Super Rich Oreo Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion Ice Cream Pie

My friend Sarah hosted a get-together this weekend to celebrate fall birthdays (since both she and her fiance have one) and she emailed me earlier this week to ask me where I recommended she get an ice cream cake.  She thought I might be an authority on the topic! Imagine that!

I immediately knew what I had to do:  I had to make a variation on the ice cream cake my mom always made (at my request) growing up.  She got it from my elementary school cookbook back in the day. It involved an oreo crust, a layer of homemade fudge, a layer of ice cream and cool whip topping. This thing absolutely embarrasses any store bought ice cream cake. And seriously Coldstone has a pretty great one. But I brought it to a whole new level and I couldn't not share it on here. 

First of all I had to make it gluten free since Sarah's fiance Peter, one of the birthday honorees, can't eat gluten. That was a super easy modification for this recipe, I just needed gluten-free Oreos for the crust. I bought a pack each of K-toos and Mi-del's and I used all 35 cookies (leaving one for a garnish on top). You definitely could not tell the difference from regular Oreos!

The second, very important edit was to make this a chocolate peanut butter cake. The ice cream I chose to use is one of my all time favorites, UDF Homemade Brand's Peanut butter & chip. And I added a layer of peanut butter to the cake.  CLUTCH I TELL YOU. I am obsessed with Smucker's Creamy Natural Peanut Butter. I don't know how they do it but it's the best peanut butter for real.

The third edit was the cool whip, which had to go.  I hate that stuff... so gross and fake and horrible for you. I made real whipped cream from scratch instead with heavy whipping cream.

I found a recipe for the fudge layer at Pinch of Yum using Pinterest since I couldn't get the original recipe from my mom in time.

Here goes. I am calling my version:

Oreo Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion Ice Cream Pie

Crust:
 35 oreos (or gluten free version)
1.5 stick butter
Crush the oreos, melt the butter, mix together and spread in bottom of 9.75x14.75x2 dish. 35 yields a nice super thick crust.  You could use fewer for less crust.

Fudge:
1.5 (ish) cups of chocolate chips
1 stick butter
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups powdered sugar
combine in saucepan, bring to boil and stir continuously while it boils for 8 minutes, then let cool before layering over crust.

 Peanut Butter:
majority of a jar of Smuckers natural creamy peanut butter

Ice cream of choice. 
My choice:  3 pints of Homemade brand Peanut Butter & Chip, softened just enough to spread
4 pints would have been better but my 9.75x14.75x2 dish would have overflowed! A deeper dish would be perfect.

Whipped cream:
carton of heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup (ish) powdered sugar
splash of vanilla extract
whip together using hand mixer (preferably in an ice cold bowl using ice cold beaters) on increasingly high speed until it forms stiff peaks.

Toppings: go wild, get creative! I used rainbow sprinkles, birthday cake M&Ms, mini chocolate chips, a Reeses cup and an Oreo to make it festive and birthday-ish. You could use any sort of candy or decorations that strike your fancy!  The plain white whipped cream top layer is a perfect canvas for any theme or inspiration.

 I made this in 3 stages. The first night I made the oreo crust and refrigerated it in the glass dish, and made the whipped cream. The second night I made the fudge and added it as well as the peanut butter layer over the crust and refrigerated it, and the morning of the party I softened and added the ice cream, whipped cream and toppings to then be frozen. This worked out great.  But you could certainly do all of it at once if you have time, it just needs to freeze together for several hours before serving.

I can't even explain to you how good this is.  If you are a chocolate, peanut butter, ice cream and oreo lover like I am... this is dessert nirvana. It is SO rich. This recipe will feed a LOT of people, at least 20 depending on how huge of slices they want. Maybe not 20 NFL players.

But... go ahead and make it.  If you dare. I can't promise you won't eat piece after piece like me, and when you find someone else's abandoned piece at the end of the night that you won't also eat that, like I did. It's that good. And I am that shameless. OCPBEICP (Oreo Chocolate Peanut Butter Explosion Ice Cream Pie) for the win.