You may feel limited when it comes to dessert in the summertime. You don’t want anything too heavy, warm, or rich, but sometimes ice cream or sorbet just doesn’t hit the spot. Ree Drummond has the solution in her Berry Cheesecake Icebox Pie. It’s a fun take on cake, and it’s so much lighter than traditional cheesecake. Plus, you can make it ahead of your summertime parties and pull it out of the fridge when guests arrive to really wow the crowd.
“So much deliciousness, and very, very easy to throw together,” Drummond said of her icebox pie in a clip on Food Network’s YouTube page, continuing, “This icebox pie is such a great summer recipe because you can make it ahead of time, it’s very quick to throw together, and you can just park it in the fridge … all of the ingredients sort of meld and the whole thing is just divine.”
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To make the cake, Drummond starts by whipping some heavy cream until soft peaks form. To the whipped cream, she adds confectioners’ sugar and cream cheese to add that tangy cheesecake flavor. She also adds a splash of vanilla bean paste to give the mixture more flavor.
Once the cream cheese filling is mixed together, Drummond moves on to the berries. She likes to use raspberries and blackberries in this icebox pie, but you can use any berries you like (blueberries and strawberries would be good, too!). She adds a bit of lemon zest and lemon juice to her berries, as well as some berry preserves to create that syrupy effect.
It’s already time to start assembling once the berries are mixed! Drummond assembles her cake in a baking pan with cling film at the bottom that overhangs the sides so she can easily unloaf the cake once it’s set.
She first starts with a layer of graham crackers, then adds some of her cream cheese filling, and tops that layer off with her berry mixture. That process is repeated until Drummond reaches the top of her cake pan. Off into the fridge it goes to set and get nice and chilled for about four hours before serving.
Finally, when the wait is over, you can remove your cake from the fridge and cut it into slices to serve. It’s creamy, tangy, sweet, and has a slight crunch from the graham crackers that makes this dessert the ultimate summertime treat. Grab the full recipe for Drummond’s Berry Cheesecake Icebox Pie here and treat yourself to something other than ice cream this season!
Before you go, check out our roundup of summer cocktails below:
