Cook­ies & Cream Ice Cream Pie

Makes One 8‑inch Round Pie

We’ve estab­lished in this chap­ter that I don’t love cake, and so for every birth­day as a kid, my par­ents got me an ice cream cake instead. I have yet anoth­er con­fes­sion to make: I don’t real­ly love choco­late ice cream either, but I know almost every­one else does, and THAT is why this cook­ies and cream ice cream pie is a tru­ly deli­cious compromise.

There’s lots of rich, creamy vanil­la ice cream for me in this dessert and choco­late cook­ie bits flecked through­out for the choco­late lovers. I love cook­ies in ice cream espe­cial­ly because the cook­ies don’t get hard and lose their fla­vor the way choco­late chips do when they’re frozen! And if the choco­late cook­ies aren’t enough, there’s a warm, rich, fudgy choco­late sauce in this recipe, too. This means you can have what­ev­er choco­late-to-vanil­la ratio you want, and every­one at the par­ty is hap­py. What more could you ask from a pie?!

Ice Cream Pie

30 Ore­os (from a 14.3‑ounce package)

½ stick (55g) unsalt­ed but­ter, melted

1 quart cook­ies and cream ice cream, soft­ened to a spread­able consistency

Choco­late Fudge Sauce

4 ounces (113g) unsweet­ened choco­late, chopped

3 table­spoons (41g) unsalt­ed but­ter, at room temperature

¾ cup (150g) sugar

⅔ cup (163g) whole milk

1 tea­spoon cornstarch

1 tea­spoon pure vanil­la extract

½ tea­spoon kosher salt

1. Line the bot­tom and sides of an 8‑inch spring­form pan with plas­tic wrap, leav­ing enough over the sides so that it will be able to wrap across the top as well. Pre­pare a space in your freez­er large enough for the pan, mak­ing sure it can set flat and level.

2. Make the pie. In the bowl of a food proces­sor, pulse the Ore­os until fi ne crumbs form. Pour in the melt­ed but­ter and pulse until com­bined and the mix­ture resem­bles wet sand.

3. Dump the cook­ie crumbs out into the pre­pared spring­form pan and, using your hands or a flat-bot­tomed mea­sur­ing cup, press them into an even lay­er. (If the cook­ies are sticky, spray your hands or the mea­sur­ing cup with a lit­tle non­stick cook­ing spray.) Top with the soft­ened ice cream, spread­ing it into an even lay­er. Cov­er tight­ly with the plas­tic wrap and set in the freez­er for at least 6 hours, or until very firm.

4. Make the choco­late sauce. Just before serv­ing, place the choco­late and but­ter in a small heavy-bot­tomed saucepan set over low heat. Cook until com­plete­ly melt­ed, then stir in the sug­ar, milk, and corn­starch and cook over low heat, stir­ring often, until the sauce begins to thick­en and the sug­ar has dis­solved. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanil­la and salt.

5. To serve, remove the pie from the spring­form pan. (The pie can be eat­en direct­ly out of the freez­er, but if you want a soft­er ice cream, let it sit out for up to 30 min­utes.) Care­ful­ly slice the pie into wedges and top each slice with a spoon­ful of the fudge sauce before serv­ing. (Left­over pie can be wrapped tight­ly in plas­tic and kept in the freez­er for up to 2 weeks. Left­over choco­late fudge sauce will keep in an air­tight jar in the refrig­er­a­tor for up to 1 week.)

Reprint­ed with per­mis­sion from Eitan Eats the World. Copy­right © 2022 by Eitan Bernath. Pho­tog­ra­phy Copy­right © 2022 by Mark Wein­berg. Pub­lished by Clark­son Potter/​Publishers, an imprint of Pen­guin Ran­dom House.