Holiday Mud Pie

 

        It was a simple jump from the mud pies of the 80's (an ice cream dessert layered with cookie crumbs and fudge sauce (the mud).  The original was called Mississippi Mud Pie with a chocolate pudding filling - I have wandered about on the banks of the Mississippi River in my time and I never saw anything that looked good enough to eat.  Be that as it may, ice cream with fudge sauce, cookie crumbs, nuts and candies and whatever else your imagination might conjure up is always a winner.

      An easy swim from Mississippi Mud Pie inspired me to create a Holiday version for my family and was always the most popular of our holiday dishes - one that was insisted upon by the greedy little elves that round our table grew.  No easy feat finding the right ingredients and assembling one in a tiny poorly equipped kitchen in Riquewihr, France or transporting the partially assembled trifle dish to Hershey, Pennsylvania for a family meet up in a hotel.  Quebec City happily provided the basic elements.  This dish has definitely traveled the world and if it doesn't appear on the menu for our annual caroling party (which has become less frequent as our daughters married unenthusiastic singers) it is sure to rule the table on Christmas Eve.

      The addition of mint extract and crushed mint candy canes create Christmas in your mouth - but when having to improvise, I've been told that mint toothpaste will do the trick (which I have never actually tried). The fudge sauce pulls it all together with the cookie layer.  Put out all the decorative toppings you can think of and the kids will have fun decorating the top.  A little supervision is suggested to keep the whole activity from becoming a mud fight (perhaps not such a bad idea depending on where the mud lands!)

Holiday Mud Pie

Ice Cream:  

(or 1 gallon pink or green peppermint ice cream)          

1 gallon vanilla ice cream                                                          

red & green food coloring

mint or peppermint extract                                                      

1/3 cup crushed mint candy canes

Cookie Crust:                                                                               

 1 package chocolate wafers or Oreo cookies                     

 1/2 cup sugar    

                                                                             

Fudge Sauce:

3 tablespoons melted butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate squares

1 cup sugar                                                                                     

1 - 12 ounce can evaporated milk                                            

1 teaspoon vanilla extra

Garnish:                                                                                           

1 cup whipping cream                                                                 

3 tablespoons sugar                                                                     

1 teaspoon vanilla extract                                                         

2/3 cups finely chopped walnuts                                           

chocolate leaves or curls                                                           

maraschino cherries (well-drained)                                     

small candy canes

       -Crush chocolate wafers or Oreo cookies in a food processor using the pulse function, to fine crumbs.  Add sugar and pulse. Set aside.

       -To prepare fudge sauce, melt butter and chocolate in medium saucepan.  Stir in sugar until well blended then add milk and stir over medium-high heat until mixture begins to bubble and thicken. Cook another 3 - 4 minutes until mixture is quite thick.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Allow to cool completely.

       -Allow 1/3 of the ice cream to soften (20-30 seconds in the microwave helps).  Spoon into a large mixing bowl and stir in 1 teaspoon mint extract and 2 tablespoons crushed mint candy canes.  Dye ice cream red with food coloring and stir until well combined.  (If ice cream is too thick to stir, let sit on the counter another 5 minutes then try again.)  (Keep the ice cream you are not using in the freezer so it doesn't melt completely.)

       -Spoon first layer of red ice cream into the glass container.  Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cookie crumbs.  Place in freezer for 1/2 hours.  Smooth 1/2 cup cooled fudge sauce over the crumbs, being sure to press around the edges of the ice cream so the layer of chocolate shows through the glass.  Freeze for 1 hour.

       -Repeat the softening process of the ice cream with another 1/3 of your ice cream but this time color it green.  Repeat the same layering and freezing processes as explained above.

       -Repeat the process one more time, this time coloring the softened ice cream red.  Freeze the completed trifle for 6 - 8 hours or overnight.

       -Remove about 15 minutes before serving to allow ice cream to soften slightly.  Beat cream in mixer until soft peaks form.  Add sugar then continue to beat until peaks become stiff.  Stir in vanilla extract.  Spread whipped cream on top of mud pie.  Garnish top with cherries, candy canes, chocolate leaves or curls and walnuts, if desired.

Process Oreos to fine crumbs

Make fudge sauce and allow to cool.

                                             Soften ice cream and stir in mint, 

candy cane chips and coloring.

Layer ice cream, then Oreo crumbs, 

followed by fudge sauce and repeat

 2 more times to create layers.

Layers should be visible through

the glass of the container.

Mound whipped cream on top and

garnish with cherries, candy canes, 

chocolate curls and nuts.

Yummm!

PERSNICKETY  NOTES:

**Only soften the ice cream until you can stir it, even it it is a bit stiff.  Do not let it completely melt.  As long as it remains quite cold and stiff it will re-freeze without creating ice crystals.  Once it melts completely and is re-frozen the ice cream will no longer be smooth but crunchy with ice crystals.

**Original Mud Pies were made with chocolate pudding, until someone

thought of using ice cream.  The classic flavor combination was chocolate pudding with chocolate cookie crumbs and whipped cream but soon, creative cooks were trying almond toffee crunch ice cream with caramel sauce or rocky rock road ice cream with fudge sauce.  The ice cream version must be the offspring of a Baked Alaska and Mississippi Mud Pie!