Izzy's - Birchwood's Key Lime Pie

Birchwood's Key Lime Pie - Key Lime Ice Cream with Pieces of Key Lime Pie

Today we look at a flavor from the Saint Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream called Birchwood's Key Lime Pie.  It is not one of their flavor-award winners but I really like key lime pie so I figured I had to check it out.  At first, I wondered what the "Birchwood" stood for.  I thought maybe it was a variety of key lime but it turns out that it is named after a Minneapolis restaurant called the Birchwood Cafe which has key lime pie on the dessert menu.  Pieces of this pie are used as the mix-in here.  I was inspired to try the Birchwood Cafe for breakfast one morning.  I liked it.  They have meat on the menu, but they do specialize in organic, vegan and gluten-free options.  It was a few dollars more expensive than the usual diner but most of the items seemed to have been designed by a chef because they had creative ingredients.  For example, the buttermilk pancakes included candied hazelnuts and the vegetable scramble included garlic scapes.  I don't usually have pie with my breakfast, but I tried it out.  The key lime and coconut cream pies were both excellent and the homemade crust was especially good.

OK, on to the ice cream.  Removing the pint, I see the light-yellow color of the key lime base along with lots of pie-crust-like mix-ins visible.  Digging in, the key lime flavor is quite delicious.  It is slightly more tart than the Graeter's pint which I recently had, but it is within the range of expected tartness.  The mix-ins here are actually small pie pieces.  The crust is what I notice most in my mouth, but if you look closely, you can see pie filling swirled into the ice cream near each mix-in.  Some partial mixing has occurred but it makes these sections of the ice cream a bit limey-er than the rest of the base.  It's a nice effect.  The crust is amazing just like in the slice of pie that I got when I went to the cafe.  You can tell that it is handmade and not store-bought.

This is an excellent pint of key lime pie ice cream.  It is not often that something tops Graeter's but I think Izzy's has done just that here.  Izzy's is a bit more tart and quite a bit more rich -- I think Izzy's base includes more butterfat.  Key lime fans who are lucky enough to be at Izzy's when this is available should definitely indulge in this flavor.