If you’ve ever enjoyed ice cream from the Bauder Pharmacy
stand at the Iowa State Fair, chances are pretty good that you’re going to melt
over my next two words:
Peppermint.
Bar.
And if you have no idea what I’m talking about…
You. Are. Missing. Out.
Big time.
(By the way, that’s “YAMO” for you acronym-texting, smart
phone junkies. I made it up. Unless someone else already did…I don’t know. I
don’t text!)
Like most fairgoers, I have my list of must-have foods to be
eaten once-a-year at the fair. But unlike many fairgoers, other than a
Campbell’s corndog, the rest of my list cannot be eaten on a stick. A BBQ pork
sandwich dinner at the pork tent, deep-fried cheese curds, a cup of Barksdale’s
cookies, the all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at Cattleman’s Beef Quarters
(where they serve pork sausage),
honey lemonade in the Ag building, and at the top of my list…..a peppermint bar
from Bauder’s.
Pink peppermint-stick ice cream is piled high between two
layers of crushed Oreo cookies and a layer of hot fudge, neatly wrapped in
red-and-white-checkered tissue paper, and served with a spoon. (Check out a few
photos at My Homemade Iowa Life.) Except for the bite or two that my sister
always manages to mooch off of me, I’m not too keen on sharing this once-a-year
treat. Which is kind of funny, because every year we say that we should make
them at home so we can enjoy them more often than once a year.
Then we realize that we need peppermint stick ice cream, and
in August, when it’s 326° outside and the humidity in Iowa makes it feel like
800°, you can’t find a winter-themed ice cream flavor in any grocery store
north of the equator. I’ve checked.
So, we soon forget all about our novel idea to extend a
favorite summer treat. But this year, when the first carton hit the freezer
shelves at my local grocery store, I again thought of those Bauder’s peppermint
bars. Since I’ve been making pie every week, I wondered about turning that
peppermint bar into a pie. So I did!
For this first go-round, I went all out. Knowing that
peppermint stick ice cream is a limited-time flavor, I decided making my own
would allow for somewhat impromptu indulgence of this treat any time of year…dangerous
I’ll admit, but for now I’ll take my chances. And for all the scratch cooking
and baking I do, I realized that I had never made my own hot fudge sauce. So this
seemed like the perfect opportunity to start.
I had no idea how many ways there are to make hot fudge
sauce, and my first attempt (that already sounds like it ends badly) wasn’t
exactly what I was looking for in hot fudge. The first sauce I made with corn
syrup and cocoa was a little hard and chewy when served on ice cream, likely
because I overcooked it. (I had to test it, what do you expect?)
I needed a sauce to withstand the freezer without becoming
too hard. I came across a recipe using sweetened condensed milk and chocolate
chips. I wanted a more-chocolaty flavor than I got with the cocoa, so I thought
I’d try it. This hot fudge was just what I wanted. So good! The real test was
in the fact that I kept going back to the fridge with a spoon. (And it wasn’t
for the good-for-you sautéed kale and mushroom dish on the middle shelf. Which
I happen to like a lot.)
Start to finish, it took a little while to make this pie,
mostly in waiting time. Waiting for the ice cream mixture to chill. Waiting for
the hot fudge sauce to cool and chill. Waiting for my daughter to crush the
candy canes (after waiting for her to unwrap them first – I didn’t want to eat
plastic). Waiting for the ice cream to firm up in the Oreo cookie crust-lined pie
plate in the freezer.
Waiting for this pie to be finished is also why you have
waited to read about it. But trust me. It’s worth it!
If you don’t want to wait as long as I did, you can go the
convenience route and use a premade Oreo cookie crust, store-bought peppermint-stick
ice cream, and a jar of commercial hot fudge sauce (my recommendation would be
Mrs. Richardson’s). Either way, you won’t have to wait until August for the
Iowa State Fair to roll around again. You can enjoy this copycat version of
Bauder’s famous peppermint bar – in a pie – whenever you want.
You’ll even have enough to share with your sister.
Yours in pie,
Mindy
This recipe looks
lengthy, but you can easily prepare each part ahead of time and assemble it all
at once when you’re ready. If you decide to forego homemade and settle on
convenience, you will need: a prepared Oreo cookie crust, 1 quart peppermint-stick
ice cream, 8 oz. hot fudge sauce, 18 Oreo cookies (for the topping), 2 candy
canes, and a partridge in a pear tree. (Just kidding on the last one. That
wouldn’t be very tasty.)
Peppermint Bar Ice
Cream Pie
For the crust:
18 Oreo cookies
3 T. melted butter
Pulse cookies in a food processor or place inside a re-sealable
bag and crush with a rolling pin. Gradually add melted butter and combine well.
Press mixture into pie plate (I used a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate) and
refrigerate until ready to use.
For the ice cream:
from Itsy Bitsy Foodies, with slight changes
(This made a full 1 ½ quarts of ice cream in my machine. You'll need about 1 quart for the pie.)
3 eggs, well beaten
2 c. whole milk
1 c. sugar
2 c. heavy cream
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. peppermint extract
3-5 drops red food coloring
1 c. crushed candy canes
In a large saucepan, beat the eggs, milk and sugar until
well blended. Cook over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly,
until thickened. It should smoothly coat the back of a wooden spoon. Cool
completely. Add the heavy cream, vanilla, peppermint extract and food coloring.
Stir until blended and refrigerate until completely chilled, for several hours
or overnight.
Use a meat tenderizer or rolling pin to crush the candy
canes (some will be finely crushed, others in small pieces). Following the
instructions for your ice cream maker, pour the chilled mixture into your
machine and process, adding crushed candy canes according to machine
instructions (usually five minutes before ice cream is finished). Transfer the
ice cream to a sealed container and let it ripen for several hours. Or…
At this point in making the pie, you can carefully spoon ice
cream into chilled prepared cookie crust, then place in the freezer to firm up.
You will need approximately one quart (4 cups) of the ice cream. Don’t overfill
the pie plate! Be sure to save some room at the top of the pie plate for adding
the hot fudge layer and the cookie/candy cane topping.
For the hot fudge sauce:
from Eagle Brand®
(This makes 2 cups, but you'll only need 1 cup for the pie.)
1 c. (6 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 T. butter
2 T. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Melt chocolate chips with sweetened condensed milk,
butter and water in medium-sized heavy saucepan over medium heat. Beat smooth
with wire whisk if necessary. Stir in vanilla. Cool and store in refrigerator.
For the cookie topping:
18 Oreo cookies
2 large candy canes
Place cookies in a re-sealable bag and gently crush with
a rolling pin, leaving slightly large chunks, so the cookies look more like
crumbles rather than finely crushed. Set aside. Use a meat tenderizer or rolling
pin to crush the candy canes, leaving mostly large chunks. Set aside.
Once the ice cream has set firm in the prepared cookie
crust, slightly warm the fudge sauce in the microwave just enough to make it pourable.
You don’t want it warm enough to melt the ice cream. You’ll need about 1 cup of
the sauce. Carefully pour it onto the ice cream and spread evenly with an
offset spatula. Carefully sprinkle on the crumbled Oreo cookies and press
gently into the fudge sauce. Sprinkle on the candy cane chunks. Return pie to
freezer to firm up until ready to eat.
When serving, remove pie from freezer and let it set at
room temperature for 5 minutes or so, to make slicing easier.
Enjoy!
