One of my favorite memories from childhood was the sound of the ice cream truck making its way through our neighborhood. Sure, it played Turkey in the Straw over and over and over again, but it still got my juices flowing. My friends and I would race into our houses saying “Mom! The ice cream man is here. Can I have a quarter?” More often than not Mom would indulge me and off I would run to catch up to the truck.
This is where the real problem began: what to choose? There were so many delicious treats on board that little truck. Even if you chose popsicle, then you had to decide what flavor–cherry, root beer, banana. As often as not I exchange my coins for one of two treats: The Dreamsicle or The Drumstick.
I can still feel the joy of unwrapping the paper and taking that first bite of what seemed like a little bit of heaven on earth. Dreamsicles were an indescribably good blend of vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet swirled together in a perfect combination. As the two flavors melted together in my mouth I would roll my eyes back and wish that moment would never stop.
Drumsticks, served in a sugar cone, brought together the best friends of the dessert world, peanut butter and chocolate. Whoever decided to swirl those two together and place them on top of a vanilla cone was a genius. Then, to add chopped peanuts on top was just plain double genius.
With this in mind I recently set about transforming these childhood memories into pies. In each case I started with a sugarcone crust made from crushed sugar cones, brown sugar and butter. This produces the genuine ice cream truck experience. For each pie, I recommend using premium ice creams. They are richer in texture and in taste, and are well worth the greater expense.
You can find the Creamsicle Pie Recipe here, and the Drumstick Pie Recipe here.
You can follow The Pie Dude’s adventures in pie at
www.thepiedude.com and www.facebook.com/ThePieDude
