Mango-Chile Ice Box Pie

Ingredients:
4 mangos (about 4 cups mango flesh)
8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup tequila
juice of 1 lime
zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

1 9-inch graham cracker crust

Directions:
Place all ingredients (EXCEPT the crust!) in a blender or food processor (I used my Vita-Mix) and pulse until it is very, very smooth. Pour into the crust. Refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours.

My thoughts:

A mini-heatwave struck Baltimore this weekend bringing with it high temperatures and even higher humidity. While the weather was unexpected and unwelcome for so early in May, it did remind me that ice box pie season is here. As long time readers I know, I love ice box pies. Any dessert that doesn't require using my oven in my 1930s un-air-conditioned kitchen when it over 90� goes right to the top of my list. Over the last six years I've made and posted blueberry-ginger, kiwi-lemongrass, blackberry meringue, and perhaps the most popular ice box pie, key lime in both regular my brother's favorite chocolate pie (technically a freezer pie) and coconut versions. For this pie, I drew inspiration from spicy Mexican paletas which combine fruit or vegetables with spices for a frozen sweet-spicy treat.

Anyway! This is a super simple pie, just make sure you take the time to thoroughly blend the ingredients together, not only will the pie be smoother and more consistent but if you have a fibrous mango, you want to really pulverize it or the pie will be stringy. I loved the pie because it was creamy with a downright velvety texture without being rich and had a very pure mango flavor. The spice sort of hits you after you swallow your bite which I enjoyed but the spice phobic might want to halve the chipotle, it isn't blisteringly hot but I think a lot of people are not used to spicy pie! But please, try and make this pie, it is the best mango pie I've ever had!