After our recent trip to the strawberry patch I just had to find some strawberry recipes! I decided upon Strawberry Margarita Pie, as it’s served cold and just needs chilling time, so real easy. I of course left the alcohol out, as I wanted it to be family-friendly….and the other change was more of an accident, lol. The recipe calls for cool whip and I just *assumed* it was meant as a topping, which I didn’t have on hand and figured I would just go without. So I forged ahead, mixing everything up, then came to the part that said “….fold 1 tub of cool whip into the mixture…”, oh dear. I guess it wasn’t a topping after all and the local grocery store was already closed, as it was after 7pm. Well drats, I wasn’t about to waste all of my luscious ingredients! So my younger daughter, who just happen to be eating a bowl of ice cream, said “use vanilla ice cream!”. Sounded good to me and what other choice did I have? I tried looking up recipes for homemade cool whip, but I didn’t have all of the ingredients on hand for that either, lol.
The verdict? DELISH! My oldest daughter is actually gone for the weekend, but she had a slice before leaving and said “hide it from the others so I can have more when I get back!” lol. No really, it’s good, and no need to turn on the hot oven either! It is cool and creamy, tangy and sweet, fruity with just a hint of salt and so refreshing 🙂
Though in my picture you see strawberry chunks and sliced on top, I would recommend blending the strawberries and omitting the slices, as it made it harder to eat. Oh, and definitely use the crushed pretzels, don’t replace it with graham crackers! The original recipe is called Strawberry Margarita Pie, my version and changes are below. One day I do plan on trying the original version though, as I KNOW that will be good too!
Virgin Strawberry Margarita Ice Cream Cake-9 large portions
Crust
Filling
- 1 1/2 cups strawberries,pureed or mashed well
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 1/3 cup lime juice, freshly squeezed (I only had 1 lime on hand and used lemon juice as well)
- 3 large scoops of vanilla ice cream-softened
Directions:
- Combine pretzel crumbs, butter, and sugar and mix well.
- Press crust mixture firmly into the bottom of an 8×8 pan. I placed a sheet of saran wrap on top before pressing my hands into the crumb mixture, it’s a lot cleaner and the crust ends up nicer.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the condensed milk, lime juice, strawberries, and soft ice cream and blend well.
- Pour the mixture right on top of the crust, then freeze for at least 6 hours.
- To serve: take the pan out of the freezer and allow it to sit for a few minutes before cutting into it. I find that using a flat-edges spatula works best.
Choosing Simplicity 
Pingback: 25 Recipes for Strawberry Picking Day | Holiday Favorites