Ice Cream Pie, Anyone?
by Sally ~ July 15th, 2011. Filed under: creative projects, Entertaining, Fabulous Food.
Every summer, I make at least a couple of ice cream pies. They are easy and quick to make and it’s hard to beat ice cream on a hot day. My family loves them.
It makes a great dessert to serve for company too.
I made this one for my husband for father’s day. It has a chocolate cookie crust, French Silk ice cream, which is chocolate ice cream with chocolate chunks, whipped cream, and decorated with chocolate ganache stripes.
In case you haven’t figured it out, my family likes chocolate!
Here are the simple steps to make your own.
First, make the crust. This one is a chocolate cookie wafer crust made in the food processor by crushing the cookies and adding a bit of butter to get it to come together. You can make any kind of crust you want, using your favorite cookies. Pecan sandies or homemade chocolate chips, graham crackers, or maybe a crust from a tart recipe you like.
A great short cut is to buy a pre-made graham cracker or oreo crust from the grocery store.
Next, you need to soften the ice cream. You can let it sit out or in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes but sometimes parts of it get a little too soft. You can hardly go wrong though, it will still work!
I’ve found the best way to soften it is to put the whole gallon of ice cream in the stand mixer. I use the regular paddle attachment and put it on low. It just softens it and smooths it out to make it easier to spread in the crust.
You can use any kind of ice cream flavors you like. You can layer two different flavors. It is fun to experiment with combinations. Another favorite of ours is a Pecan Sandy crust and Butter Pecan ice cream. Mmmmm.
Here is how it looks once it’s ready. It doesn’t take long. It almost looks like frosting.
Put your ice cream in the crust. Cover it with plastic wrap or foil and put it in the freezer to let the ice cream harden up. At least a couple of hours. It is better if you have more time.
This is a great make ahead dessert for company because you can make it a few days in in advance.
The next couple of steps are optional. If you want, you can call this done and it will be delicious!
As an optional extra touch, you can add whipped cream. This would also be nice sprinkled with some toasted sliced almonds.
As a final touch to dress it up, I had a little chocolate ganache in the freezer, which is about equal parts cream and chocolate. You just heat the cream gently, then add chocolate chips and stir until they are fully melted. Ganache when it is warm will pour like a sauce. When it gets chilled, it will thicken up.
I had some in a freezer bag and I just let it thaw out in the refrigerator. I snipped off the corner of the bag and made some stripes kind of free form.
You could use chocolate syrup or another flavor ready made. Or you could serve it with the warm ganache or chocolate syrup like a hot fudge sundae. Yum.
Can you see how this is one of those non-recipe recipes? It is simply a guideline for you to come up with your own delicious version. What will you make?
