Pie Party: Brownie Ice Cream Pie

Some things in life are serendipitous, and others can be a bit of a challenge. I had thought that I was going to make some chocolate cookies on Sunday morning, then fill them with ice cream to make sandwiches ... however, my plan went pretty far awry!

A good friend had decided she'd never use a brownie mix that had been loitering in her cupboard, so she gave it to me. So on Sunday I decided to put the mix to use, and had determined to make a variation printed on the box which suggested adding 1/2 cup flour to the batter and then making drop cookies instead of just plain ol' brownies.

I followed the instructions, made large cookies, baked them, they were set ... and they turned out to be much too soft. They folded in on themselves when I tried to remove them from the baking sheet for cooling on a rack; leaving them to rest on the sheet for awhile didn't help. They sank into the cooling racks, becoming a bit wavy. They were not feeling particularly cooperative!

But I am not a girl who throws out food ... nope, not I. So, if the cookies weren't going to submit to my iron will, I was simply going to have to teach them a lesson. I crumbled them.

And then those crumbs became part of the crust for an ice cream pie, in honor of today's Pie Party extravaganza - the cyberspace phenomenon in which it was randomly suggested that July 5 be a celebration of pie, and virtually everyone else on Twitter and Facebook seemingly signed up for this noble mission.

Even after using some of the crumbs, there were a lot of them left ... a lot. So I did what anyone with a ravenous sweet tooth would do on a near-90 degree day: I combined them with ice cream! That became the filling for my pie.

Then, of course, you can't go wrong with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. We'd all be happier people if we could have chocolate sauce and whipped cream more often.

And so, there you have it: my contribution to the Pie Party - Brownie Ice Cream Pie. It has no redeeming nutritional value; but you'll be so, so happy while you eat it that you really, truly won't care how many calories you've just ingested!


Brownie Ice Cream Pie

Brownies:
(You can just prepare a batch of brownies and crumble them; baking the mix into cookies won't change the consistency, and this is much easier to do)
1 19.8-ounce box Kroger Ultra Moist Deluxe Fudge Brownie Mix
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup water
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare brownies according to package directions, then let cool completely.

Crust:
2 cups vanilla wafers, ground into fine crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
2 cups brownie crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine all ingredients in a 9" glass pie pan. Press mixture against the sides of the pan and press evenly over the base. Bake for 15 minutes, then let cool completely.

Filling:
1-1/2 quarts vanilla caramel swirl ice cream, softened
3 cups crumbled brownies
whipped cream
chocolate sauce, for drizzling

Combine ice cream with brownies; spread into the crust. Freeze overnight, then let rest on the countertop for 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Cut the pie and place each serving onto a dessert plate. Spritz with whipped cream and drizzle chocolate sauce over everything.

Makes 8 very generous servings.