Margarita Key Lime Pie with Pretzel Crust

When I first found this recipe in my box, I thought the ingredients were suuuuuper strange.

Kool Aid mix? Super sweet condensed milk? Pretzel crust?

Weird. All weird ingredients for a pie. At first, I was turned off by the odd, nuclear ingredients…but I was also really curious. It never hurts to try something once, right?

My intrigue lured me to the baking aisle. I grabbed a can of sweetened condensed milk, bought my first packet of Kool Aid in ten years, and ventured down to the chip aisle to snatch a bag of pretzel sticks.

Side note: Pretzels are surprisingly low-cal. You can eat about fifty of them without going over 100 calories!

Anyway, back to this strange pie…after further research (reading the back of the note card) I discover that this is an ice box pie, not a pie that you bake. Okay, I thought, the pieces are started to come together. Maybe this pie isn’t as weird as I originally thought?

After I stirred together all of the ingredients, I let the pie set in the freezer overnight. The next evening, I tried a slice with a dollop of whipped cream (I recommend making your own whipped cream, but if you don’t have time for that, you should seriously consider purchasing True Whip—it doesn’t have any hydrogenated Frankenstein oils in it and tastes much more like the real stuff) and sprinkled some loose pretzel crust pieces over the top. Wow! Not bad! The weird ingredients actually work together in harmony!

Don’t let the super processed ingredient list dissuade you from making this pie. This is something to make for special occasions; an indulgent pie to share with your  friends and family. It is also really tasty on a hot summer day—like a margarita in pie form. What could be better than that?!?

Margarita Key Lime Pie with Pretzel Crust

• 1 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 6 TBS. melted butter
• 1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 1 envelope Kool Aid lemon-lime unsweetened soft drink mix
• 1 (8oz) tub of whipped cream, divided

1. Mix pretzel crumbs, sugar and butter; press onto bottom and up sides of a 9 inch circle pie plate. Refrigerate until ready to fill.
2. In a large bowl, mix the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and kool aid mix together until well combined.
3. Whisk in 2 1/2 cups of whipped cream into the lime mixture. Pour lime mixture into crust.
4. Freeze for at least 6 hours or overnight. Let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature before serving so it softens up a it. Top with remaining whipped cream.

The salty pretzels mix well with the sweet lime filling to make this pie taste exactly like a margarita! The frozen sweetened condensed milk mixture almost ends up turning into ice cream, it’s so soft and creamy.

PS: This pie would probably be even better eaten with a Margarita in hand.