Easy Ice Cream Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

Today’s recipe is for an easy ice cream pie with an amazing graham cracker crust. It’s so good and so easy!

We’re on a dessert kick lately. We do REALLY TRY to feed our kids a well rounded healthy diet — which is challenging when you have 3 picky eaters — but, we do allow them to have dessert on a regular basis. Dessert is one of those magical parts of childhood I love watching my kids enjoy. The magic of dessert time certainly DOES still exist as adults, but with the lack of supercharged kid metabolism and upward growth spurts, it does mean dessert magic comes with a side dose of reality and mindfulness.

Our kids never eat fast food aside from takeout pizza which we have sometimes on special occasions (and parental fatigue nights) and Chipotle Burrito Bowls (our youngest likes the rice and beans from these). But dessert? Yes, we eat dessert! This is a little dangerous for the adults because it’s easy to indulge every time the kids do, but hopefully, our goal of leading a really active lifestyle means we can get away with a few more desserts in our life. I’d hate to think of life without dessert. This balancing act is just one of the many challenges all parents face. I think it’s just about striking a balance and making sure you are paying attention to your health while still allowing yourself to indulge in one of life’s simple pleasures.

Speaking of dangerous:

This ice cream pie with graham cracker crust was always one of my favorite desserts growing up and I was happy to see that pattern repeating the other night as my son Sam said to Melissa, “Mommy, can you fix this again on my birthday?”. They know that on their birthdays they get to have all their favorites. This vanilla ice cream with graham cracker crust has quickly worked its way onto the list of birthday contenders. It pairs nicely with our dark chocolate hot fudge recipe , but also is great on its own.

There’s just something about graham crackers together with vanilla ice cream that really works. It’s one of those examples of what I like to call “ingredient elevation”. Graham crackers by themselves are fine, but they certainly aren’t rocketing to the top of my dessert list. But with ice cream. It just works. The flavors and textures compliment each other really well. Ingredient elevation. I think rice krispie treats are another perfect example as ingredient elevation. Rice Krispies as a cereal by itself: Eh. Marshmallows by themselves: Eh. Put them together and it’s magic. With a little bit of help from butter, of course.

A Few Desserts with Graham Cracker Crust

Easy Key Lime Pie

photo credit: Garnish with lemon

This Easy Key Lime Pie from Garnish with Lemon looks like a great addition to your Spring dessert menu. Look at that graham cracker crust!

New York Cheesecake

photo credit: Life Made Simple

Who doesn’t love cheesecake? And we all know that no cheesecake is complete without a graham cracker crust.

No Bake Vanilla Cheesecake

photo credit: Chef Savvy

This No Bake Cheesecake from Chef Savvy  really looks amazing. And I think we all can get behind a dessert that requires only a few minutes and a few ingredients.

Mini Banoffee Pies

photo credit: Cook with Manali

Manali has a great creative recipe for Mini Banoffee Pies. These look really great!

Easy Peanut Butter Cheesecake

There are never too many ways to eat cheesecake. This Peanut Butter Cheesecake from living better together features a graham cracker crust and whipped topping. We definitely need to try out this recipe.

Wow, now I’m craving dessert. On to our ice cream pie:

This dessert is really simple to make. We use Nabisco graham crackers, but use whatever brand you like.

Easy Ice Cream Pie with Graham Cracker Crust

Print Rate

Servings: 10 serving

Ingredients

• 18 graham crackers (2 of the 3 packages in the box)
• 9 Tbsp . butter
• 1/2 c . brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp . salt
• Vanilla ice cream
• Strawberries
• Homemade dark chocolate hot fudge

Instructions

• Set ice cream on counter for an hour to soften.
• Break crackers up into a large ziploc bag and crush with a rolling pin.
• Pour into bowl and mix with brown sugar and salt.
• Melt butter and add to graham cracker crumb mixture.
• Stir until combined.
• Pour half of mixture into 8x8 pan and press down.
• Mix the rest of the mixture in with softened ice cream.
• Pour on top of pressed down mix in pan. Spread out and freeze.
• Take out 15 minutes before you will be eating.
• Cut and place on plates.
• Top with fresh strawberries and homemade dark chocolate hot fudge.

Notes

You could of course do this without the addition of strawberries and hot fudge, but those make nice additions if you're really going all out.

We hope you enjoy this dessert as much as we do. Please share the love and ice cream on your favorite social media platforms. Thanks!

Cheers,
Greg