How to Make an Ice Cream Pie at Home (#IceCreamWeek)

Welcome to Ice Cream Week 2014! This year the event is hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen. We have teamed up with 25 amazing bloggers to bring you ice cream treats and a giveaway all week long. I hope you have as much fun as we are! Break out those stretchy pants and celebrate Ice Cream Week with us.

In my teens I worked at Baskin Robbins. I started out scooping ice cream--making cones, shakes and sundaes. By the time I was in college I was the summer/holiday ice cream cake and pie maker, filling in for the mom who worked full-time during the school year. Having thus established my bona fides, I'd like to share how simple it is to make an ice cream pie at home.

At the ice cream shop I didn't get all Little Red Hen-ish. Instead of raising the cows and planting the wheat, I just assembled the desserts using pre baked cakes, pre churned ice cream, pre made fudge sauce and the like. If you'd like to make your own ice cream, fudge sauce, or pie crust there are recipes from my fellow bloggers below and I'd like to give a special shout out to Beth's Thin Mint Ice Cream, Donalyn's Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, and Carla's Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce because they are recipes I've bookmarked to try.

Today I'm not going to show you how to make ice cream--instead, I want to show the techniques I learned while making ice cream pies for a living--and how you can do this in a home kitchen [or at work in a thrift shop--really anywhere with a freezer, a flat surface, and access to clean water will do].

Sorry for the poor lighting--I was at work. You can make these anywhere.

This is a Concept Recipe, along the lines of my Fast CSA Greens and Pasta concept recipe. Use the combination of ice creams and toppings that appeals most to you. My son usually requests a Grasshopper Ice Cream Pie (mint chocolate chip ice cream + fudge topping) for his birthday. My spouse prefers salted caramel and chocolate combinations, and my daughter and I know it's ice cream so we eat it all!

Ice cream, pie crust, whipped cream and topping(s).

To start, you'll need 4 things: ice cream, pie crust, topping(s) and whipped cream.  How simple is that? I have a preference for the chocolate cookie type pie crusts, but in these photos I've deliberately tried to keep it generic. I prefer to use a new jar of fudge topping with each pie, since it is very easy to spread fudge sauce at room temperature [I think you can find something to do with the leftover sauce] while microwaving chilled sauce seems to never end well for me.

Spread the fudge, dump in the ice cream, smooth the top. Easy.

Decorate with toppings however you like. Finish with whipped cream.

optional topping--have your claw-fingered daughter grate some chocolate

You will need a freezer to make this recipe (no other tools required). Other recipes I'm sharing this week will involve ice cream makers, blenders, a stove or oven. But for today--just a freezer. And a flat surface. Go!

How to Make an Ice Cream Pie at Home (serves 8-12)

1 8 or 9 inch chocolate cookie pie crust

1 cup fudge topping at room temperature, divided

1½ quarts ice cream [there may be a bowlful left over, for quality control purposes]

2 cups whipped cream (about a half a can of the already whipped stuff)

optional--grated chocolate or extra cookie crumbs

This takes 2 to 3 hours to complete, but only 15 to 20 minutes of active time. 

1. Spread ¼ cup of fudge topping along the bottom and a bit up the sides of the pie crust. Freeze for 30 minutes, and while it is freezing take the ice cream out to soften up for 10-15 minutes.
2. Layer softened ice cream into pie crust (I use the paddle from my rice cooker to cut 'slabs' of ice cream and transfer to the pie crust). Smooth ice cream top (an offset spatula works great for this). Freeze for another 30 minutes to an hour [check Pinterest or FB while you wait?].
3. Decorate with remaining fudge. You can use room temperature fudge, spooned into a plastic bag with the corner snipped off, to pipe a grid pattern atop the frozen ice cream as shown in the chocolate mint chip pie above. If you prefer, heat the fudge for 30 seconds on full power in the microwave, and drizzle randomly across the top. Either way, freeze again for another 30 minutes to an hour.
4. Finally, decorate the perimeter and center of the pie with whipped cream, holding the can near vertical and forming rosettes around the edges and one in the center.
Optional--top with grated chocolate, or extra cookie crumbs. Freeze one last time--this will cause the whipped cream to deflate a bit, but it's cleaner to cut.

Make sure you swing by for a scoop from each of today’s Ice Cream Week Participants:

• Pink Lemonade Ice Cream Pie by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel Ice Cream Pie by The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Surprise Ice Cream Treat by Scoop Adventures
• Raspberry Lemonade Ice Cream Pie by The Redhead Baker
• Coffee Ice Cream by Cookistry
• Salted Caramel Ice Cream by Life Tastes Good
• Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Buster Bars by The Life and Loves of Grumpy’s Honeybunch
• Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream by Hezzi-d’s Books and Cooks
• “Fried” Ice Cream Pie by Renee’s Kitchen Adventures
• Mint Chip Ice Cream by Crumb
• S’mores Ice Cream Pie by Love and Confections
• How to Make an Ice Cream Pie at Home by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Gluten Free Sandwich Cookie Ice Cream Pie by Gluten Free Crumbley
• Fudge Topped Chocolate Ice Cream Pie by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Salted Caramel Ice Cream Pie by The Spiffy Cookie
• Caramel Coffee Milkshake by Wishes and Dishes
• Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Pie by The Messy Baker
• Majarete (Dominican Corn Pudding) Ice Cream by Mind Over Batter
• Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream Cake by The Gunny Sack
• Dirty Girl Scout Ice Cream by Quarter Life (Crisis) Cuisine
• No Churn Low Carb Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream by Yours and Mine are Ours

Other Blogs participating later this week:

• My Catholic Kitchen
• Noshing with the Nolands
• Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Mother Would Know

Special Guest for the Week is Lindsay Clendaniel of the blog, Scoop Adventures. We’re very excited to have her join us. Lindsay is the author of Scoop Adventures which is chock full of ice cream goodness.