The 'Why?' Pie

Why an ice cream pie? Good question. Why, when trying to be healthy, would we Tarts make an ice cream pie...with caramel sauce to boot? Because we threw a birthday party for a youngin'? Nope. A new report came out that said 'Ice Cream will add years to your life?' Uh-uh. Clint Eastwood put a gun to our heads, declaring that an ice cream pie would make his day? If only.

We made an ice cream pie because of this here durn blog...The Pioneer Woman. Okay, it's more 'dang' than 'durn.' In fact, it's so damn divine that we lick the computer screen every time Ree posts a new recipe...which is like, every minute. That's a lot of licking...of a surface we're pretty sure is toxic. Anyway, she posted said pie from her ranch in Oklahoma and Danielle, a bonafied Okie, got a brilliant idea and roped Erin into it.

Ice Cream Pie with Easy Caramel Sauce

by Ree Drummond

(We reversed the order of the recipe and made the crust first. Why? Because it's The 'Why?' Pie.)

The crust:

1/4 cup egg whites
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup Pecans, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg whites until frothy. Add sugar and salt and beat on high until stiff. Fold in nuts. Spread mixture over bottom and sides of a non-glass pie pan, making sure to adequately coat all sides. (Thanks Viv for the cute dish!)

Bake 15 to 20 min, watching toward the end to make sure it doesn't get too brown. Remove from oven when crust is golden brown. Cool completely.

While the crust is baking, start the caramel sauce, henceforth referred to as Crack Sauce.

Easy Crack Sauce:

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup half and half
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon vanilla

Mix butter, brown sugar, half and half and salt in saucepan over medium low heat.

Cook while whisking gently for 5 to 7 minutes, until thicker. Add vanilla and cook for another minute to thicken further. Turn off heat and pour sauce into a jar.

Refrigerate until cold.

When crust is cooled, remove 2 pints of ice cream from freezer. We used coffee and vanilla bean, per Ree's suggestion. This crust is so light and delicious, it goes with any flavor. Allow to soften. Spread one pint of ice cream over the bottom of crust.

Spread the other pint over the first flavor. We would suggest freezing for a few minutes before applying the next flavor. Cover with foil and freeze until very hard. When ready, serve and drizzle with crack sauce.

As you can see, we were a bit impatient...

...so the freezing part, yeah...not so much.

But that didn't stop us.

Why didn't that stop us?

Somebody stop us!!!

Btw - in the pic above, Danielle is about to suggest sliced bananas and caramel between the crust and ice cream for next time. Somebody stop HER!!!!!