Moose Tracks Ice Cream Pie

For the past several summers, we’ve rented a beachfront cottage at Turkey Point, Lake Erie. Turkey Point is a lovely little beach town with a long stretch of beach and shallow water, which is great for young kids. One of the first things that we do after we arrive and get settled is make the two-minute walk to Grandma’s Ice Cream for some Moose Tracks Ice Cream. It’s a big family favorite and I look forward to it every year. (Okay simple things make me happy.)

I’ve been baking with mini peanut butter cups for the past few weeks and I keep trying to come up with new ways to use them. It didn’t take long for my thoughts to turn to Turkey Point and my favorite ice cream. Wouldn’t it make a great ice cream pie?  I made it a couple of times, tweaking things each time and landed on this version. It’s quite addictive—especially if you LOVE peanut butter cups.

Moose Tracks Ice Cream Pie

• 1-1/2 cups crushed chocolate wafers (33/34 wafers finely crushed in a food processor)
• ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1-1/4 cups mini peanut butter cups
• 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate
• 6 cups vanilla ice cream
• 5 tbsp chocolate syrup homemade (see below) or store-bought

 Directions

1. If making homemade chocolate syrup, make it first using the recipe below and refrigerate until well chilled.
2. Mix the chocolate wafers and melted butter until moistened. Press firmly into bottom and up the sides of a glass 9-inch pie plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes until firm.
3. Chop the peanut butter cups (in half or quarters pending size) and 2 oz of the semi-sweet chocolate in chunks and set aside.
4. Drizzle half of the chocolate syrup on the bottom of the chocolate crust (2-1/2 tbsp)
5. Let ice cream sit at room temperature for 5 minutes. Measure ice cream into a large bowl and mix in peanut butter cups and chocolate chunks until well incorporated.
6. Add half of the ice cream mixture to the pie crust and flatten down with a spoon.
7. Drizzle remaining half of chocolate syrup over ice cream.
8. Carefully add remaining ice cream and flatten down with a spoon.
9. Grate the remaining 1 oz of chocolate over the top of the pie until well covered. (You won’t likely need the whole ounce of chocolate–I used less than 1/2.)
10. Cover with plastic wrap.
11. Freeze until firm (about 3 hours).
12. Serve with chocolate syrup drizzled on top or on plate.

Fudge Ripple
(From The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cocoa in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until boiling, stirring frequently, then let boil for a minute. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.  Cover and refrigerate.

 TIPS:

• The Fudge Ripple chocolate sauce was REALLY easy to make. The recipe makes quite a bit more than you’ll need, but you can use the left-over syrup to make chocolate milk and ice cream sundaes (with sprinkles of course). It keeps in the fridge for a week or two.
• I used Mr. Christie chocolate wafers to make the crust — one package is plenty, with a few wafers left over.
• This is best made the day before you want to serve it.

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