Butterfinger Ice Cream Pie

Delicious!

Butterfinger goodness in every bite!

Mr. Preppy loves Whitey's Ice Cream Butterfinger Malt.  This is a hometown favorite, and when we head to Iowa, it is a given that after pizza at Happy Joe's (see one of my most popular posts, ever) we head to Whitey's.  I decided for Father's Day I was going to make something we would all like that incorporated Butterfinger Ice Cream, but could be shared.  So I whipped up this pie.

Let's start with the crust.  It had to be home made, but there were no Nabisco Famous Wafers to be found anywhere.  I have a real grocery store problem.  I was born and raised in the grocery business, and here I am in a major metropolitan city with Kroger.  That's it.  Oh I have a Fresh Market I love just a minute from home, but you can't get Tide, or Milk Bones or Nabisco Famous Wafers there.  As it turns out, the Kroger I chose to shop at yesterday didn't have them either.  I dislike Kroger so much.  This store is SOOO big, if you don't get a cart, your arm will fall off carrying the basket.  I fill it and then ditch it at the head of aisles so I am not lugging it around.

So what to do about my crust?  I opted to NOT buy a premade crust, as this Kroger doen't even carry the Nabisco or Keebler in chocolate, just the house brand.  And the anemic looking chocolate was unappetizing.  I made my own wafers a few weeks ago, but I have so much going on, it just wasn't an option.  So I settled on Newman's Own Chocolate Cookies.  They are little alphabet cookies, and I remember buying them for my kids.  They have great chocolate flavor, so I figured it was worth a try.

Better then Famous Wafers!

Chocolate Crust
1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (1-7 oz. bag of Newman's Own Alphabet Cookies)
7 Tablespoons butter, melted
3 Tablespoons sugar

Process cookies in food processor until fine crumbs.  Add sugar and pulse.  Transfer to bowl and add butter.  Mix until it comes together and press into pie dish and up sides.  Cover with foil and place in freezer.

Don't boil the cream.

Then came the ice cream.  I am not a fan of custard based ice cream.  Finding a recipe I could fool around with was not as easy as it sounds.  I ended up with an Alton Brown base.  Very simple the way I did it.

2 cups half and half
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup minus 2T sugar
1 T vanilla paste
6 fun size Butterfinger

Heat on stove to 170F, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Add  vanilla paste off the heat.  Let cool slightly and add 1 crushed Butterfinger (fun size), and stir to dissolve as much as you can and infuse that flavor.  Cover and chill thoroughly before processing in ice cream freezer.

Chill before you beat them for the best results.

Place in ice cream freezer, and when the ice cream has almost doubled in size, fold in 5 more crushed fun size Butterfingers and spread the ice cream into prepared crust. Place in the freezer while you make the fudge top.

It would be delicious just like this.  Does not need ganache!

Fudge Top
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 T butter
1 T half and half
1 fun size Butterfinger

Melt over double boiler and stir until smooth.  Cool to room temp before spreading over the top of ice cream pie, and garnish with one crushed Butterfinger fun size. Cover loosely and freeze until ready to serve.
This went over very well!  It was delicious, no doubt.  We decided it doesn't need the chocolate ganache on top, it is almost too much together.  The ice cream alone is delicious, and the crust got 8 thumbs up.  I think I will skip the Famous Wafers all together and stick to these little cookies!

There were demands for seconds, so this did not last long!

I Met My True Love At The Golf Course

I saw a card that said Happy Father's Day spelled out in ties...

This blog is about love, golf, the father of my children and Iowa food!

My love affair with PGA tournies goes back even before my real love affair.  As a teenager in the Quad Cities, we had the Ed McMahon Golf Tournament.  My dad was part of the largest grocery chain, so our involvement started way back.  In those days a host like Ed McMahon brought in huge celebrities, football players, models, actors and the week of the tourney was filled with parties.  Like many tournaments, sponsorship changes over the years, and in 1985 as the Hardee's Golf Classic, I went to the tourney with my mom to watch a little golf and follow these gorgeous guys, like Payne Stewart, Greg Norman, and Jack Nicklaus, big names for a small town.  Little did I know fate was at work.  My mom and I stood at a green watching a twosome putt in, and this group of guys in plaid shorts and polos, beers in hand, stepped in front of my tiny little mom and me.  Well, she let these guys have it, I mean, how rude!  And Mr. Preppy, in his madras shorts turns around and says "Hi Mrs. Petitti".

"Um, excuse me Mom, how exactly would you know him?"  As it turns out, Mr. Preppy worked for General Foods, and his boss was friends of my parents, and they met at one of the golf parties that week.  Well, we introduce ourselves to each other, and he kept popping up that day at the course, like he was stalking  following me or something.  He ended up with my number, and he asked me out immediately, but I was doing a triathlon and couldn't go.  I know, yes, a triathlon, me.  It was the most epic excuse for not being able to go out on a date.  But hey, when I brought home that SILVER MEDAL, I was even more cool.  I know, I know, can your disbelief, I was quite the athlete!

The golf balls are my first fondant experiment...

Our first date was at the driving range.  Mr. Preppy was, and still is an amazing golfer, and I was a good student!  We then headed off to a local watering hole for Nachos and Alabama Slammers, followed by a midnight swim.  At 2 a.m. I called my best friend and my sister and told them, I just kissed the guy I'm gonna marry, goodnight.  I just knew, and he did too.  It was a whirlwind romance.  I still had a year of college left, but I got very good at that one hour drive home.  He was working and traveling as well, so sometimes I would magically appear in Peoria, IL or wherever he happened to be working.  We got engaged about 6 months later and married a year after that.  Three years later, he became a father.  And here we are 26 years later, still happy, and still wandering around PGA golf tournies.

He's played in a lot of Pro Ams, and we've been to many tournaments.  The Masters, Western Open, Doral, FedEx St. Jude and the Ryder Cup.  And we have our bucket list, British Open, Phoenix Open (16th hole please), and Pebble Beach (played it, but would like to watch the pros play it!).

This is the catch phrase at the FedEx St. Jude Tournament

And one thing is for sure, like ball parks and festivals, every tourney has its signature food.  So in honor of my golf partner for life on Father's Day, I am making classic Hardee's Golf Classic grub, and a little Southern twist on the first date food.  The food will come in the next post, but here's what we quenched our thirst with on that first date!

Alabama Slammers

1 oz vodka
1oz Southern Comfort
1 oz Sloe Gin
1 oz Amaretto
OJ
Cherries and limes to garnish
Mix well and share with your love!

Next time:
Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches
Barbeque Nachos
Okay, here is the footnote.  Nothing ever goes as planned.  We opted not to have the BBQ nachos, so I will make this Southern fun another time, it really is a meal in itself, with a beer of course.  And I made the tenderloins, but had to use the inferior pork found here.  No, really, Fairway Grocery meat department knows how to do a tenderloin, and I pack a cooler when I come home from Iowa with lots of good stuff.  So our tenderloins were like a pork chop and not blog worthy.  But stay tuned, dessert was amazing!

Cookies For My Favorite Store!

So if you have read more than one post here, you know I work at the greatest kitchen store of all time.  Williams Sonoma.  My 15th year....wow.  I always smile when I think about Christina, just a little toddler when I started there and now starting her second year of college.  Glad I don't age like that!

We had some special visitors coming to the store and I offered to make a plate of cookies.  I think they turned out pretty good, and sort of sum up the WS life.  The ubiquitous Kitchen Aid Mixer, the aprons, the classic spatula, whisk and knife, all things I have sold countless times.  I do love my job!