mixture to a boil. Remove from the heat and fold the blueberries in. Set aside until you are ready to serve the pie.
To serve: Cut a slice of the pie and pour a spoonful of the blueberry sauce on top. Pass any extra sauce.
Guest Writer – Phoebe Schilla
Phoebe dreamed of going to cooking school as a young child, and when she was 19, she was given the opportunity to study at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France. Needless to say she jumped at the chance and hasn’t looked back since. After her return from France she continued her education working in restaurants, and eventually found herself back in Culinary School, this time at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, New York. She spent two years there, and graduated with an AOS degree in the culinary arts.
The Cordon Bleu and the CIA couldn’t be more different. The two educational styles complemented each other and gave her a well rounded education. As a result, she knows a lot of minutiae about the culinary arts and feels comfortable cooking just about anything. There is nothing that pleases her more than to make something beautiful and fragrant to eat. This is what she was meant to do, and she loves sharing her cooking skills and knowledge with others.
More information and recipes can be found on Phoebe’s website, Studio of Good Living!