Category Archives: Ice Cream Pie

Nostalgia Pie

19 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Chocolate Pie, Ice Cream Pie

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How are you, my friends? This post is being written during the COVID-19 pandemic, and right about now, it seems like we’re all longing for days in the past…even a few weeks or a few months in the past. I am doing my best (though I’m not always succeeding perfectly) to cast my cares on the Lord, be responsible and thoughtful of others, and focus on the unexpected blessings that come from suddenly having many canceled plans. I recognize that not everyone has extra time on their hands. Many of you are working much longer hours and/or under more stress than usual. So it is only my experience (maybe shared by a few of you) that I am speaking to when I say, I’m getting around to doing some things that I’ve literally been meaning to do for YEARS. Like, for example, updating my Pie Gallery page.

Check it out; there are still 2-3 pies that have been buried in time that I still need to go back and excavate stories for, so the number is for sure actually past 150. A little disappointing that I can’t nail down yet exactly which pie was the HALFWAY PIE, I’ll announce that exciting information when I’ve solved the mystery for myself. But, what I do know for sure is that I’m over HALFWAY DONE with my 300 pie journey. (Cue applause.) If anyone was curious, my current goal is to finish the book by the time I’m 40, and have a birthday party to which you are invited and for this party I will make the final five pies so that none of them gets the honor/disgrace of being chosen last.

Now for the pie at hand; a pie that was actually baked nearly two years ago now. Chocolate-Cherry S’mores Ice Cream Pie.

I thought I’d try something a little different this time, gettin’ fancy here. The slideshow below tells this story in a nice way, a better way than my typical format would tell this particular story (i.e. It’s the 4th of July. Maggie and Wendy make a pie from my cookbook with some orchestration but little help from Jess, José feeds everyone Spanish-cut Sandia/watermelon, Pippa is the star of the show and gives the pie her best side-eye glances, Sara and Levi are not pictured and it’s no wonder because Levi fainted at 3 am that day and long story short everything is okay but he now has many staples in his head and nurse Sara had to calm everyone down.)

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Footnotes/Other bits of memory:

  • It was about 110 degrees Fahrenheit every dang day that week. Ice cream pie was so so so needed.
  • José also went running every day that week. Consider in light of above detail. Wild.
  • I think I actually did make the Joe-Joe (Sub for Oreo) Crust myself. But also I gave birth three weeks before this pie was made and do not stand by any of my memories.
  • None of these pictures can be real because Pippa was nevvver that tiny (says the mom of the almost-two-year-old with a wail).
  • To make a vegan version of this pie (which we did), use Trader Joe’s Soy Creamy Cherry Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, make sure your marshmallows are vegan, and skip the Warm Mocha Sauce in the topping (it’s optional to the recipe anyway). You can use chocolate covered graham crackers or make your own. Making your own, it’s also easier to ensure that the melted chocolate you use is dairy-free.
  • The topping is supposed to be marshmallow creme. Turns out it’s much harder to find vegan marshmallow creme than vegan marshmallows and hence the creative topping you see in the photos (melted chocolate drizzle and calligraphy, broiled marshmallow hunks, chocolate dipped Joe-Joes).
  • We always have great vegan pies with Wendy. 🙂 Here’s another one. Bonus below, a cute picture of Wendy, Pippa and I much more recently at Magpies Softserve in Silver Lake eating Maple Banana and Peanut Butter Chocolate vegan ice cream pies to end all ice cream pies. If you get on their website and start drooling (and if you’re somewhat local) I’m sure they, like all small businesses, would appreciate it if you impulse bought a pie for pick-up. Just a thought!

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Stay well, stay safe. Angels are real. Talk to you all again soon.

The Summer 2015 Ice Cream Pie Files: Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie

22 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by in Ice Cream Pie

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I have a childhood memory of sitting at my Great-Aunt Sally and Great-Uncle Chris’s dining room table in Vermont. It was after dinnertime (I don’t recall what was for dinner, though I’m sure it was delicious) and Aunt Sally presented to us a very green, very WOWing pie made of mint ice cream. Now, mint chocolate chip was high on the list of my favorite ice cream flavors at the time, right after coconut almond and black raspberry, and I remember being so fascinated that ice cream could come in pie form. What a revelation.

The last ice cream pie in my summer series threw me right back to that special bright green pie I enjoyed so long ago. May I present to you, Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie.IMG_6858 (1)

Last summer, our friends invited us to their home for dinner and I brought over a Creamsicle Ice Cream Pie which was quite enjoyable, if I do say so myself. At some point during that dinner, I casually mentioned that there were many other ice cream pie recipes in my cookbook that I had yet to make, including a mint chocolate chip variety. Well, if you know kids, you know that they can grasp onto information pertinent to their lives and forget it never, and so when these same friends invited us over for dinner again, a very specific request was put in to please bring that mint pie I had previously name-dropped. I was impressed, and flattered. How could I say no?

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A few notes on this pie. Ken’s recipe suggests using vanilla ice cream as the base, but to me, the more mint the merrier, so I used an organic mint chocolate chip ice cream. He also suggests using a white crème de menthe but I wanted the pie to resemble the green delight from my childhood in at least some capacity, so I went for the super unnatural-looking green one.

The next layer is a medley of milk and melted marshmallows, combined with crème de menthe and crème de cacao and then beat into heavy cream and powdered sugar. Side note: If anyone knows what to do with a whoppingly huge bottle of crème de menthe minus three tablespoons, I’m open to suggestions.

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Green spongy-fluff layer goes over the frozen ice cream base, and the whole thing gets frozen again, until, as Ken puts it, the top layer is “firm but slightly yielding” and/or whenever you’re ready to consume. IMG_6862

I used sprigs of mint and pieces of a Lake Champlain Dark Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Bar to garnish. Or rather, Micah and Josiah garnished.

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You know how mint sprigs are usually used as a garnish in one to two-leaf pieces? Well, the boys were onto something revolutionary here. They decided that they agreed with my sentiment “the more mint, the merrier” and stuck what looked like an entire mint plant in each slice. I loved these “trees” (as Josiah called them) so much, I made the boys pose for several pictures with their handiwork.

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Thanks for sharing my love for ice cream pie, Wisniewski family!

The Summer 2015 Ice Cream Pie Files: Coffee Mud Pie with an Oreo Crust

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Ice Cream Pie

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Okay, I gotta get through this ice cream business because it’s legitimately California winter now (we’ve seen the 40’s several times this week) and everyone wants to hear about pumpkins and cranberries and apples and pears.

But may I tempt you with Oreo crumbs?

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This is a pie with merely a few ingredients: Oreos in various forms (I always use Joe-Joes), Coffee Ice Cream (I love TJ’s Coffee Bean Blast). In fact, the Warm Mocha Sauce contains more ingredients than the rest of the pie (cream, instant coffee, chocolate, corn syrup, vanilla, butter).

Trader Joe’s should pay me for this. IMG_6424

The Trader Joe’s commercial continues. (By the way, I don’t make a practice of keeping Hershey’s chocolate in my house. Not to get all defensive, but I had a bunch left over from when my science class kiddos build solar ovens to cook marshmallows. If you teach a child to cook a marshmallow, he’ll ask for a piece of Hershey’s chocolate and a graham cracker to go with it…isn’t that how the book goes?)

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I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it a million times. ALWAYS make your own crumb crusts (graham cracker, Oreo, cookie, whatever) because they are like SEVENTY THOUSAND TIMES MORE DELICIOUS than anything you can buy ready-made.

You can tell I don’t feel strongly about that at all.

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Making the Warm Mocha Sauce…but obviously letting it cool before pouring it straight onto Ice Cream and melting the whole shebang.

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The Inside Scoop: What you don’t see that happens in the making of this pie is that there are actually several layers and several periods of freezing. It goes like this.

  1. Oreo Crust
  2. Ice cream. Freeze.
  3. Broken Oreos. Mocha Sauce. Freeze.
  4. More Ice Cream. More Sauce. Freeze.
  5. Salivate.

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Silly Obi, chocolate is for humans.

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I made two of these pies to celebrate a very happy occasion…my cousin Alisa and her husband Mike moved to our town! We love their new home and especially love having them close by.

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The Summer 2015 Ice Cream Pie Files: Strawberry Basked Alaska Pie

25 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by in Ice Cream Pie

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We’re all busy pretending it’s fall here in California. I made pumpkin pancakes this morning, and I’m wearing jeans although shorts would be a better choice. I’m currently waiting for the weather to cool down from 84 degrees to 79 at dusk so I can take my dog for a walk. And then I’ll probably light an Autumn Spice candle. It’s a real conflict, I tell you.

Since it’s still a pre-sunset 84 F, I guess you guys won’t mind if I post about a seasonally confusing ice cream pie. Right? Thanks.

I got on rather an ice cream pie kick this year. There are several on deck to share with you. This happened partially because I’m running out of summer fruit pies to bake (they tend to be my favorite, and I still bake plenty, just not with recipes from Ken’s book) and partially because, YAY ICE CREAM! Who doesn’t like ice cream? Ice cream pies are also appealing because they’re typically pretty easy…the bulk of the work tends to be scooping ice cream into a crust…but be sure you’ve set aside enough time for the different phases that are involved. (Making crust, cooling crust, filling shell, freezing pie, making topping, yada yada.)

Even if you’re dairy-free, you could have enjoyed this particular ice cream pie I made last Memorial Day. I used the recipe for Strawberry Baked Alaska Pie but substituted Trader Joe’s divine coconut-milk strawberry ice cream. Good stuff.

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I baked a graham cracker crust ahead of time, then filled the shell with this deliciousness (the Strawberry). Right before serving, I made a huge old pile of meringue to top the pie with (the Baked Alaska).

Here are some more pictures of the pie-making process and a lovely gathering of friends celebrating the beginning of summer.

*I feel the need to clarify that there are NO beets or peonies featured in this pie. I was putting together a candy beet and potato salad while working on the pie and apparently found myself obsessed with the abundance of pink that was presenting itself to me. Although it does make me consider; my friend Ruth makes delicious beet muffins. Could a beet pie also have a place in this world? Deep thoughts to ponder.

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Orange You Glad

16 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by in Ice Cream Pie

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…that I’m finally posting again? Well, I am. Feels good.

Honestly, if I had a dollar for every picture I’ve taken of Obi gazing wistfully upwards towards a pie…

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Have you ever noticed that some kids’ faces just look cheeky no matter what? Like, look at Josiah here. He isn’t even doing anything except sitting in a chair getting ready to eat a big piece of Creamsicle Ice Cream Pie and yet his face is just undeniably cheeky.

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See what I’m talking about?

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Let me back up for a second. As the great summer/spring/2014 pie catch-up continues, I’m having a great time reminiscing about this delicious pie, the first ice cream pie I’ve made from Ken’s book (Truth: I will always love fruit pies the most, but it’s time to start digging a little more heavily into the meringue/chiffon/ice creamy world when it comes to my pie choices.) The flavor of Creamsicles takes me back to being eleven at Bible School in Vermont and pretending for a week that I wasn’t dairy-intolerant because there were ice cream bars after dinner every night and what was a girl to do?!

To make this pie, you just have to make a killer graham cracker crust and then fill it with vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet and swirl it all together.

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Okay, and then put homemade whipped cream on top. And buy some of those little mandarins that come in syrup in a can to serve with it. (Did I just say that? Fruit in a can? Yeah, just this once, do it.)

Since the rest of the assembly takes approximately zero effort, please promise me that you WILL make the crust and the whipped cream by hand. Really though.

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Here’s a tangent that I think is actually somewhat relevant to the discussion of ice cream pie. Cause Ice Cream Pies are good. Real good. But what makes them good? Let’s break it down. Take a moment and think about Ice Cream Cake. Now, if you are from New Jersey (as I am) and you picture an ice cream cake, what comes to mind?

Carvel Family Size Ice Cream Cake - Confetti Happy Birthday

Absolutely. Carvel, first of all. A layer of ice cream and a layer of ice cream, covered with frosting and separated with the chocolate crunchies. There was a day I would have started a fight over those chocolate crunchies.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, if you didn’t already know this. California is super, super confused about ice cream cake. I remember the day when I first discovered the Californian definition and I was just…flabbergasted. Mind-boggled.

They think it’s cake. With some ice cream inside. But mainly, cake.

The. Worst.

And absolutely no trace of chocolate crunchies. The thing that makes ice cream cake something you want to eat in the first place. I will never understand.

Back to why ice cream pie is so good: It’s made out of pure unadultered ice cream. (No nasssty cake, precious.) And if you want to go ahead and call the crust “crunchies,” no one is going to stop you.

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This is the kind of huge creamy showstopper that absolutely requires sharing. Thanks to our friends Josiah and Micah, Tiffany and Jonathan for making the consumption of this pie possible. (And for sharing a wonderful evening at your home!)

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P.S. What is with tangents today? Tangent: I wanted to name this post California Creamin’, then I remembered that idea was totally unoriginal cause that’s the name of an awesome beer brewed by Mother Earth Brewing Co. Which would actually go so well with this pie. If you like to pair beer with ice cream pie. Which I can’t say I regularly do.

That is all.