Brownies plus ice cream plus cookies equals the best birthday ever!

January 12, 2016 4:56 PM

My soon-to-be-9 year old stepson has requested that I make him a birthday "pizza" of sorts for his big day. His vision involves a brownie base, ice cream as the "pizza sauce" and cookies as the "toppings." I'm a decent baker and this seems like a thing I could accomplish in a straightforward way but I'm wondering if any MeFites can point me to proven recipe winners for this sort of thing. No food allergies or restrictions. He is a chocoholic. Thanks in advance!
posted by little mouth to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

Best answer: No recipe, but I did build ice cream cakes at Baskin Robbins back in the day. I'd bake the brownie in a round pan, let it cool and place it in the fridge. Make sure there's some room above the brownie in the pan (so maybe split it between two round pans.) Layer your ice cream slightly softened and smooth it with a spatula. Put it back in the freezer to set. Put cookie crumbles and fudge and sprinkles and whatever on top. Slice with a hot knife and serve frozen like an ice cream cake. I'd do thin layers of everything so it can be picked up and eaten.
posted by Crystalinne at 5:06 PM on January 12, 2016 [11 favorites]

I, too, don't have a specific recipe, but I have done dessert pizzas before. I did the ice cream later - vanilla scoops like mozzarella balls/ricotta effect. A drizzle over the top with melted chocolate (white or semi-sweet) or caramel, etc., is very nice. I did a strawberry or raspberry puree for the sauce, and then doted with candy, chocolate chips, sprinkles etc. If you're going to put in the freezer like an ice cream cake and want to use candy, add the candy after the freezer time.

For the adults I made a veggie pizza, made with crescent dough, if you're looking to extend the theme. It's sort of like a veggie tray in pizza form. You bake the crust, cool and then add a dill dip type sauce made with cream cheese, or ranch dressing. Both Pillsbury and Pampered Chef have recipes if you're interested.
posted by dawg-proud at 5:16 PM on January 12, 2016

The brownie base should lean towards the cakey end of the cakey <> fudgy spectrum of brownie texture.

I'm envisioning a round pizza pan filled up to, at most, 3/8" of brownie batter. Place the whole pizza pan on the oven rack that has been covered with foil if the batter is anywhere close to the depth of the pizza pan. This isn't a bad thing if it comes over the edge, because that raised rim will be handy later.

I think I would try warming on the counter, then shaping, your basic gallon-block of ice-cream into the shape of a wedge, as if you were going to put the whole thing a single slice of the "pizza" that has been cut into 4 quarters. Once you get it molded, use some foil as a temporary mold to hold it in place, and then freeze it hard. Once frozen, slice it into 4 layers with a hot knife, so each later is shaped like a quarter of pizza. Re-stack them with parchment in between (and top and bottom), wrap the whole mass of icecream in foil to keep out any freezer funk, and freeze again. When you're ready to assemble, pull apart the layers and drop them on the "pizza." Then you can top it as you desire. From there, you can use the freezer or the fridge, depending on timing, to preserve the "topped" pizza.

Cookies topping: bake them hard and crumble, or bake them soft and chop them so they're small pieces. Quite honestly, after all the above I'd definitely punt on the cookies and crumble some Chips Ahoy (blue bag) on there, because my time is valuable too.

Other possible toppings: broken pretzel sticks, M&Ms, peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips.

If you wanted to do a real showpiece, throw on a layer of meringue, give it some texture with a fork (Maybe swirls?), and throw it under the broiler. Probably want to avoid the flaming brandy of a baked-Alaska, but toasted meringue can be a nice spectacle (and it comes off easily if the kids are meh on the taste/texture).
posted by Sunburnt at 5:22 PM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

If you did a fudgey brownie (2 eggs), it would be soft at room temperature but would freeze much harder than a cakey brownie (3-4 eggs).
posted by aimedwander at 5:24 PM on January 12, 2016 [1 favorite]

Lots of good advice above, I'd just add that a springform pan will be your friend here. When I worked at an ice cream place we'd basically do: Ice Cream Layer -> Freeze for an hour or so -> Next layer -> Freeze -> rinse & repeat. it made sure we weren't getting mixed layers. At the end, you pop it out of the springform and frost or whatever.

If you want to keep the "pizza" height, then ignore me forever!
posted by GilloD at 5:26 PM on January 12, 2016

Make two round pans of brownie, one fudgey, one cakey. Cut the centre out of the cakey one and dispose of it.(make sure you can get it out of the pan) Place the halo on the fudgy one to form the pizza crust.

You could shape the crust with a knife if you wanted, to give it the rounded edges you'd expect from a pizza.


Also, I suggest caramel pizza sauce and chocolate chip pepperoni.
posted by FallowKing at 5:43 PM on January 12, 2016

I have a recipe for butterscotch brownies which always falls flat when I bake it, delicious though it is. I feel like that would make the perfect pizza base. If you want the recipe memail me.
posted by tel3path at 4:01 AM on January 13, 2016

I have made a brownie pizza, without ice cream, and used a fudge style brownie recipe. I poured the batter out onto a round baking stone with parchment on it. It baked easily and didn't cause any issues with running off the stone.
posted by prettymightyflighty at 7:48 AM on January 13, 2016

Best answer: Having thought about this (it stuck in my head whether I wanted ti to or not) I think I'd approach it as an instant-assemble. Room temperature or slightly refrigerated brownie, ice cream that's been out of the freezer just long enough to be scoopable, and pre-prepped toppings.
Big 16" pizza pan or whatever you've got (disposable foil pan at supermarket), box of brownie mix. if 16" pan, then the big box (9x13), if 12" pan, then the small box (8x8). Line with parchment paper, wax paper, or aluminum foil, and grease the heck out of it. Thinner batter in the pan means less cooking time to get it baked, but you don't have to change the oven temperature. I'm guessing as little as 10-12 minutes, but I'm no pro. Needs to be set in the middle enough that you can slice it like a pizza and use a spatula to pass it onto plates, but because you're not going to put it in the freezer, can still be soft/fudgey (and won't end up breaking your knife trying to cut it frozen). Refrigerate but don't freeze.
[math break: 8x8=64 sq in; 12" round = 114 sq in, approx twice as much, so it will come out half as thick as regular brownies. Similarly 9x13 is 117 and 16" round is 200 in^2, a similar ratio.]

I'd do vanilla ice cream or maybe chocolate, (or choc chip or something basic). Most kids I've met don't gravitate toward the fruits and compotes at the sundae bar, so even though I'd find raspberry or some such to be delicious, it becomes harder to coordinate toppings if you have a complicated flavor. Move to the fridge 20-30 minutes ahead of time. (softening). Scoop it out in blobs, then use a warm knife to spread it into your desired thickness.
[more math: the new standard 1.5qt containers are 86 cubic inches, so 3/4" thick on a 12" pizza or just under 1/2" thick on a 16" pizza. Actually slightly thicker since you would be leaving a bare crust around the edge.]

Then have toppings on hand. Compromise between things that look great and things that taste great, keeping the 9-year-old palate in mind. goldfish cookies (they come in chocolate/vanilla mixed bags) would be adorable, broken up pieces of whatever cookies you have on hand would be convenient. Also consider well-shaped breakfast cereal (cookie crunch, froot loops, etc). Making a roll-out sugar cookie recipe and cutting it into mushroom-slice shapes and pink rounds of "pepperoni" would be overkill but hey maybe you're Martha Stewart in disguise.
Depending on your activity tolerance, maybe have these in bowls, so the kids can decorate the pizza themselves?

Then a drizzle of chocolate sauce (or caramel) over the top, slice and serve.

Have fun!
posted by aimedwander at 8:17 AM on January 13, 2016