Summertime-in-the-Country Dessert: Blueberry Pie in a Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

The advertisers may already be playing their 'back-to-school' commercials on television, but summer is by no means over yet.  There is still time for family gatherings in the country, backyard BBQs, and beachside birthday parties, which means there is still a desire for cake, ice cream and, you guessed it, pie.

And what says 'summer-in-the-country' better than blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream? With blueberries ripe in Northern Ontario, this dessert is perfect right now to make the pie lovers happy at parties that need cake. Even better, there is no need for the person serving the pie to scoop ice cream onto every piece!

Topped with crunchy caramel bits and caramel-flavoured whipped cream, this recipe turned out to be a very tasty treat. Try it with the from-scratch pie recipe below, or use a store-bought pie, if you are short on time.

RECIPE: Blueberry Pie in a Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

You need:

For the Ice Cream Cake's Crust:

• 2 cups of graham crackers
• 1/3 cup of granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup of butter

For the Ice Cream Cake & Topping:

• 1 2-litre tub of vanilla ice cream (or vanilla frozen yogurt)
• 1 to 2 cups of whipping cream
• Butterscotch or Dulce de Leche caramel sauce
• SKOR bits
• OR White Chocolate Shavings &/OR Shredded Coconut

For the pie:

• The Perfect Pie Crust - see recipe here
• 4 cups of frozen or fresh wild blueberries
• 2 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 cup of sugar (granulated white or raw, organic)
• 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. corn starch (use 1 if you don't want a cornstarch flavour)
• Egg wash: 1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tbsp. water.

Tip: Make your pie and crust the day before. Make sure they are very cold (frozen would be best) when you add the ice cream. Ensure you make the entire cake six hours before you need to serve it, to give it time in the freezer to harden.

Instructions to Make the Pie:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Once you make the pie crust (see recipe here), then prebake the bottom crust in the oven for 10 minutes to stiffen it a bit. Let cool for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, make your filling.
3. Place your blueberries, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice in a medium-to-large bowl. Stir until combined.
4. Place your cornstarch in a small bowl and add 1 tbsp. of cold water and stir until smooth.  Add another tsp. of water if too hard and lumpy.
5. Pour your cornstarch/water mixture in a circle over the blueberry mixture and stir until well combined.
6. Carefully spoon or pour the entire blueberry mixture into the pie crust. It will be heaping, so be sure to not spill it all over the crust edges.
7. Roll out another circle of pie crust and place it over the top of the pie. 
8. Brush the egg wash under the edges of the crust to seal the top crust to the bottom one.
9. Brush the egg wash over the entire top crust.
10. Poke several holes in the top pie crust with a fork to let air escape while baking.
11. Place your pie on a cookie sheet for easier handling (this also prevents a huge mess in your oven in case your pie boils over).
12. Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes. IF you used fresh blueberries, take the pie out if the pie crust is golden brown. IF your blueberries were frozen, check to see that the crust is not burning, and then bake for an additional 15 minutes (total 1 hour cooking time for a pie made with unthawed, frozen blueberries).  If the crust is getting too dark at this point, lightly cover with aluminum foil before continuing to bake for the last 15 minutes.
13. Let cool completely on a cooling rack and then refrigerate until cold (it needs to be cold so as not to melt your ice cream!) or freeze it, which makes assembly much easier all around.

Instructions to Make the Cake Crust:

1. Prepare a 9" or 10" round springform baking pan by buttering the bottom and sides. Line with parchment paper if you prefer, and butter the parchment paper.
2. Place your graham crackers and sugar in a medium bowl and stir briefly until combined.
3. Melt your butter in a microwavable small bowl for 35 seconds (or just until melted).
4. Pour the melted butter over the graham crumb mixture and stir until moist and combined.
5. Press the mixture into the bottom and slightly up the sides of your springform pan.
6. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 12 to 14 minutes (take it out when starting to brown on the sides).
7. Let cool completely, then chill or freeze until you are ready to assemble the ice cream cake.

Instructions to Assemble the Ice Cream Cake:

1. Remove the Spring from pan from the refrigerator or freezer, as well as your tub of ice cream.
2. Moving quickly, scoop out small balls of ice cream and place all over your crust, close together so you don't have to spread around too much (the crust will easily stick and incorporate into your ice cream if you are not careful).
3. Press down on each ball in order to spread them together.  Try to get a consistent and flat ice cream layer about 1-inch thick or more.
4. If your ice cream tub and the bottom layer are melting quickly, feel free to put them both in the freezer for an hour or two before finishing the assembly.
5. Remove pie from the pie plate (and parchment paper, if you used it).
6. Place the pie on the bottom layer of ice cream. Try to fill in the sides as best as you can. Then, using the same method as you did for the bottom layer, scoop out several balls of ice cream and place them all over the top of the pie. Spread around as best as you can to get about a 1-inch layer of cream. 
7. Freeze the cake until hard (2 hours in the deep freeze or more - preferably 6 hours or overnight). 

Ice Cream Cake Tips:

• If your top layer is not perfectly even, don't worry, just get it back into the freezer and you can always open the freezer later and quickly smooth it out  with the back of a spoon.
• Also, if you can't fill in the sides perfectly (see pic to right for an example), keep a little ice cream in the tub and after you freeze the cake to hard, take it out and quickly try to fill in the sides with the remaining ice cream. Place the springform pan back on the outside to contain it and keep the shape.
• Use a 'cake caddy' to freeze the cake - this makes it easier once the sides are off.
• To remove the springform sides, use a hot knife to run around the edges, then remove carefully.

Instructions for the topping (3 options):

Butterscotch or caramel whipped cream topping:

1. Place whipping cream in a cold bowl (chill bowl and beaters for a few minutes before whipping).  Whip until nearly firm and soft peaks form (if it looks slightly lumpy, you should stop whipping).
2. Add 1/4 cup (or more depending on your taste) butterscotch sauce to the whipped cream and mix for another 10 seconds until combined.
3. Immediately place in a pastry bag to decorate the cake, or take the sides of the springform pan off the cake and spread around to cover the top of the cake.
4. Sprinkle the cake with SKOR bits in whatever quantity you like.

Caramel Sauce and Caramel Crunch:

If you do not have time to make whipped cream, place caramel or butterscotch sauce in a small Ziplock or pastry bag  and cut a tiny bit off the bottom corner. Use this to squeeze out sauce and make crisscrossed lines across the top of the cake, then sprinkle with SKOR bits.

White Chocolate & Coconut:

Top the cake with a mixture of shaved white chocolate and shredded coconut, which always pairs nicely with blueberry.

Work quickly while topping the cake and refreeze after adding the topping!

Serving Tip:


It is easier to make this several days in advance and freeze in a deep-freeze until hard.  Then, if this is not a birthday cake and does not require candles and a song, then you can pre-slice it to make serving easier at the party. To pre-slice, pull it out of the freezer and use hot water to cut each slice.  place back in the freezer as quickly as you can, and take breaks to refreeze it if need be. If you are slicing it at a party, be sure to keep it frozen up to the moment of serving.  Keep a large glass of hot water on hand to heat up your knife to make it easier to slice quickly (before the cake melts!).

Cherry Pie Inside of a Dark Chocolate Truffle Cake - delicious AND it is accidentally gluten-free!

If you want to bake something that is completely extravagant, over-the-top decadent and totally delicious this summer, that also happens to be gluten-free, this is it! 

This is a large PIECAKEN, and very rich, so small pieces are the best way to go. You can cut at least 16 to 20 pieces, if not more.

If you are not a fan of cherries (the texture of the skin can bother some people), make a raspberry or strawberry pie instead. Simply use the gluten-free coconut crust with any other fruit of your choice.

So let's get to it.

PIECKAEN Recipe: Coconut-Crusted Cherry Pie Inside of a Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cake


What you need:

The Coconut Crust:

• 1/4 cup of coconut flour
• 2 cups of shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup of organic/raw granulated cane sugar
• 1/3 cup of butter, melted

The Cherry Pie Filling

• 1 bag (600 grams) of frozen (or fresh) pitted cherries
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1/2 cup organic/raw cane sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

The Flourless Truffle Cake

• 16 ounces of 70% dark chocolate (1 lb)
• 1 lb of butter (2 cups)
• 2 cups sugar
• 8 eggs
• 2 tsp salt

Topping:

• 9oz dark chocolate
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp. corn syrup, liquid honey, or agave syrup
• 1 cup of shredded sweetened or unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup of chopped or shaved dark chocolate
• OR cherry buttercream icing, fresh cherries, or other icing of your choice

To make the Cherry Pie:

Make the filling:

1. Bring to a simmer 1 bag of frozen (or fresh) pitted Cherries in a saucepan with the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon for 10 minutes while stirring regularly. 
2. Add 1 tbsp. of cornstarch mixed with 1.5 tsps. of cold water to the mixture.  Turn your element down to low and stir constantly while cooking for an additional five or more minutes (until mixture is thickened). 
3. Once thick, turn off heat and remove the saucepan from the element. Let cool.

Make the Coconut Pie Crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Prepare a 9" pie plate by greasing it with butter, shortening or lard and then placing a round of parchment paper inside (this should hang about 1/2" inch over than the pie plate edges) and then grease the parchment paper as well.
3. Melt the butter in the microwave or over a double boiler. 
4. Place the shredded coconut, the coconut flour and the sugar in a medium bowl and stir briefly until mixed.
5. Pour the melted butter over the coconut mixture and stir until the mixture is fully dampened.
6. Press into the pie pan and up the sides as far as you can.
7. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are starting to toast and brown.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
9. Once cooled, pour the cherry filling into the pie crust.

It is best to top the pie with melted chocolate or a quick water ganache in order to seal it (this makes it easier when you flip the pie into the cake batter.  Here is how to make a water ganache:

Water Ganache:

1. Place 3 ounces of dark chocolate in a microwavable bowl. 
2. Add 1/4 cup of water. 
3. Microwave on MEDIUM (50%) power for 1 minute and 40 seconds. 
4. Take out, stir until melted together. 
5. Spread over the cherry filling in the pie to seal the cherries in.

To make the Flourless Chocolate Truffle Cake:

1. Prepare a 10" springform cake pan with a round parchment paper in the bottom (you can use a regular 10" cake pan if you do not have a springform pan in that size).  Grease the paper and the sides of the cake pan.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Place the chopped butter and chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a double boiler (a small pot with 1 inch of water in it at a low simmer) and stir constantly until melted. Remove from heat. You can use the stainless steel bowl from your stand mixer, if it does not have a thick-plated or rubber base.
4. Add the sugar and stir well.  Let rest five minutes.
5. Add all 8 eggs and mix with a hand mixer (or stand mixer) until well blended (do not over-beat, if it starts to get fluffy, stop mixing).
6. Toss in the salt and mix for about 10 seconds more with your hand mixer or with a spatula.
7. Pour 1/3 to 1/2 of the cake batter into your prepared cake pan.
8. Flip your pie over, upside-down onto the centre of the batter in the pan. Remove the parchment paper.
9. Pour the remaining batter over the pie.  Spread the batter around and into the edges to even out the top.
10. Place your Springform pan on a cookie sheet or pizza pan (to prevent dripping from a leaky springform pan). Bake in a preheated oven for 55 minutes. Turn off oven when done baking.  Open the door, pull out the oven rack the cake is sitting on and leave the door open for 15 minutes until the cake cool and sinks a bit.  Remove carefully from the oven, then let cool completely on a cooling rack. Refrigerate for at least two to four hours before flipping onto a serving plate and topping the cake.

For the topping and cake presentation:

1. Once completely cooled and chilled, run a hot knife around the edges and, if using, release your springform pan sides and remove. Place your serving plate upside down and centred onto the cake, then flip the cake and plate over so the cake is upside down on your serving plate (this means the pie inside the cake is now right-side-up!).
2. Mix 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips or finely chopped or shaved semi-sweet chocolate in a bowl with 1 cup of sweetened shredded coconut. Set aside.
3. Place 6 ounces of broken, chopped or drops of chocolate pieces into a heat-proof bowl.
4. Boil 1/2 cup of cream in a small pan on the stove top until it just reaches the boiling point. Pour it over the chocolate and stir with a wooden spoon slowly until completely mixed and smooth.
5. Add the tbsp. of corn syrup, agave, or honey and stir. This will add a nice shine to your glaze. 
6. Pour over the cake and, working quickly with an offset spatula, spread to the sides and run along the sides to smooth out. Wipe any excess off of the serving plate with wet and dry paper towels.
7. Immediately (while the glaze is still wet) press the shredded coconut and chocolate mixture into the sides of the cake all around.  Alternately, you can press it only into the top of the cake and leave the sides plain.
8. Top with Chocolate-Covered Cherries for an added touch!

To Slice and Serve the Cake:

Chill and then slice.  Slice with a heated knife (heat knife by running it under hot water and drying it with a paper town before each cut). A hot knife will prevent your knife from crushing each slice of cake.

The Perfect Summer PIECAKEN! Strawberry Pie in Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Cheesecake PIECAKENS are extra rich and extra delicious. Sure, you could simply make a strawberry-topped cheesecake, which will have a similar flavour profile, but by putting a strawberry pie inside of the cheesecake it becomes a great surprise. And your dessert will be the most memorable one at the party.

So let's get to it! Here is the recipe:

Strawberry-Cheesecake PIECAKEN

Ingredients for the Cheesecake Crust:

• 2 cups of graham cookie crumbs (or chocolate 'Oreo' cookie crumbs - it's up to you)
• 1/3 cup of butter, melted
• 1/3 cup of granulated raw cane sugar (or regular granulated sugar or organic coconut sugar, depending on your preference)

Ingredients for the Strawberry Pie:

• 3 cups of strawberries
• 1 cup of granulated raw cane sugar (again, you can use regular or coconut sugar)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp. corn starch mixed with 1 tbsp. of water

Ingredients for the Cheesecake Batter:

• 2 packages of cream cheese
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground vanilla beans (or the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean pod)
• 3 eggs
• 1 500 ml container of sour cream

To Make the Pie:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. If you do not have a favourite pie crust recipe, follow my favourite one here.
3. Line a 6" to 8" pie or tart pan with parchment paper (grease under the parchment to make it stick to the pan and on it). Place a round of crust in the bottom of pan and up the sides (trim if there is excess, but leave it high enough to attach to a top crust).
4. Pre-bake the bottom layer of the pie crust for about 5 to 10 minutes before adding the filling.
5. In a medium bowl, mix together the strawberries, sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch/water mixture.
6. Pour into the pie shell.
7. Top the pie filling with a top layer of pie crust and poke holes in it.
8. Brush on an egg wash (1 egg yolk mixed with 2 tbsp. of cream or milk) to get a crisp crust.
9. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until the pie is bubbling and the crust is lightly browned.
10. Take out of the oven and let cool on a cooling rack while preparing the cheesecake crust and batter.

Make the Cheesecake Crust:

1. Prepare an 8" Springform pan by lining it with parchment paper and then grease it with butter or lard.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the graham cookie crumbs and the melted butter with a spoon.  Toss in the sugar and stir until combined. Press it into the prepared springform pan in a thick coating on the bottom and slightly up the sides.
3. Place it on a cookie sheet (to catch any dripping butter) and bake in the 350 degree F preheated oven for 12 minutes until crisp and edges are just starting to brown.
4. Take out and let cool while you prepare the cheesecake batter.

Make the Cheesecake Batter:

1. Remove the packaging from the cream cheese and then soften it in the microwave for 10 to 20 seconds.
2. Beat with an electric mixer or stand mixer on medium-to-high until soft and lightly whipped (you need to stir in the bottom with a spatula a few times to ensure no lumps). 
3. Slowly add in the sugar and again stir in the bottom bits to remove any lumps. Whip until softened and fluffy. 
4. Add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean and mix.
5. Add one egg at a time and mix on medium, fully stirring with a spatula between each addition.
6. Once fully mixed and lump free, mix in the sour cream on low or medium just until combined.

Assemble and Bake the PIECAKEN:

1. Pour about a 1/2 to 3/4 inch of batter onto the crust.
2. Flip your pie upside-down into the centre of the cake pan (this is easiest, but you might want the pie to be right-side up when you slice the cake, so extract the pie carefully and place it on the batter in the centre of the cake pan).
3. Pour the remaining cheesecake batter onto the pie and spread around and into the sides, ensuring there is enough to cover the pie.  Fill right to the top of your springform pan.  (If there is a little cheesecake batter leftover, you can make two mini cheesecakes in muffin tins baked at about 20 minutes in a 350 degree F preheated oven)
4. Bake the PIECAKEN for 1 hour and 10 minutes (if your oven bakes hot, or is not a convection oven, be sure to turn the cake halfway through and bake on the centre rack of the oven, and check it at one hour - If cracking and browning, stop cooking at 1 hour).
5. Take out the PIECAKEN, run a knife around the sides of the springform pan to prevent cracking, and then let cool. Once cooled (about 2 hours), refrigerate for another 2 hours before topping.

To top the cake:
Top with a vanilla bean buttercream icing or whipped cream & fresh strawberries or a cooked strawberry topping (a cup of strawberries cooked on stovetop with a 1/3 cup of sugar and 1 tbsp. lemon juice for 15 minutes, let cool, then pour on cake).

Chill the cake and slice. Serve it cooled!

You can also freeze this cake, if need be.

Icecream PIECAKEN Fail!

Well, when is a PIECAKEN ever really a Fail?

Last week I saw a pie recipe online like no other. It was a chocolate ganache pie with a shredded coconut crust. For starters, what an excellent idea for a gluten-free crust.  Secondly, dark chocolate ganache in a pie is my kind of pie!  So I thought, "Wouldn't it be a great idea to make a similar pie and put it inside of a fruit-flavoured icecream cake?" 

Well, it was a great idea, but making it happen was a whole other deal.  My original thought was to put the pie inside a lime or raspberry gelato (something tart or sour), which would have paired nicely with a bitter chocolate.  But all I could get at the store here was Strawberry Frozen Yogurt. And I also wanted to change up the original recipe by using a darker 70% chocolate with a butter-based ganache, which is very bitter tasting but delicious. However, once the whole thing was put together, the sweet strawberry ice cream made the dark chocolate pie taste far too bitter.

So what did I do?  I removed all the ice cream, the cookie crust and the chocolate truffle that I used for decorating and made an ultimate bowl of ice cream.  Then I let my wonderful dark chocolate pie come back to room temperature (it was not very tasty while frozen) and enjoyed a slice of that on its own.

Although it was a fail, I can see that a semi-sweet chocolate pie would have been the way to go with a raspberry gelato.  Alternately, with the strawberry ice cream, I would have made a milk chocolate or white chocolate ganache coconut pie. 

Anyway, the process of putting it together is the same, so if you want to try your own version, here is a photo instruction on how I made the Icecream & Coconut Pie PIECAKEN (see below for further tips and instructions):

Some added instructions: 

For the coconut crust, I used 2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut, mixed with 1/4 cup of coconut sugar and 1/3 cup of melted butter, which I then pressed into a parchment lined pie pan.  I baked this for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees F.

For the pie filling, my butter-ganache was: in a small saucepan, bring to a boil 1/2 cup of whipping cream with 1/2 cup of butter.  Pour it over 8 ounces of 70% dark chocolate and stir until smooth.  Pour into the cooked coconut pie crust.

For a milk chocolate pie filling, follow this truffle recipe with regular milk chocolate (you don't need to use the Caramelia chocolate in the recipe).

Place the pie in the bottom of the icecream cake to make it easier to cut.  If it is in the middle (as I learned the hard way), the ice cream underneath squishes out.

Work fast before your ice cream melts and get it back into a deep freeze as quickly as possible!