Favorite Decadent Dessert Mud Pie
Decadence Thy Name is Mud
If you are reading my recipes you have become very familiar with my lifestyle. I eat healthy low fat, good fat, low sugar, low salt, high fiber foods.
If you have been reading my recipes you also know that anything that takes a lot of ingredients, a lot of thought and a lot of time is off my list of recipes.
Easy, healthy and fast that is my motto.
Well, nobody's perfect all the time. I have one decadent dessert that I must have whenever I see it on the menu.
I am thoroughly, absolutely and unrepentantly addicted to an ice cream dish known as mud pie.
However, I rarely make this dessert at home, although I have a recipe I have used to create this magnificent dish. You don't have to ask why I don't make it at home, because you can probably guess.
I don't make it at home because my home cooking is healthy and I would rather not deviate from that goal. I also don't make it at home, because it is a treat that I look forward to when I eat out. Making mud pie at home would spoil the fun and tremendous expectation of doing something decadent only once in a while.
Photo: Taken by designsbyharriet
Mud Pie Has a History
A Very Vague History
The origins of mud pie are vague at best and misleading at worst. According to the sources I could find, which were very few, mud pie started out as Mississippi Mud Pie.
Mississippi Mud Pie is not what I think of as mud pie. This dessert that began in Mississippi contains a gooey brownie like piece of rich chocolate cake, and I mean rich, that is served with vanilla ice cream and perhaps topped with a slice of strawberry or not.
This particular concoction received its name because the dense chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream sit on top of a pool of chocolate syrup which is suppose to remind eaters of the mud around the Mississippi.
Well isn't that a yummy description of my favorite dessert.
Suffice it to say this only vaguely, and I man vaguely, resembles the mud pie I love.
Photo: Google Images (clickable)
Vanilla Ice Cream or Coffee Ice Cream
Variations
While the original Mississippi Mud Pie, as described, has gone through many changes, some of which sort of resemble my favorite dessert.
For example you can make a Mississippi Mud Pie using vanilla ice cream and a crumbly chocolate crust with a bourbon enhanced fudge sauce. Not bad, but still not my type of mud pie.
My mud pie contains coffee ice cream and you can forget that bourbon flavor, since it masks the delicious chocolate and coffee flavors. I must admit those chefs that create the Mississippi version are often using their own recipe sometimes with coffee ice cream, sometimes with vanilla ice cream and sometimes incorporating both flavors and topped with pecans, walnuts or peanuts.
On occasion you might find a mud pie, Mississippi or other version that contains ice cream, coffee or vanilla, and a layer of chocolate mousse or a layer of chocolate cake. To each his own on that one.
Still my definition of a mud pie has a crumbled Oreo cookie crust topped with coffee ice cream, topped with chocolate or fudge sauce and topped with chopped peanuts.
I am also not fond of whipped cream, not because it adds unhealthy ingredients, but because I don't think it adds much to the flavor of the mud pie. It does however come with every mud pie. Sometimes I eat it, sometimes I order the pie without it and sometimes I push it aside.
Photo: Google Images Mud Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream and Pecans (clickable)
Well, I did say I had a recipe. While this recipe takes time because of the freezing required between layers and it is best to let it freeze overnight before serving, it has few ingredients and is simple to follow and easy to prepare. Two out of three criteria are not bad.
Please do not use low fat, fat free or sugar free ice cream in this recipe, because you will not get the flavor. I know, how could I possibly suggest going all the way. Well, that is because if you do not go all out, you might as well not make it.
I have not made this in a long time, so I will try to be extra careful in explaining how this is done.
Cook Time
Prep Time: 15 minutes of actual preparation
Total Time: overnight
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
- 1 quart of coffee ice cream
- 20 oreo cookies or chocolate wafers or prepared chocolate graham cracker crust
- 2 -3 tablespoons of butter
- Hot fudge sauce or chocolate sauce or chocolate pieces to make your own sauce
- Chopped peanuts to taste
- Whipped cream if you must
Instructions
- Put your quart of frozen coffee ice cream in the refrigerator to soften it. This takes about an hour, but check it often. You don't want it too soft.
- Remove the center filling from the Oreo cookies and crumble them. The easy way to crumble is to put cookies or chocolate wafers in a zip lock bag and pound them lightly.
- If you are using a prepared chocolate graham crust, skip this and the next step.
- Add the 2 tablespoons of melted butter. If the consistency is too hard add 3. Pack this into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate and freeze for half an hour.
- Pack the softened coffee ice cream on top of the crumbles and freeze for two hours.
- Add the chocolate fudge, chocolate sauce or your melted chocolate to the top of the frozen ice cream. Top with chopped peanuts and freeze overnight.
- Add the whipped cream just before serving if you want to use it.
- Photo: Taken by designsbyharriet.
Coffee Ice Cream vs Vanilla Ice Cream - Which Do You Prefer
Would You Use Coffee or Vanilla Ice Cream
