Frozen Margarita Pie
I love to serve this refreshing pie in the summertime. It is especially nice after a great Mexican meal.
I love to serve this refreshing pie in the summertime. It is especially nice after a great Mexican meal.
- Carbohydrate 32.53119147099 g
- Cholesterol 91.59 mg
- Fat 35.8959085395 g
- Fiber 0.433747715596295 g
- Protein 5.5702342491105 g
- Saturated Fat 22.081781652162 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (117g)
- Sodium 154.49251075305 mg
- Sugar 32.0974437553937 g
- Trans Fat 3.044917100301 g
- Calories 466 calories
Step-by-step
- To Make Crust: Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
- In a large bowl, mix crumbs, butter and sugar until well combined.
- Press into the bottom and up sides of a 9-inch pie pan.
- Bake until crust is lightly toasted around the edges and feels dry to the touch, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Cool completely.
- Soften sherbet.
- Gently spread into crust, smoothing the top.
- Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of sherbet and freeze until firm, at least 12 hours or up to 2 days.
- To Make Meringue Topping: In a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, stir egg whites and sugar with a flexible spatula until sugar is dissolved and mixture is slightly warm.
- Remove bowl from heat.
- Beat with a mixer on high speed until meringue holds stiff, shiny moist-looking peaks.
- Remove pie from freezer and take off plastic wrap.
- Spread meringue on top of pie, spreading it out to the edges to cover all of the sherbet.
- Freeze until meringue is firm, at least 1 hour or up to 1 day.
- At least 10 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 500 deg F.
- Bake pie on middle rack just until meringue is lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Swapping standard graham cracker crumbs for crushed vanilla wafers fundamentally alters the moisture absorption rate of the base, yielding a denser structural foundation that resists the softening action of melting dairy over extended storage windows lasting up to two days. When constructing frozen desserts originating from the mid-century American craze for ice-cream pies, pastry chefs learned that mechanical refrigeration required high-sugar crust ratios to prevent the base from turning into a brittle block at minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Ensuring the butter and sugar thoroughly coat every crumb prevents premature sogginess when the softened lime sherbet is introduced.
Using commercially produced sherbet introduces shelf-stabilizers and corn syrup solids that melt at different rates than traditional homemade citrus ices churned with fresh juice and simple syrup. This commercial formulation dictates a strict freezing threshold of at least twelve hours at 0 degrees Fahrenheit to achieve structural rigidity before the raw egg white meringue is applied.
Heating the egg whites and sugar over barely simmering water to 160 degrees Fahrenheit dissolves the sucrose crystals completely, which stabilizes the protein network before whipping on high speed until stiff, shiny peaks form. Spreading this insulation layer all the way to the pie pan edges prevents the underlying frozen citrus base from weeping when exposed to the intense 500-degree Fahrenheit oven heat during the final four-minute browning phase.
