Lemon Gingersnap Icebox Pie

Adapted from Gourmet in 2003 via Epicurious  I actually substituted some all-natural lemonade into this and cut the sugar as I was plum out of real lemon juice, but I'd stick to the original.  There's so much goodness here, folks. (And it makes an awesome self-made birthday dessert!)

Ingredients

For crust:

1 1/2 cups finely crushed gingersnap cookies (6 ounces)

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Handful of almond slices

For ice cream: 

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

4 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon zest

1/8 teaspoon salt

6 large egg yolks

2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

For the crust, whir up the gingersnaps and almonds into a food processor, then toss together with butter, using a fork until crumbs are moistened. Press evenly onto bottom and up the sides of a 10-inch glass or ceramic pie plate. Bake crust in middle of oven 7-10 minutes, then cool on a rack. The crust will harden as it cools.

For the custard ice cream, bring cream, milk, sugar, zest, and salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved (make sure to use a bigger pot than you think you might need...milk likes to overflow when boiling). Whisk yolks in a bowl until blended, then add hot cream mixture in a slow stream, whisking, to prevent cooking the eggs. Transfer custard back to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 175 to 180°F on thermometer, 3 to 5 minutes (do not let boil).

Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve into cleaned bowl, then stir in lemon juice. Cool custard to room temperature, stirring occasionally, then chill at least three hours or overnight in the fridge, covered. 

When cool, freeze the custard according to your ice cream maker's manufacturing instructions.  When the consistency looks like a soft frozen yogurt, scoop the ice cream directly into the gingersnap crust in the pie plate, and freeze completely (at least two hours).  

When ready to give it a try, remove the frozen pie at least 20 minutes prior to serving. This will soften it up enough to cut into slices.  Sprinkle with any leftover gingersnap crumbs, lemon slices, or, do like I do and just dig in!