Piesplosion

I baked four pies in one day and they were all gone in less than 24 hours. New personal best!

I believe that I mentioned that Ian's took a trip to the Brewer's game yesterday. It's an annual event that brings employees from multiple Ian's stores together for food, drink, and a sweaty bus. And some baseball, I guess.
Anyway, I saved up pies for the week preceding so they would all be fresh for the party.
The lineup:
Lemon Icebox Pie
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
Blueberry Bavarian Cream Pie
Roasted Poblanos and Corn Quiche

So these pies, in no particular order, comprise the pies for July 25th, 27th, and 29th, with the quiche on the 30th. They were actually baked on the 31st and 1st of August. I will start with the Lemon Icebox Pie because WHOA it was easy.

This one is in a graham cracker crust. I did the whole recipe for this, based on Alton Brown's cheesecake recipe.
30 graham cracker squares (AB does 33, but I like 30)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 stick butter, melted

Graham crackers go in a plastic bag and get punched repeatedly. You'll get some that are tiny little crumbs right away, but try to break up the biggest ones. Some variation in size of crumbs is what you're looking for, not some tiny ones and some huge ones. Anyway, then toss in the sugar and mix it around a bit. Transfer to a bowl and then add the butter. If you add it slowly while you mix the crackers, it's a little easier to get even. Otherwise you might end up with some really wet clumps and some that are practically dry. You can always just keep mixing it to even it out, but the quicker it gets to the oven, the crisper the crust will be. That's what we're aiming for here. I used a springform pan because I really dislike trying to pack graham cracker crusts in normal pie plates. So once I got a nice base using about half to two-thirds of the crumbs, I sprinkled the rest right around the sides and used a fork and my fingers to convince more of the crumbs to stack up along the outside edge. It was easier than I expected and turned out quite attractive. Sadly, I could only get it about halfway up the side (which works for this pie, since the filling is smallish. But usually you're making a cheesecake when you're using a springform, which fills up the whole thing. So the edge of the crust wouldn't really turn out for that). Then into the oven at 400F for ten minutes- ish. I think you can just bake the crust at whatever temp you've already got the oven on. Since this pie doesn't need any other baking, it's just the crust you're doing. I think the recipe I got this from said 300F, but it was a cheesecake and I think 300F is just what the cheesecake needed to bake at. I liked the way this one turned out at 400F, so it must not be too picky.

So that crust description got kinda long, but this next part is so short it'll make up for it.
1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, at room temperature.
1 (14oz) can of condensed milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put it all in a bowl and mix until smooth. Pour into crust and chill overnight.

WOO. I used a hand mixer to speed it up, but it flung a bit of stuff around, and the zest kinda got stuck on the beaters. I would recommend mixing it with a spatula to start, getting it about even consistency then beating with the mixer to work out the lumps. Then go back to the spatula and scrape the goodness off of the beaters, mixing to incorporate.

Yeah, I added a little and it got longer, but not by much! But hey, this is an easy pie, and super tasty. It's all about that lemony tartness! It's the best.