! Awesome dessert alert ! ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )
Ice Cream Pie Cups!
Well, now that you've been warned...hello! Happy fourth to you all! It is the time to celebrate brightly and festively, and it is also the time to celebrate summer! It's been so good to be back in the kitchen, and finally cooking again!
It's starting to get hot out and me and my friend Chris who just happens to be an amazing baker hung out on my son's birthday party and started talking about baking and it really got me in the mood. So today I dared to venture in to the dark side, into the realm of drop precise measurements and high, and infinite amounts of butter. I tried baking!
Summer=Ice cream=Pies. Those three thoughts were floating in my head independently, begging to be connected, and when I was getting back home from work, I had the a-ha moment! Ice Cream Pie Cups! Ummm... Genius!!
Guys, trust me these are like pies, but with ice cream. These are also like little cup cakes but with chocolate and Ice cream in it! The crunch of the pie crust adds an amazing texture and a bit of that savory element and the dark chocolate and the melty ice cream finishes off with the soft bite of the dark chocolate. Save the chocolate covered almond... the surprise, for last!
Did I mention it's stupidly simple to make, so let's get to it!
Ice Cream Pie Cups with Vanilla Dark Chocolate and Roasted Almonds
Makes 6 pie cups
Ingredients
Pie dough (home made as I did or store bought)
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) chilled butter, cubed
- 3 tablespoons ice water, or more as needed
Fudge - 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp Milk
1 cup Vanilla Ice cream
12 whole roasted almonds
4" wide circular cookie cutter (use coffee cups or small bowls if you like)
6 cupcake paper molds
Pie Dough Ingredients
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
Let's make the Pie dough first. Make sure your butter is chilled. Cut up 1 stick of butter into small 1/2" cubes. In a food processor toss the flour, salt and the butter. Give it 10-15 pules of 3 seconds each. You do not want to over mix the dough, it should appear coarse.
At that point, you can add 3 tbsp of ice cold water and give it 5 more pulses of 1 to 2 seconds each.
Transfer dough on to cling wrap and gently press it down into a disc shape and toss into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
I ain't got a whole lotta dough
In the meantime we can now make our simple "fudge" sauce
Start a deep pan with 3 cups of water on high flame. In about 7-8 minutes when the water is beginning to bubble turn the heat down to medium low. Place another pan over the water pan (this is called double broiling by the way :)
Melting the chocolate
In the pan drop 1 cup of dark chocolate chips, vanilla and 2 tbsp butter and the milk.
Stir for around 6 minutes till silky smooth. Turn off heat and let the sauce rest in the same place.
That's molten gold right!
Bring out the dough and press it roughly with your hands. You'll need to work quickly here, and avoid handling your dough too much as the heat from your hands will start to melt the butter within the dough and we run the risk of losing some of the crumbly pie texture.
Throw down some flour on your surface and start rolling the dough, till it reaches an even all around height of 1/4" thick,
At that point bring out your circular cutters and start cutting 4" wide circle shapes
Bring out your muffin tray and place the paper molds. Now gently place the dough discs in the molds and press against the walls and push the dough up to the height of the tray surface.
Repeat for all molds and bake for 15 minutes.
When done, bring out and let it stand for 5 minutes and spoon in the hot fudge as the base of the pie cup. You can also coat the entire inside of the pie cup your preference! More dark chocolate isn't a problem really! Is it? ;)
Place the tray in the freezer for 20 minutes at least or till the fudge hardens.
In the meantime take your almonds and coat them in the fudge sauce and place them on to a foil sheet. Repeat for all almonds and place in the freezer for 10 minutes.
Bring out the pie cups and spoon in some of your favorite ice cream! Steal a bite. Spoon into another pie cup and level the tops.
Transfer the fudge sauce into a Ziploc bag and clip a small hole at the tip.
Drizzzzzle that fudge on top of the pie cup and place that almond on top!!
And you're done! How awesome does this look?!
