Lemon Ice Box Pie 2.0

My sister Kelly's favorite - and signature - desert is a rockin' lemon icebox pie. I can't do it like she can. Tried to do it. Can't do it.
The other night we were sitting around and for some reason started talking about deserts turned cocktails. Seemed like a great idea to me - I had started writing some recipes but hadn't really done any testing. Kelly said "mm mm - I want lemon icebox pie I can use a straw on."
Ok. Sounded good to me. I wanted to capture that rich luscious creaminess - the tang that gets you right at the throat, complete with the graham cracker crust and whipped cream. This came out right almost immediately.
This isn't something you'd want to pull an all nighter with. Well, hell. Maybe it is. But it's an incredible excuse to put vodka in your desert course.

Lemon Ice Box Pie 2.0
Makes 10

Drink Base
2 cups sugar
2 cups lemon juice
1 can sweetened condensed milk
10 ounces of good vodka

Whipped Cream
1/2 cup heavy whipping
3 Tbsp sugar

Topping
2 Graham crackers
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter

1. For the drink base, combine sugar and lemon juice in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer and cook just until sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool, combine with condensed milk and chill mixture.
2. In the bowl of a mixer combine whipping cream and sugar. Whip on medium until soft peaks form. (My sister likes this sweeter - certainly add as much sugar as you'd like!).
3. Crush graham crackers to a fine crumb. Mix with butter and sugar.

To assemble the drink, mix the lemon-milk base with the vodka. Pour into 6 ounce tumblers. The drink base should be well chilled, because you don't want to use ice with this one. It just isn't yummy. Spoon a heavy dollop of whipped cream on top, and sprinkle whipped cream with the graham cracker mixture. The purpose was a pie you could drink with a straw, but we have no problem with using spoons. ;-)