Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

This was so good. So, so good. I found this recipe over on Good Life Eats and knew I had to try it. Key Lime Pie is one of my all-time favorite desserts, and I'd been wanting to try making homemade ice cream for a while. I followed her recommendation to use David Lebovitz's method for making ice cream without a machine, and it worked great! It produced creamy, dreamy ice cream with not a whole lot of effort. Just look at that glossy gloriousness!


The only change I made was to add some crushed graham crackers to the actual ice cream when it was nearly set, instead of just putting them on top at the end. I thought this made for some nice texture and sweetness, which it needed. I guess I also added sweetened whipped cream, because that was my one complaint with this recipe: it had a bitter aftertaste. I'm not sure if this is because I got too much of the rind flavor in with the juice (I microwaved my key limes to get more juice out of them, and I think this might have done that) or if it was because some of my limes weren't the proper ripeness or whatever. Next time, I think I will use bottled key lime juice as the recipe suggests, both for saving time and effort and to hopefully cut back on the bitterness.

Even with that complaint, this ice cream was truly heavenly and I plan on replicating it again soon! Here's Katie's (of Good Life Eats) ingredients incorporated with David's steps, which is how I made it.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

1 1/2 c. whole milk
1/2 c. bottled Key lime juice (such as Nellie and Joe's)
1/2 c. heavy cream
dash of salt
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
6 graham crackers (1 1/2 cookie sheets), coarsely crushed, divided


Prepare your ice cream mixture, then chill it over an ice bath (I skipped the chilling, since this was not a custard-based recipe). Put a deep baking dish, or bowl made of plastic, stainless steel or something durable in the freezer, and pour your mixture into it.

After forty-five minutes, open the door and check it. As it starts to freeze near the edges, remove it from the freezer and stir it vigorously with a spatula or whisk. Really beat it up and break up any frozen sections. Return to freezer.

Continue to check the mixture every 30 minutes, stirring vigorously as it’s freezing. If you have one, you can use a hand-held mixer for best results (I did this), or use a stick-blender. Keep checking periodically and stirring while it freezes (by hand or with the electric mixer) until the ice cream is frozen. It will likely take 2-3 hours to be ready. (I added the crushed graham crackers when the mixture was starting to solidify but wasn't quite there yet---probably when there was about an hour left to go).