Chocolate-Banana Ice Cream Pie

Its National Ice Cream Day!!!!!

In my book, that deserves a big 'ole 'WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!' I did my part today to contribute to this ever-so-important-all-American holiday: with great honor, I took my spoon to a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey, and savored every minute of it. Did I eat the whole pint? Thats for me to know, and for you to assume that I did. If a pint won't satisfy your need to honor this day properly- make this:

Seriously.

I found this recipe in my Food Network magazine, and made it the other week for a dinner party at our house (the night I made those Cake Pops), and it made everyone go bananas. (ha). I wanted to wait until I had the most perfect reason to post this, and what better a day then this one! The assembly is easy- its a semi-homemade ice creamy miracle! Give yourself the better part of the afternoon to make it though, each layer has to set a few hours in the freezer before you can move on.

Ingredients:

* 60 vanilla wafers (about 2/3 of a box) The other 1/3 is for you to eat while you are waiting for all those layers to set!
* 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
* 2 medium bananas
* 1 pint vanilla ice cream (I used Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey for more banana flavor and the walnuts gave it a nice crunch.)
* 1 pint chocolate ice cream ( I used a Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie because, well, why not)
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 2 teaspoons confectioners' sugar (I used regular granulated sugar)

To Do:

* Pulse the cookies and butter in a food processor. (I smashed mine in a bag- I have anger issues.)
* Press into the bottom and halfway up the sides of a 9 in. springform pan. (I just used a pie plate. I think my previously mentioned anger issues stem from not having a springform pan.)
* Slice the bananas and arrange them in a layer over the crust. Freeze until the crust sets, about 20 mins. Meanwhile, let the vanilla ice cream soften at room temperature.
* Spread the vanilla ice cream evenly over the banana layer. Freeze until firm, about 2 hours.
* Let the chocolate ice cream soften at room temperature. Spread over vanilla layer evenly. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm, another 2 hours.
* Remove the pie from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.
* Beat the cream and sugar together for a delicious homemade whipped cream. Spread over the pie before serving. (I added my whipped cream and threw it back into the freezer for a bit to harden it up and it still tasted great!)

The recipe also calls for toasted coconut in the crust and for topping, but I omitted it since we are not huge coconut eaters. The recipe suggests 1 cup for the crust (pulse it together with cookies and butter), and 1/4 cup extra for topping the finished product.