blueberry ice cream pie
One of my favorite things to do on lazy weekends – on the occasion that I get a lazy weekend – is to sit at my breakfast nook table, preferably with a cup of coffee in hand, and flip through the latest issues of food magazines. I can often convince my kids to join me. They think it’s fun to look at the food photography and identify what dish they might like to eat. I often quiz my kids on what ingredients are in each beautifully-styled dish featured in the glossy pages of the magazines. Many times they get the ingredients right. Other times they don’t. For some reason, my daughter first identifies most meats in the photos as horse. And I swear we’ve never eaten horse.
A couple of weekends ago, we picked some blueberries at one of the local blueberry farms. Lots of blueberries, actually. Nine pounds of them. Forty-three dollars worth, in case you were wondering. I was a little overwhelmed at the amount. After the split second it took me to get over the fact that we had just picked over $40 worth of blueberries, I nudged my husband to hand over the cash to the sweet woman behind the folding table. I had asked my kids to fill their buckets, so they did.
Later that day, I sat down at the table with a few magazines in front of me. The recent issue of Better Homes & Gardens was top on the stack. Madeline and Oliver each took a seat beside me and we started flipping pages, looking for blueberry inspiration. A recipe for blueberry ice cream pie caught my attention, mostly because it was a recipe of southern chef Scott Peacock‘s. It caught the kids attention because it had plump blueberries and vanilla ice cream, all packed together in a pie. My kids are suckers for pie. And ice cream.
I made one huge mistake with this dessert. I made it on a day when we had no one else around to help us eat it. This is the type of frozen dessert that is appropriate for pulling out of the freezer to serve at a July 4th barbecue or at a children’s birthday party. It’s a little overwhelming for a family of four.
The recipe uses five cups of fresh blueberries, three of them in the syrupy blueberry sauce and another two cups are used as topping. While it wasn’t the most attractive pie to photograph, the sweet richness of it certainly made me the Best Mommy In The World.
For about an hour, anyway.
I’ll take what I can get.
Yield: 10 servings
Blueberry Ice Cream Pie
Ingredients:
Ingredients for Crust
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup slivered almonds
3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Ingredients for Blueberry Sauce
3 cups blueberries, rinsed, well-drained, & carefully picked through for damaged berries
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Zest of one lemon
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
⅛ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon water
Ingredients for Assembly
1 quart vanilla ice cream (store-bought or homemade)
¾ cup blueberry sauce, chilled
½ cup sour cream
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed, picked-over, and well-dried on paper towel-lined baking sheets
Remaining blueberry sauce, heated
Directions:
Preparation of Crust
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a food processor, combine oats, almonds, brown sugar, and salt. Pulse until coarsley ground.Transfer to a small bowl and stir in melted butter. Dump into a 9-inch pie plate and press evenly onto the bottom and sides with your fingers.
Bake 8-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool completely, then transfer to freezer until ready to use.
Preparation of Blueberry Sauce
In a large, wide, non-reactive skillet, stir together blueberries, sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add zest, lemon juice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and water. Stir to blend.
Cook and stir over medium heat until blueberries begin to pop and give off juice. Continue stirring until the berries come to a full simmer. Simmer for 1 additional minute until the sauce is slightly thickened.
Set aside to cool then refrigerate sauce until completely chilled before assembling the pie.
To Assemble Pie
Transfer ice cream to a mixing bowl and let stand in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, or until just softened.
Spoon half the ice cream into the prepared crust and spread in an even layer. Top with the chilled blueberry sauce. Spoon on the remaining ice cream and spread to edges.
Cover surface of ice cream with plastic wrap and freeze for 8 hours or overnight until firmly set.
In chilled mixing bowl, whisk sour cream, heavy cream, and sugar until just thickened to spreading consistency. Do not overbeat. Spread cream mixture over pie and top with blueberries.
Adapted from this recipe from Scott Peacock in Better Homes and Garden.
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I always make desserts when I know i have people around to help eat it. And I know this is another one that I wouldn’t dare make without a room full of friends.
Holy moly…I can’t believe you picked so many blueberries! How fun! Love this pie. It made see the inside of my kitchen since I have berries I need to use…:)
That pie looks scrumptious!
This is why we need to be neighbors – because then I’d be over in a snap to help you eat the pie! I know my family would help out, too 🙂 I’ll have to try this one soon, I know it would be a winner.
Your daughter calling everything horse meat cracked me up! I hope she doesn’t tell her teachers y’all eat horse for dinner!! lol
I too have been burned by pick-yer-own fruit stands. It’s so expensive because the grower is allowing you on their land–all the pests and weed seeds that you bring with you can hurt the plants, and also improper picking can damage the plants and make them yield less next year. It’s a risk to let strangers into your fields. But $43?! Wow. Hope they’re good. At least the memories are good 🙂
I think it’s pretty darn attractive to photograph! Looks fantastic…and I’m searching for a good July 4th dessert to make for my extended family and I think this would be great. Pie + ice cream = happy. Thank you 🙂
I think it looks gorgeous! Blueberry pie is one of my favorites.
Gorgeous pie, gorgeous photos! I have never had blueberry pie. I have never even made a home-made pie! I’ll hold onto this one. Really looks amazing!
You are the best mom!
This looks so good! The crust looks awesome with oats and almonds, I bet it is so tasty!
Delectable. The crust sounds especially gorgeous, and maybe even adaptable to certain savory recipes (like a cheese/veggie crumble/tart for brunch??). And, any day where one is deemed Best Mommy in the World, even if for a shining few moments, is a grand day in my book.
I just love the presentation and all the yummy layers. Bring on the blueberries-thanks for sharing such a delicious dessert. Buzz
Yum! I love all of the pretty layers of this ice cream pie! So pretty, and I’m sure it’s equally as tasty!
This looks amazing. I must make this. Gorgeous!
Perfect dessert for a hot, sultry summer night, best eaten at dusk when the lightning bugs start to hover above the grass.
Thanks, MJ!!!!!
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Oh my heaven. This is my kind of pie. It would be dangerously overwhelming for our family of 4 too. I have a feeling I could do some serious damage to it.
I had to laugh at your daughter saying “horse”! that is so funny!!
This photographed just fine, by the way. I’m going to try it as just ice cream because we aren’t really pie people….well, Hubby isn’t anyway. heh heh. But I think I can win him over to pie with this one. Thanks for sharing.
This pie looks incredibly good!!! However, my favorite part of the post was when you mentioned your little one’s read you magazines with you. My 3-year-old is precious when it comes to pouring over the food pages with me. Melts my heart every time! I am bookmarking this recipe and your blog! 🙂
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