Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie

I love sweets, but with Dominican summer in full swing, sometimes turning on my oven to bake is just unbearable.  So, instead of baking, I make this delicious ice cream pie, adapted from a recipe I found in an old issue of Southern Living.  You must try it! 

This recipe makes one 9" pie (or one pie in whatever dish you have!).

Ingredients

• 21 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies
• 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
• 3 pints chocolate ice cream,softened
• A handful of peanut butter cup candies (or any other candy bar), coarsely chopped (chocolate chips or baking morsels of some sort would be yummy, too... or even marshmallows?!?... whatever treat you can find!)
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup strong brewed coffee

Preparation

• Smash oreo cookies in a bowl using a potato masher. Add melted butter, and continue stirring and smashing until combined.
• Press crumb mixture into a 9-inch deep-dish pie pan, and freeze 15 minutes.
• Stir together chocolate ice cream and chopped candies; spoon into pie crust. Freeze at least 6 hours. Remove from freezer, and let stand 15 minutes before serving.
• Make coffee and then pour it until a small sauce pan; heat over low heat and stir in chocolate chips until melted.  Let chocolate coffee mixture sit until room temperature. Drizzle over pie.

No Bake Desserts (Truffles)

I don't know about you, but when I think about baking here, I picture myself sweating as the small oven in our apartment turns into a fireplace. It's not ideal. Anytme I can make a sweet treat that doesn't call for any baking...I'm tickled pink!

Here are 2 no-bake treats.

Oreo Truffles:

1 package of Oreos (or Recreos)

1 8oz. package cream cheese

chocolate chips

Crush oreos to a powder. Mix in room temp. cream cheese to make a dough. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, place them on cookie sheet lines with wax paper. While they chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, heat the chocolate chips in the microwave. Stir the chips every 20 seconds so they don't burn. Dip the dough balls into the chocolate, set them back on the wax paper and place back in the fridge. You can also stick popsicle sticks into the balls before you dip them. This makes it easier to dip, plus it's fun to eat this way too.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Ingredients:

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup light brown sugar, packed

2¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ cup chocolate chips for dough, plus extra for dipping

Directions:

Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up enough to form balls.

Shape the chilled cookie dough mixture into 1-1½ inch balls. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for 1-2 hours.

When ready to dip the truffles, melt the chocolate chips slowly in the microwave, stirring every 20 seconds so it doesn't burn. Dip each chilled truffle, one at a time, coating in chocolate and shaking gently to remove the excess. (If at any point during dipping, the cookie dough balls become too soft, return to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.) Transfer to a wax-paper lined surface. Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

The large chocolate chips in this truffle make it hard to put on a stick. They tend to fall apart. (adapted from Annie's-Eats)

Ginger-Mango Cream Pie

from Whole Living

I made this the other night and it was delcious! Charlie thinks it tastes like a mango version of key lime pie or mango ginger cheesecake... it's a fun islandy treat!  

INGREDIENTS

Serves 8.

• 1 1/2 cups plain granola
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 cup 2 percent Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons honey, plus more for drizzling
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
• 1 mango, sliced

Substitutions: Swap plain yogurt or milk for Greek yogurt.  Sometimes Picard Grocery has yogurt...

Hunting and Gathering: I found cream cheese and granola (some granola-ish stuff in a lime green bag called "Mornflake Orchard Oat Crunchy Sultana and Apple" (whatever that means) at Picard Grocery and some mangos and ginger from Dee's.

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 375 (190 island temp) degrees. Pulse granola and sugar in a food processor (I used a blender) until finely chopped (or put granola in a bag and smash it up and then mix in the sugar). Drizzle butter over granola mixture and pulse to combine (or just stir it in if you're food processor-less). Press mixture into and up sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.
2. Beat cheese in a mixer until smooth (I did it by hand -- good workout!). Add yogurt, honey, and ginger; beat until combined.
3. Pour filling into prepared crust and chill in refrigerator until set, at least 6 hours and up to 1 day. Just before serving, arrange mango on top of pie and drizzle with honey.

Recipe from Whole Living.