Copycat Bauder's Peppermint Bar, in a Pie!

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!

Turning 7, and Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

I think I may have experienced my worst nightmare.

(Probably not really, but it feels like it at the moment.)

My son, my first-born, my Buggy-love, turned 7 over the weekend.

7.

Seven.

I know. It doesn’t sound like that big of a deal. It’s not like he turned one….or five….or sixteen. It’s not one of the big birthdays. But yet, it is.

It’s monumental. Because he’s not one anymore, when he was still my baby. He’s not five anymore, ready to start kindergarten. (And thank God, he’s not sixteen. I know we have a few years to go, but I already predict that he should not…I repeat…not be given keys to a car. Perhaps ever. Because he is, without a doubt, his father’s son.)

It’s monumental because he’s changed.

He’s taller, for one…..smarter…..even more handsome. And he’s lived a little more life, which means he wants more independence. So, he’s testing the waters…..a lot more than he used to. (A lot more than I’m used to.)

But to deal with it, while not ignoring it, I’m choosing to focus on the positive changes that come with his age. For instance, when he’s not pushing her around, he steps in as the protective big brother to his little sister. (Though she’s quite capable of sticking up for herself, thank you very much.)

He also expresses a greater compassion for others, especially for those who have less than he does. For his birthday party, he asked his friends to not bring him gifts, but instead to bring new, unwrapped toys that he can collect and donate to our local Toys for Tots for this Christmas gift-giving season.

And, he continues to make us laugh in new, unexpected ways. As a family, we rounded out his birthday by going out for pizza. He sat next to his dad on the inside of the booth, and when he was ready to head to the restroom to clean up, he proceeded to slide under the table to get out. My husband quickly stopped him, and this is how the conversation went:

My husband: “Whoa. What are you doing?”

My son: “Going to the bathroom.”

My husband: “You’re seven now. Are you going to be a little boy or a big boy?”

My son: “A big boy, so I’m going to go wash my hands and face.”

My husband: “How do you think a big boy would get out of the booth?”

My son: “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I’ll climb over the back.”

Nightmare’s over.

Yep. With table manners like those, I don’t think he’ll be leaving us for a looooong time.

(And that’s alright with me!)

Yours in pie,

Mindy

My son loves pie. Loves it. So he’s really enjoying the fact that he gets to have pie every week, now that I’m making pie a lot more often. I really haven’t been too adventurous, I’m kind of a pie purist and just like more traditional pies. I had not yet tried adding chocolate to pecan pie, and when I came across this recipe from Laurie at cookin’ up north, I knew it was time to start. Laurie says this is “hands down [her] favorite pie ever”, and I thought the chocolate chips would make having pie a little more special for my son on his birthday. This pie is definitely deliciously rich, like eating a chocolate chip cookie with, um...pecan pie. (Does that mean it has twice the calories, or half the calories of each?)

As listed below, Laurie’s recipe calls for filling an unbaked crust, so of course, thinking the bottom may not get golden and flaky, I first partially pre-baked the crust, then filled it. I wish I had just baked it once, as Laurie did. While the crust tasted fine, had a nice texture and was done on the bottom, partially pre-baking it created some avenues for seepage of the filling, which also allowed some of the filling to spill over the edge of the pie plate from underneath the crust…and all over the bottom of my oven. Next time I will save a step and just fill an unbaked crust…as the recipe calls for!

Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

from cookin’ up north

Pastry for single-crust 9-inch pie

3 eggs
1 c. light corn syrup
½ c. sugar
¼ c. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 c. pecan halves
¾ c. chocolate chips

Combine eggs, corn syrup, sugar, melted butter, and vanilla in bowl. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Pour filling into pastry-lined pie plate. Bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes until done. Cool completely on wire rack.

I shared this recipe on:

Full-Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage.

Check out all the great recipes at this Linky Party!

Two Chicks and Chocolate Cream Pie

 

Chocolate lovers – prepare!

Grab your rolling pin, and get a fork. This pie is so good, you’ll want to eat till it’s gone. (I haven’t done this myself, of course, I’m just saying that you will want to.)

It’s so good, it earned me first place in the one-crust cream class of the Machine Shed Pies division at this year’s Iowa State Fair. This is definitely the best chocolate cream pie I’ve ever tasted. The chocolate flavor is rich and intense, and after you make this pie, you’ll want to make the filling alone for your next chocolate pudding fix. It’s really that good!

It’s so good, that I call it Classic Chocolate Cream Pie, because that’s what I think of when I eat this pie. Though perhaps I should name it again, as The Best Chocolate Cream Pie Ever. After all, that’s what it is, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Two Chicks from the Sticks named it Chocolate Whipped Cream Pie for their cookbook, Two Chicks from the Sticks: Back Home Baking. And this is one of the best baking books ever. (You’ll recall that I love to read cookbooks like novels, and this is one of them.)

 

 

Jill Schwalbe Means and Jamie Greenland Gorey, also known as the Two Chicks from the Sticks, grew up on neighboring farms near Grand River in southern Iowa. As best friends, they did everything together, including learning how to bake. As adults, they created a cookbook, to share their love of baking and the recipes they grew up with, as well as to pay tribute to all those hard-working rural women who taught them how.

 

Jill’s and Jamie’s cookbook is more than a compilation of the best recipes they enjoyed back home in their small community. It’s also full of photographs from their childhood days and stories about the women who influenced their culinary abilities. And it’s like reading the history of my own childhood.

When I came across this…



Jill, with her sisters on the first day of the new school year.



 

...it reminded me of this.

Me with my rolled-up jeans, and my sister, Amy, with her Trapper Keeper (and her perm).

 

Not only do the recipes remind me of my culinary adventures growing up, courtesy of the many women in my own life of the rural community of Wellsburg, Iowa. The stories and photos take me back to my days spent as a 4-Her, to church and community dinners and potlucks, to Sunday afternoon tea with my grandparents, to popcorn balls we made with my mom for Halloween, to riding horses with my cousins on my grandparents’ farm, to sleepovers and slumber parties and the treats my friends’ moms would prepare for us, to homemade birthday cake, and to my sister and I rolling up our jeans for the picture our dad would snap of us standing in the driveway on the first day of school each year.

There’s just one thing I wish I could change. I wish I could have ridden the school bus, so my sister and I could share dessert from the night before as our breakfast, the way Jamie and Jill did on their hour-long bus ride every morning. I would happily have taken a duct-taped seat just to have the chance!

If you’re wondering, there are plenty of pie recipes in this cookbook from which to choose, including apple, mincemeat, and specialties like Zucchini Pie. There are also three pie crust recipes, and of course, stories that will make you wish you grew up on a farm near a small rural Iowa town back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, too.

Here’s what Jill has to say about the Chocolate Whipped Cream Pie, the one I made for this week’s pie on Sunday:

This recipe was inspired by Ramadean Shields, a family friend and a highly respected member of our rural community. She is known for her signature chocolate pie. This pie was so popular at community gatherings that it was the first to disappear. Try this creamy, chocolaty, and incredibly yummy treat, and you’ll see why.

I couldn’t agree more!

Yours in pie,

Mindy

 

I listed the recipe for how I made the pie. I made a few minor alterations, such as my directions for baking the crust. If you have the Two Chicks cookbook and you make this pie, be sure to either update your recipe from the one listed on their blog, or follow my instructions below. There was a mistype in the directions printed in the cookbook, but if you are experienced at making cream pies, you will easily catch it and adjust anyway.

Classic Chocolate Cream Pie (or, The Best Chocolate Cream Pie Ever)

For the crust:

 

Pastry for a one-crust 9” pie

Roll out and ease crust into pie plate. Line pastry with parchment paper and pie weights. Bake at 450° for 8 minutes, remove paper and weights; bake 5-6 minutes more or until golden. Cool completely.

 

For the filling:

1 c. sugar

3 T. cornstarch

½ tsp. salt

2 T. cocoa

3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

3 c. whole milk

3 beaten egg yolks

2 T. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

In medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa; mix well. Gradually add milk and semisweet chocolate, whisking until smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture just begins to boil. Remove from heat. Slowly and gradually stir 1 cup of hot mixture into beaten egg yolks in a small bowl. Add this to hot mixture in pan and return to stove. Stirring constantly, cook over medium-low heat for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Transfer to a glass bowl and cover surface of pudding with plastic wrap; chill in refrigerator for several hours. Once cool, pour into pie shell and spread evenly.

 

For the topping:

2 c. heavy whipping cream

¼ c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Milk chocolate shavings

In large mixing bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form while gradually adding powdered sugar. Add vanilla. Spread about half of whipped cream over pie. Pipe remaining whipped cream onto pie to decorate. Garnish with chocolate shavings.