Tag Archives: vanilla

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.

Grand Canyon Pie

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Apple Pie

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IMG_6368Here’s a good way to begin the new year: drive out to Arizona in a van with some really amazing friends. Never mind that it’s incredibly cold. The snow is gorgeous in the Grand Canyon. Walk around the rim trail and work up an appetite.

IMG_6345Then go back to your friend’s parents’ vacation home. Continue to wonder if you can somehow stay there forever (cause it’s the cutest place you’ve ever seen) and while you’re at it, drink lots of wine and bake an apple pie using no recipe and only the memories of all of the pies you’ve ever made to guide you. Your friends can make a roast and gravy and Yorkshire puddings in the meantime, and then you can all have an incredible, cozy feast at 10:30 pm and go to bed feeling so warm and full.

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Butterscotch Banana Cream Pi

10 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Cream Pie

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I am fortunate enough to teach at a school where pi is not merely celebrated for a day (3/14) but an entire week…and pi’s homonym pie gets a fair share of the party as well. Pi day? Are we still talking about that? Wasn’t that a month ago? Ah yes…what an astute observer you are! Well done. This post, like the one before it, is a relic from the past.

A wall of pi puns (although, let’s be honest, some of the youngest ones didn’t really get the concept and made “Camouflage Pi” and “Rainbow Pi” instead of, say, “Cutie Pi.” Ah well.)

On Thursday of Pi Week, families, students, and teachers bring in pie of all different types. We eat pie at recess and lunch and then the teachers have stomachaches AND classes of hyped-up children to teach for the afternoon. But we wouldn’t have it any other way.

For this particular occasion, my own contribution was a Butterscotch Banana Cream Pie. The butterscotch flavor simply comes from using dark brown sugar instead of white when making the cream filling. Speaking of cream fillings, I have made quite a few creamy fillings over the stovetop at this point (whisk, whisk, whisk) and I still get a massive feeling of glee every time the consistency magically transforms, within seconds, from liquid to custard.

Here is the pie in a stage of assembly (and yes, that is a banana peel pi sign behind it, never fear.) Ken likes to put the bananas on top of the filling instead of inside the filling, as he says, “the bananas start to weep under the hot filling, leaving you with a weepy pie.” Who wants a weepy pie?

This pie has a vanilla wafer crumb crust. Since I practically have an anxiety attack every time I have to enter a store that isn’t called Trader Joe’s (jokes) I used the TJ’s Ultimate Vanilla Wafers. It’s not the cheapest way to make this crust, but I would definitely recommend…and then you get to sprinkle some more cookies on top once the whipped cream goes on there…oh yeah. It’s what you want.

One of my teacher-friends (who had probably already sampled about six other pies) deemed this pie “refreshing,” a term that I must say I have never before heard applied to a banana cream pie. I think that she was on to something though. The pies in Ken’s cookbook generally run low on the sugar…he doesn’t oversweeten. I appreciate that. A little less sugar sometimes means a lot more enjoyable.