Just when I thought I'd never find another easy and interesting recipe, along comes Crunchy Ice Cream Pie from Michele Stuart's book, Perfect Pies. In the book, Michele says the pie was famous in her hometown of Westport, CT and that when her mom made it she was the most popular kid around. I can see why.
No-Bake Cereal Pie Crust
The pie has loads of different textures and of course tastes great, because how could it not? It's a no-bake pie made with Corn Flakes, coconut, chopped pecans, brown sugar, butter and vanilla ice cream. Half of the crunchy mixture is used for the crust and the other half is stirred into the ice cream filling. Here's what the crust looks like.
Crunchy Ice Cream Pie Sweetness
With 1 cup of brown sugar I was worried it would be too sweet, but it was fine. And yes, it does hold together very well even though it's unbaked. The original recipe didn't call for it, but I recommend topping the pie with sweetened whipped cream and garnishing with caramel sauce and/or pecans. You can use store bought caramel sauce or give my favorite caramel sauce recipe a try.
Recipe
Crunchy Ice Cream Pie
Ingredients
- 3 cups Corn Flakes (100 grams)
- 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
- 1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed (190 grams)
- 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted (114 grams)
- ½ teaspoon salt omit if using salted butter
- 1 quart vanilla ice cream I used Edy’s
Topping
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar or ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- Caramel Sauce for garnish
Instructions
- Grease a 9 inch pie plate very well with butter.
- In a large mixing bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached, mix together the cereal, coconut, brown sugar, pecans and melted butter.
- Scoop out about half of this mixture and press it onto the bottom and up the sides of the greased pie dish.
- Put softened ice cream into the mixing bowl with what’s left of the cereal mixture and stir until well blended. Spoon into the pie plate, press down gently. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm.
- Make whipped cream topping by whipping cream and sugar, then adding the vanilla. Spread over ice cream and put back into freeze until frozen.
- Garnish with caramel sauce and/or chopped pecans.
- To serve, set the frozen pie in a shallow pan (such as a jelly roll pan) with hot water. The heat from the water will loosen the frozen crust from the pan. Remove and slice. Allow the slices to soften a bit before serving. Alternatively, you can allow the whole pie to soften a little before serving, but I find it’s easier to slice when its more solid, so I slice and then soften.
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Jen says
This is right up my alley! You know I'll make anything if it has cereal in it
Anna says
Sue, I wonder what happened to Oat Flakea?
Stephanie, that would probably be great!
Stephanie says
Oh! Anna, This looks delicious. I love textures! I have a coconut hater, how do you think 1 cup caramelized rice krispies would do instead?
Sue says
All the textures! Awesome! When I was in high school my girlfriend and I used to mix oat flakes (a boxed cereal that is no longer made) with ice cream and top it with chocolate sauce. This reminds me of that but classier.