How To Make Apple Pice Cream

My 5 year old has been a star all week, whereas his 4 year old brother has been in loads of trouble and visited the naughty step several times - including for pulling one of our rabbits onto the table by it's ears. I told him he could pick what we have for tea tonight, and I was expecting 'pizza'. In 5 year old style, he completely pulled a blinder out of the bag, asking for "Pice Cream".

When I asked what Pice Cream was, he told me it's 'pie with ice cream in it'. Now, I can do baked alaska no problem, but ice cream IN a pie? So I asked on Facebook and had a look around and we came up with a few alternatives...

The amazing Blueberry Pie Ice Cream Sandwiches from The Kitchen McCabe seemed a winner, and easy enough to recreate in 'apple', but then a friend of mine suggested I was actually making it more complicated than I needed to, and I could just blind bake the pastry, stew the apple, and add a dollop of ice cream, and a lid. What's more is that if I deal with the hot stuff, he can do most of the rest himself, so it's even better...

What we've come up with was certainly delicious....

Apple Pice Cream

Ingredients

1 big apple (or 2 smaller) - cored, peeled and chopped quite finely. 
25g caster sugar per large apple - golden caster sugar is best, but all will do.
1/2 tspn mixed spice or cinnamon
30ml water per apple 
250g ready made puff pastry

You will need a deep cupcake tin or little ramekins

Method

Mix apples, sugar and spice in a bowl

Add 30ml water per apple. Cover and microwave for 2 minutes on high power, stir

Microwave again for 2 more minutes on full power (if the mixture dries out add another teaspoon of water). If you don't use a microwave then put into an ovenproof dish, cover and bake in the oven until soft but with a little bite.

Blend with a hand blender until it is mainly goo

Cover and leave aside.

Roll out the pastry and cut a square for each pie to fit your tin. I found 10cm x 10 cm was just right. The pastry should overlap the edges, but not by loads.

My son said the pies needed tops, so you need to find a suitable template. A Green Toys children's teaset mug was just right for ours.

Half fill each pie with the apple mixture. I couldn't decide whether to bake the lids alone or on top of the pies to catch the flavours, so I did a mix.

Bake the solo lids for approximately 12 minutes and the pies for 15 minutes, or until they're turning golden brown. Don't leave them too long, or the corners of the pastry will dry too much and burn.

Leave to cool just for a couple of minutes, and then the pies should carefully lift straight out by gently holding the pastry corners. 

You can clearly see that cooking the lids on the pie does not give as visually attractive a result. The lids can be easily prised out though, and the added appleyness is lovely.

Fill with a scoop of ice cream. We ended up with vanilla and chocolate.

 Eat straightaway while the apple is still warm, and the ice cream is still solid..

 And was my 5 year old recipe inventor happy with his Pice Cream?

Yes he was. Job done.

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