Cooks of Calvary: a favorite summer pie recipe

by Karen Howden

Happy summer everyone!  When Jill asked me if I had a fun summer recipe to share, two recipes came to mind… both desserts, of course!  The first recipe is called Lime Delight and is a funky mixture of whipped lime jello folded into fluffy evaporated milk and layered onto an Oreo crust. I know, super weird, but SO GOOD. I love this dessert and we have it every year around the 4th of July (for some reason – you know the patriotic lime green dessert ?!)  Anyway it is delicious and unique and makes me think of summer.  The only problem is I am terrible at making it!  I usually beg my long-suffering, non-cook, engineer Dad to make it and as it is one of only four things that he “bakes” during the year, he usually will grudgingly agree.  

With the deadline for this blog looming I set out (again) to try to make Lime Delight and (again) it was a semi-failure… that my family still devoured like wild locusts.  So until I figure out what went wrong with my Lime Delight, I will leave you with something that produces a photo that I can print without cringing.  If any of your specialize in 1950s desserts involving jello, please flag me down at church!  

The second recipe is a bit more straight-forward – Mud Pie.  My older girls have July birthdays 4 days apart, so every summer as we celebrate Birthday Week, one daughter chooses cake or cupcakes and the other chooses an ice cream cake. Our favorite ice cream cake, hands-down, is mud pie.  Even those who don’t love coffee in my house, love this decadent mixture of coffee ice cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream.  Of  course, the best mud pie is made with  Ghiradelli chocolate (unsweetened in this case).

The first time I remember hearing of Mud Pie was when my parents visited Hawaii in the 1970s.  They came home telling us about a towering piece of Mud Pie served in a local restaurant.  While the name wasn’t appealing, a towering piece of ice cream cake was.  My resourceful mother soon tracked down a recipe, and we’ve been enjoying it ever since. My version isn’t towering because we all like to fit into our pants at the end of the day.  I have shared it at potlucks and dinner parties, and it is always a hit.  And, it always turns out!

Try it and I hope it becomes part of your family’s summer memories!

Mud Pie

serves 10-12

Crust:

20 Oreo cookies, filling removed

5 1/3 Tbsp butter, melted

Sauce:

2 oz unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup sugar

1 Tbsp butter

2/3 cup evaporated milk

2 pints coffee ice cream, softened

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 Tbsp coffee liqueur (like Kahlua), optional

Method

Crush cookies in a food processor to a fine crumb consistency.  Add butter and mix well.  Press mixture into bottom of a 10 inch pie pan.  Freeze.

To make the sauce, melt chocolate, sugar, butter and evaporated milk in the top of a double boiler.  Cook over boiling water until sauce thickens slightly, stirring constantly.  Cool.

Spread ice cream onto crust.*  Return to freezer.  Whip cream with liqueur until stiff, but not dry.  

Pour cooled chocolate sauce evenly over ice cream, then spread whipped cream topping over chocolate sauce.  Over with plastic wrap and freeze 4 hours or overnight.  Remove pie from freezer 20 minutes before serving.

* Random note:

Once the ice cream has softened, I like to put it into a stand mixer and mix it a little to help  it soften more evenly and make it easier to spread onto the crust.

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Karen is a new member at Calvary and has been living in Rochester with her family for the last 13 years.  Depending on the season, she is either homeschooling her girls, attempting to see migrating songbirds, sleeping in and hoping the house cleans itself, or planning family trips.  She also volunteers with her husband, Eric, teaching the Roots 5th/6th grade Sunday School class, and she is a high school small group leader.  She enjoys camping, hiking, nature journaling, birdwatching, reading, shell and rock collecting, baking and sleeping, not in that order!  Someday she is going to retire (from her unpaid job) so she has time for all her hobbies!  She is so grateful to be part of the Calvary community.