Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Ann's April Pie - Hippie Pie

I went home to Arizona for a triumphant reunion of all of my siblings during the last week of April. I knew before I left that I wanted to make an Arizona-themed pie to share with the family while I was there, and spent days looking for something appropriate. I considered a southwestern-flavored savory pie or quiche, or something with a name that sounded like it came from my home state: sun, or diamondback, or snake, or desert...you get the idea. I was sure that I'd find something online, but I searched and searched and found nothing. I turned to the archives of Sue Anne's Pie of the Month site, and found a couple of possiblities, the best being Dry Pie. However, you will notice in the recipe that a key ingredient is pumpkin puree. Now I must make a confession: the ONLY food in the world that I hate is pumpkin pie. I loathe it. I try every year to eat some at Thanksgiving and it is just as bad as I remember. Moreover, only my parents like pumpkin pie in my family; my mom has asked every year at Thanksgiving how I can be my father's daughter when I hate pumpkin pie so much. Knowing that I'd be serving my pie to my pumpkin-hating siblings, it didn't seem quite fair to force us all to eat it - and to leave my mom with the entire thing. Therefore, I went with an Arizona theme I could get behind: ice cream pie.

Specifically, I made a family favorite: hippie pie. Hippie pie is not to be confused with hippie pie, which is like the Pizzookie at Oregano's and is perfect and delicious. Hippie pie is an ice cream pie that my family eats after watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. I decided that the best thing I could do for my month's pie would be something that my family would all love and we could enjoy together. There's actually another version of hippie pie that has cherries and chocolate flakes, but this is the one we eat every year.

This is such an easy dessert to make because it's just layering the different ingredients. You start with an Oreo crust and layer vanilla ice cream, raspberry sorbet, chopped walnuts, blueberry jam, and fruit. Voila! Hippe pie.

Here I am with the finished pie, and two random kids that wanted to hang out with me. Okay, I'm related to them. They're Listle's kids, Badam and Bella.


Can you see why it's called hippie pie? Psychadelic!!!

It tasted just like summer to me. Since I'm not going home for the Fourth of July this year, I was glad to get to share it with my family - we probably won't be in the same place together for a long time (Lee is moving to China with her family, and Pat is moving to Philly), so it was great to be home and remember happy memories. Despite the fact that we all got food poisoning over the next few days from the Mexican take-out we'd had for dinner, it was hot, summery, Arizona perfection.

Enjoy.


Ann's Hippie Pie (not to be confused with Hippie Pie)

1 chocolate cookie crumb crust
Vanilla ice cream
Raspberry sorbet
Walnuts, chopped fine
1 jar blueberry jam
Fresh strawberries, hulled and halved
Fresh blueberries

Spoon vanilla ice cream into the crust until it is halfway full. Smooth to create a solid layer. Spoon a layer of raspberry sorbet over this, then top with more vanilla ice cream, mounding up in a rounded dome. Smooth out. Spoon blueberry jam over the top - be careful, it may spill down the sides, so put a plate underneath the pie shell to catch any drips. It may be a good idea to create a ring of foil around the edge of the shell to keep the jam from spilling over (I didn't do this - I just let it get all over my brother's freezer). Sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the top, and then layer the strawberries and blueberries in whatever pattern you'd like. In fact you could use whatever fruit you want - different ice cream flavors, etc., but since this is Fourth of July themed, my family uses this combination. Place in the freezer and allow ice cream to re-harden for several hours before serving- or just eat it when you feel like it. What's the worst that can happen?

Chocolate Cookie Crumb Crust

16 Oreo cookies (with filling), broken into rough pieces, about 2 1/2 cups
2 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled

1. For the Crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade, process cookies with 15 one-second pulses, then let machine run until crumbs are uniformly fine, about 15 seconds. (Alternatively, place cookies in large zipper-lock plastic bag and crush with rolling pin.) Transfer crumbs to medium bowl, drizzle with butter, and use fingers to combine until butter is evenly distributed.
2. Pour crumbs into 9-inch Pyrex pie plate. Following illustration below, press crumbs evenly onto bottom and up sides of pie plate. Refrigerate lined pie plate 20 minutes to firm crumbs, then bake until crumbs are fragrant and set, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack while preparing filling.

5 comments:

Elizabeth said...

That pie was awesome!! I wish I had the rest right now.

I can guarantee that come July or August, I will be making an ice cream pie too, because I probably won't be feeling well enough to make a regular pie at that point. There's no way I could TOUCH the yumminess that is this pie, though. It is perfection.

I laughed at your reference to your family eating this every year after fire works. As I told you in AZ, for the last 8-9 years the Fourth of July has become something I don't recognize AT ALL at the Janet Cox home. I never ate this pie, I never barbecued sausages, I never drank varieties of sodas, and I never, never traveled to see fire works. It sounds super fun, though, and so more power to you guys for doing it!! The Fourth can be really fun or really boring, and the way you guys have celebrated it for the past number of years sounds really great. I wish I could come out this year. Jeff works. LAME! I thought that's why he volunteered for Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day....so we could have more time-dependent holidays off, like the Fourth!?!

Anyway, awesome pie, Ann! I can't wait to see your May submission!

Elizabeth said...

Although Ann's pie was indeed delicious, I forgot to REVEAL TO EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD that this pie that Ann made was a FAKE!! It was not an April pie! She made it on the THIRD of MAY! Gasp!

Cheat! Liar! Imposter!!

ferskner said...

OH MY GOSH!!!! I am going to murder you!!!!!

First: yes, I admit that the pie was officially made in May - because I had intended to make a more complicated pie, and it was difficult to make a pie when every piece of cloth and toy in my mother's house was sitting in the kitchen/on the table. Then I decided on hippie pie and made it for our swimming party, which didn't happen until the end of the week!

Second: That is SOOOOOOO funny that you talk about how you laughed at me referring to this as a family tradition when it didn't happen until after you moved because I wrote a LONG explanation of that in my original version, and then took it out because I thought "no one else is going to care about this." You and Pat make fun of me all the time for putting needless detail into stories, and now I will never again doubt my need for the overwrought explanation!!! Yes, I could have talked about how all these traditions are things that Pat and I forced on Shmee when no one else lived in the Valley, but frankly, it undermined the theme of what I was going for in the story: happy family all together (well, Lee wasn't there that night), reunion at home for the last time in a while, etc. Thanks for ruining it, Listle!!

Elizabeth said...

You can't murder me if I murder you first. TONIGHT!

Okay, I shouldn't have written "laughed at" because that's not what I meant. I meant, "I laughed when I read..." Actually, I hate that whole paragraph that I wrote, because it sounds like I am telling it to you for the first time, or scolding you for not remembering or something. I am more just "recalling it pleasantly." :)

Lastly, I am so very much NOT the one making fun of you for putting too much detail in stories. I am the queen of detail! I love it! I'm the one who's always making you and others back up and tell me MORE detail. That's just Patio---not me.

(...but it's still a MAY pie...)

Do You Think I Am An Automaton said...

It is fun to talk about pie.

Ann, I love the post and I loved the pie! The picture of you and M is funny! I am glad you two got in your traditional scratching/biting/slapping/bruising fest.
That was so fun with you guys here! I hope us moving out that way makes it so that we can get together like that more often.

I wish you both would come out for the fourth of July! We already have the food planned- the traditional sausages, but this year adding the brie dog I told you about, Ann. http://noteatingoutinny.com/2008/05/27/if-i-were-entering-the-great-hot-dog-cook-off-take-i-the-baked-brie-dog/

We hope to leave here soon after, so maybe we can cook them up for you two once we get there sometime!
Sharon