Toffee Ice Cream Pie with Homemade Cookie Crust and Caramel Sauce

I just learned something….Toffee is basically sugar and butter. Caramel is sugar and cream or milk, with butter occasionally in the mix.  How about that?!

This was fun to make. But – if you’re short of time, you could buy a vanilla cookie crust and some caramel sauce.

This is actually my second attempt at making this pie! If you read my last post, I quoted Roseanne Roseannadana, “It’s always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” And the ‘one thing’ happened to be that I fell and badly banged my head and sprained my wrist.  And the ‘other thing’ is that I ‘totaled’ the first version of this pie.  As I was placing my finished pie into the freezer, I scraped off about half the toffee candy and homemade caramel sauce on the ice maker. I attempted to repair the damage …. but the Toffee Ice Cream Pie with Homemade Cookie Crust and Caramel Sauce just didn’t look right.  So, today, I made another pie.       And this version is perfect! 

Ingredients

• CRUST INGREDIENTS
• 1 1/2 cups ground ‘Nilla Wafers – – or any other soft vanilla cookie
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• CARAMEL SAUCE INGREDIENTS
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar      ++ NOT packed !!
• 1/4 cup dark Karo syrup
• 1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• PLUS….
• 1 pie pan      ++  NOT a deep dish pie pan
• a quart of toffee crunch ice cream – slightly softened  
• 2 English toffee bars, such as Heath, Score or Daim, broken into small pieces

Method

CRUST – Combine 1 1/2 cups ‘Nilla Wafer crumbs, 2 Tbs. sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter in a medium bowl. Press crust mixture firmly on the bottom and sides of an 8′ or 9’ pie pan.  ++  I used a measuring cup today to press down the crust – and it came out much nicer than my first attempt!

+

CARAMEL SAUCE In a medium saucepan melt 1/4 cup butter over medium-high heat until it melts.  Add 1 cup light brown sugar  (NOT packed !!) and 1/4 cup dark Karo syrup.  Bring to a boil, stirring the whole time. Lower heat to medium and continue to boil – stirring – for about 4 minutes.

Reduce heat to low.  Stir in 1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Cook, stirring, for another minute.

Your finished product should look something like this.    ++ It’s best to leave the sauce in the saucepan, I just did this for ‘photographic purposes’ !

Place crust in freezer for 20 minutes.    Remove pie crust from freezer.     Drizzle about 2/3s of the caramel sauce over the pie crust.   ++  If your cookie crust isn’t too cold, you’ll be able to spread the caramel sauce.  Otherwise, just drizzle the caramel sauce onto the crust.

Spread enough softened ice cream to fill the crust.

Sprinkle broken up pieces of toffee candy on top of the ice cream. Drizzle the remaining caramel sauce over the candy bits.

++ The caramel sauce came out a bit too thin on my 1st try…. and it was a bit thick on my 2nd try – but it didn’t matter !!  When it was too thin, I put it in the fridge for a bit, and when it was too thick, I just added a bit of the heavy cream and gently rewarmed it.

Return pie to freezer for about 6 hours – or overnight.  ++  Pie will be easier to cut if you allow it to sit out for a few minutes after removing it from the freezer.   ENJOY !!

++  Recipe adapted from http://www.kitchendaily.com/recipe/nilla-ice-cream-pie