My Greatest Creation: Chocolate Covered Pretzel Ice Cream Cake

Last year, for my friend Amy's birthday, I created a delicious ice cream brownie concoction that won me rave reviews for excellent cake inventing. So when I volunteered to make Amy's cake again this year, I felt that I had to raise the bar-- especially because by her next birthday, she'll be married and living in Boston, far away from me. I decided to take the winning elements of last year's cake, and mix in something that everyone loves-- the chocolate covered pretzel.


This cake is actually really easy to make, but it seems deceptively fancy because of all of the elements. It starts with a crust made of pretzels, which both adds a little bit of salt to the pie, and has the added bonus of not getting soggy. While I would recommend cutting pieces of this cake on the smaller side because it's so rich (I used low fat ice cream and it was still super intense), don't be surprised if your guests come back for more.


Chocolate Covered Pretzel Ice Cream Pie:


2 1/2 cups crushed pretzels
3 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup (give or take) hot fudge
1 1.5 quart container of vanilla ice cream
15 oz chocolate covered pretzels (I recommend Nestle Flips)
Caramel sauce to garnish


You can find the recipe for the pretzel crust here.


Make the crust in a 9 or 10 inch pie pan. Before it cools, pour a layer of store-bought hot fudge over the crust. Then put it in the freezer and allow it to set.


Before you take the crust out of the freezer, allow the ice cream to soften. Grind up about 2/3 of the chocolate covered pretzels and mix them up with the ice cream until they are evenly distributed. Spread the ice cream evenly over the crust.


Drizzle caramel across the top of the cake. Add extra chocolate covered pretzels around the edges to decorate. Return pie to the freezer and allow it to set before serving.