Peach Pie Ice Cream

A slice of fresh fruit pie is often best when accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. That cool, creamy ice cream is the perfect match for a slice of still warm pie. For a bit of a twist on that idea, I took the pie and put it into my ice cream instead of doing things the other way around! That means that a sacrificed a big slice of fresh peach pie into this dessert. Fortunately, the results were well worth it.

This is an easy dessert to make. You can make your own ice cream from scratch, but you can also start out with store-bought ice cream. Soften the ice cream slightly and put it into a big bowl, then gently mash up your slice of pie and fold it into the ice cream. Put everything back into the freezer and let it chill before serving. You get the creaminess of the ice cream, a hint of the crisp crust and lots of fruit flavor. This is a great way to enjoy pie on a hot day, and it is also the perfect way to make use of leftover pie slices (for those times when you have more pie than people to eat it).

Crumble-topped pies are my favorite pies to pull this trick with, but any kind of fresh fruit pie will do the trick and produce a great tasting ice cream. I served this ice cream in little store-bought pie crusts, but it tastes great when scooped out into waffle cones, too!

Peach Pie Ice Cream
1 medium-sized slice of peach pie
1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
mini graham cracker crusts, to serve (optional)

Coarsely chop pie into chunks, including fruit and crust.
Place softened ice cream in a large bowl. Add chopped pie and fold everything together. Transfer to a freezer-proof container and chill until firm. Serve in mini graham cracker crusts or waffle cones, as desired.

This recipe doubles and triples easily, using another slice of pie for each pint of ice cream.

Serves 4