Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie

Happy Friday everyone! Man, these 5-day weeks are BRUTAL!

To say that the weather around here has been crazy lately would be a complete understatement.  Within about a week and a half, we had a Hurrricane AND a Nor’ Easter that brought the first snow of the season to Boston – and now it’s all melted and it’s supposed to be 70 degrees on Monday.  Wuddup mother nature? I only have so much room in my closet to be prepared for all these weather scenarios!

Snow on my cabbage?

Anyway, Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching in just two weeks! And this recipe for Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie is a special one as it’s a Schoon Family ‘Dessert Heirloom’ of sorts.  Dave’s Mom and Grandmother make it every Thanksgiving and it’s really a nice change to your run-of-the-mill Apple and Pecan pie.  After hours of grazing and face stuffing on Thanksgiving Day, when you think you can’t fit another morsel of food in your already overstretched stomach, out comes the Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie.  And suddenly, ah ha! Whaddaya know, I found room for a sliver!

Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie
*A Schoon Family Specialty

INGREDIENTS
*Yields 1 – 9″ pie – however, there is probably enough ice cream to make 2 pies, so if you double the graham cracker crust, butter and sugar measurements,  you’d have enough crust for 2 pies. 

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

3 tablespoons white sugar

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1.5 – teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 tablespoon orange juice

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2) To prepare crust, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter in a mixing bowl. Coat 9″ pie plate with non-stick cooking spray and then press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the the plate.

2) Bake crust in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until edges are golden brown. You’ll notice that the crust will puff up a little bit while baking – simply take your hands or a rubber spatula to push it back down into the pie plate.  Cool on rack before filling.

3) To prepare the pumpkin filling, combine ice cream, pumpkin, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and orange juice.

4) After the crust has cooled, pour the pumpkin ice cream filling into the pie plate.  As mentioned above, there will be quite a bit of ice-cream filling left over, so feel free to save it or prepare another pie with it.

5) Freeze until ready to serve.  Feel free to top with cool whip, or as you can see, I ‘bedazzled’ mine with some fun harvest colored sugar crystals for some texture.

Be sure to spray your pie plate – I actually did NOT do this, and the crust was kind of sticking to the plate, so I think the cooking spray would help that (or you could totally cheat and buy one of those pre-made Graham Cracker crusts! But the homemade one just tastes that much better :))

I would also recommend letting your pie sit for 5 minutes or so before trying to cut a slice – it just makes it a little easier to take it out of the plate.

Happy Friday everyone – happy weekend to all!