Peanut Brittle Ice Cream Pie

Our Sunday fellowship meal was a huge hit last night. My church family just can't get enough Asian food. Here was our dinner menu:

Pan Seared Pork Tenderloin
Fried Egg Rolls with Red Chili Sauce
Sesame Noodles (will post this recipe later)
Pacific Rim Caesar Salad
Watermelon Slices
and Peanut Brittle Ice Cream Pie

Even though I may have lost about ten pounds in sweat frying 300 egg rolls on the back deck of Point Pleasant building in Georgia heat, my church family is so worth it! They are so thankful and spare no praise for what I do.

As for dessert, I wanted something "peanutty" to round off an Asian dinner. And Epciurious.com had this recipe to try. I altered the crust recipe which called for dark brown sugar. After making a batch, I realized that molasses in dark brown sugar caramelized too much in oven and made the crust too hard.

Hard crust + hard peanut brittle = chipped tooth & dental fillings. Not good. So I used the granulated sugar instead and it worked beautifully.

Don't soften the ice cream too much. Layer scoop-able but firm ice cream on baked crust, put a sheet of plastic wrap and gently spread with your warm palms and fingers. Peel off plastic wrap, then sprinkle peanuts and drizzle caramel sauce, repeat. This time saving process eliminated the extra steps of freezing each ice cream layer.

Drizzle caramel sauce and brittle.

Ahhhh, isn't this just so beautiful? This dessert was so good, it brought tears to my friend, Emily. Now, now, it's OK, Em. Dry your tears and here is another piece.......


Peanut Brittle Ice Cream Pie

Caramel Sauce:

3/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup

Pie:

9 whole graham crackers
1/4 cup granulated sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup salted roasted cocktail peanuts
3 pints premium vanilla ice cream, "scoopable" but firm
1 cup coarsely chopped peanut brittle (click for recipe)

For caramel sauce:

Place cream in small saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring just to simmer. Mix in butter and sea salt; set vanilla cream aside.

Stir sugar, 1/3 cup water, and corn syrup in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; boil without stirring until syrup turns deep amber, brushing down sides with wet pastry brush and swirling pan occasionally, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat. Whisk in vanilla cream (mixture will bubble). Cool and set the sauce aside.

For pie:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 9-inch pie dish, set aside.

Finely grind graham crackers in processor. Combine in a large bowl, ground graham cracker, sugar, melted butter and vanilla; blend until moist crumbs form. Press crumbs firmly onto bottom and up sides pie dish. Freeze 15 minutes.

Bake crust until light brown, about 10-12 minutes. Freeze 1 hour. Spoon 1 1/2 pints ice cream into crust, layer plastic wrap over ice cream and pat down gently until layer is smooth, peel off the plastic. Drizzle 1/2 cup of caramel sauce, sprinkle 1/2 cup of salted peanuts and 1/2 cup of peanut brittle.

Spoon remaining 1 1/2 pints ice cream over, repeat same method with plastic sheet, peel off the plastic and discard. Drizzle 1/2 cup of caramel sauce. Sprinkle pie with remaining brittle. Freeze 4 hours. DO AHEAD: Pie can be made 3 days ahead; wrap with plastic and foil, then freeze.

Store remaining sauce in refrigerator. Reheat gently in microwave before serving pie.

Cut a wedge of ice cream pie, drizzle over extra sauce and sprinkle extra brittle on top.

Note: Both peanut brittle and caramel sauce can be substituted with store bought to save time. But the taste of homemade brittle and sauce cannot be beat. Hint, hint! :)