Hula pie (ice-cream pie)

What’s better than ice cream? Ice cream pie with a crunchy crust and hot fudge smothered all over it. Hula Pie is one of our favorite desserts we had when we visited Kauai (more on our trip here ) from Duke’s Cafe.  It’s one of those desserts you can’t get enough of and you keep going back to the restaurant for it alone. It’s macadamia nut ice cream piled high on a chocolate cookie crust and topped with chocolate fudge, whipped cream, and more macadamia nuts. Its served up in huge slices meant for sharing. I’m not a dessert girl - I’m usually in it for the food and leave no room for dessert - not when this is on the menu. My husbands has been wanting me to make a version of this since we went to Hawaii 8 years ago. I would much rather be enjoying this in Hawaii overlooking the beach. Until I can, I enjoy this version of it at home.

A couple of years ago my friends brought back some macadamia nuts from their trip to Hawaii and I had some really good intentions of making this Hula pie and some macadamia nut cookies with them, but I ended up snacking on them - if you have had Hawaiian macadamia nuts before you would understand.  They are so good and at the time just seemed like a waste to bake with them instead of snack on them.  This summer we had a huge craving for this yummy icecream pie so I set out to make it knowing it would require a little bit of patience and a few steps of freezing.  

Don’t get me wrong it’s quite easy to make and in fact you can make it all using store bought ingredients- I have shared my from scratch version but there is no shame in using  store bought cheats. You can easily make your own cookie crust base or you can use a ready made one. Traditionally the base is a chocolate cookie base but there’s nothing wrong if you use a graham cracker one - if that is all you have.  The icecream is traditionally macadamia nut and I made my own no churn macadamia nut icecream which is so easy to make but this would be amazing with any flavour.  Mint chocolate chip or even a coffee ice cream would be amazing with it.  You can use any store bought flavour you like. See recipe notes below for more details about that. Your hot fudge can be ready made or you could try making it yourself with this easy recipe you will love for a quick and easy homemade version.

Hula pie is traditionally piled high with ice cream - thus the dome shape that is easy to achieve (easy instructions on how below) but if you wanted to make this into a regular shaped pie that is totally fine. You may have to reduce the amount of ice cream you add to the pie. Just save the rest and enjoy on it’s own at another time. Or use a larger pie plate or use a 8x8 square baking pan instead making into ice cream bars. As you can see it’s a very versatile ice cream pie recipe.  It’s one I know you will love and is so fun to make and delicious to enjoy.

Recipe

Serves 10-12

Ingredients

For the Oreo cookies base crust

• 36 Oreo cookies
• 3 Tbs butter (plus more if needed)

For the macadamia ice cream

• 1½ cups macadamia nuts, unsalted plus extra for garnish
• 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• ½ tsp of coconut extract (optional)
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream

For the pie

• 2 cups fudge topping (my homemade one is easy and delicious)
• 1 cup Whipped cream (my stabilized whipped cream is great for this)
• Chopped macadamia nuts for garnish
  

Directions

For the crust

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Crush Oreos in a food processor into a fine crumble, then add in 3 Tbs melted  butter and blend until butter is incorporated.
3. Pour the Oreo crumbs into a 9 inch shallow pie plate and press evenly into  and up the sides of the pie plate.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes then allow to cool and then place in the freezer for at least an hour or wrap once cool and keep it overnight until ready to fill.

For the ice cream

1. For the macadamia ice-cream use a food processor to chop and grind 1¼ cups (of the macadamia nuts into a paste. Coarsely chop the rest of the nuts and lightly toast them in a pan. Remove them from the pan once they have turned golden (this can happen very quickly so keep a close eye on them) and allow to cool them chop.
2. In a large mixing bowl with a stand mixer or hand mixer, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
3. Using a rubber spatula gently fold and stir in the condensed milk until no streaks remain.
4. Place the purée in a separate bowl and add in the vanilla and coconut extract if using and mix until incorporated. Then add half a cup of the whipped cream and beat or whisk until the macadamia nut purée is a lighter mixture making it easier to fold into the rest of the cream.
5. Now fold the macadamia nut mixture into the heavy whipping cream just until fully incorporated and no streaks remain.
6. Fold in the chopped nuts. Set aside while you prepare bowl.
7. Find a bowl whose rim will easily fit inside the Oreo pie crust (if using a 9” pie crust, find a bowl where the rim is under 9”– remember you will be placing the bowl upside down inside the crust).Line the bowl with plastic wrap, spray with cooking spray, and then transfer icecream into the bowl. Cover and freeze at least 6 hours or overnight.
8. Remove ice cream and Oreo crust from freezer. Carefully place the bowl upside-down over the crust and pull at the plastic wrap until ice cream settles onto the crust. Remove bowl and plastic wrap from ice cream. 
9. Spoon fudge topping over the ice cream and spread it evening over it to fully cover it. Make sure the fudge is room temperature. If you must reheat it - allow for it to come to room temperature before pouring it over.
10. Freeze again until fudge becomes firm.
11. Remove from freezer and cut into slices. Top each slice with whipped cream, hot extra hot fudge and chopped macadamia nuts
    

Recipe Notes

• If you don’t have a food processor just grate the macadamia nuts very finely. You can also crush your Oreos in a sealed bag with a rolling pin until fine
• You can use store bought ice cream if you like (1½-2 gallons- 1.42 L) instead of homemade. Just allow the icecream (any flavour) to soften (not melt) enough to remove from its container and use a mixer to mix it until it’s the consistency of soft serve. Then add the nuts and continue with the recipe as above.