Creamy Lemon Ice Box Pie

Years ago I had a friend who made some tarts with a creamy lemon filling. She gave me the recipe and I made it a couple of times, then lost the recipe It was called Lemon Melting Moments Tarts. I looked for the recipe on-line and in many community cookbooks, but could never find it. I remembered that it used condensed milk, lemon juice and whipping cream. So I fooled around and came up with this recipe. The recipe my friend gave me only used part of the can of condensed milk, so I made the ingredients come out so that the whole can of condensed milk is used. Makes more of the lemon filling, but that is not a bad thing. The pies (or pie) will disappear as everyone will want a second slice.

Give it try, it is so easy and don't worry about the calories, I took them out.

Creamy Lemon Ice Box Pie

2 cups whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar - sifted
2/3 cup lemon juice (6 to 8 lemons)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 14-oz can condensed milk

2 9” crumb pie shells or 1 large 10" or 11” shell

Chill bowl and beaters for the whipped cream for at least 2 hours.

In large bowl combine the lemon juice and condensed milk, stir or whisk until throughly mixed. Stir in the lemon zest. Set mixture aside and prepare the whipped cream.

Pour the whipping cream into the chilled bowl. Beat on high speed until soft peaks form. Add the powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold the lemon mixture into the whipped cream, folding until all the lemon mixture is incorporated into the whipped cream.

Spoon mixture into the 2 pie shells. Cover pies and place in refrigerator at last two hours before serving. The mixture will firm up as it chills.

A regular pastry pie shell works well too. You can decrease the powdered sugar to 1/3 cup if you want the lemon taste to be more tart.