Pumpkin ice cream pie with apple cider caramel spread over ice cream cone crumbs, and a torched apple cider meringue on top.
Pumpkin ice cream pie but make it with apple cider caramel and a torched apple cider meringue. This delicious billowing beauty is easy to make and an attractive thanksgiving centerpiece!
Recipe Overview
I’m not a massive fan of pumpkin pie, I’ll eat a slice once a year, enjoy it and that’s that. I however, obsessively love Trader Joe’s pumpkin ice cream and look forward to it showing up in stores every September. When it showed up this year, there was only one thing I wanted to do with it. Remember this ice cream smores pie ? We’re going to ‘autumnize’ or “Thanksgiving” it!
Now three of the things you’ll need are recipes that you’ve already seen on the site. This is just a really delicious, fancy and rather easy way to bring them all together (I say just like it isn’t the most gorgeous thing everrrr).
Obviously, considering the occasion I had it in mind for, I chose pumpkin ice cream for the pie. If you can’t get your hands on it you could make your own: here’s an eggless recipe and here’s one with yolks (more likely to be creamy).
Alternatively, you could just buy another flavor. Butter pecan sounds wonderful here (or if you are feeling like making a butter pecan here’s a brown butter recipe that looks so good); or perhaps you have another autumn flavor you like (something apple?!). I’ll just caution against using something overly sweet like caramel ice cream, as we’ve got extra sweetness coming in from the layers above and below the ice cream.
I’ve linked you below to my apple cider caramel but let’s say you aren’t up to making caramel yourself; you can buy store bought caramel sauce and use it as is or you can add a little reduced cider to it (about a tablespoon). It’ll make it a tad more watery but won’t matter because the pie is frozen.
Now I’ll warn you that the caramel gets hard under the ice cream (and it’s freaking delicious against the ground up cones) so save it for the last bites when you’re eating (instruct guests to do the same).
I won’t pretend my apple cider meringue isn’t the most perfect option BECAUSE IT IS AND YOU SHOULD MAKE IT. But let’s say you can’t find cider or are allergic you could try the cranberry meringue (it’s very tart, consider it only if you have a compatible ice cream choice) or you can simply go ahead and make a swiss meringue.
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