The past few days have been a delightful blur. Butter Me Up Brooklyn has been online for a year, approaching 100 posts, and it feels like the perfect moment to celebrate with something cool and summery. With New York temperatures hovering near triple digits before I left for Europe, I skipped a layered cake and made an ice cream pie instead—the kind of dessert that keeps your oven off and your kitchen from heating up any more than it already is.
The flavor pairing here—strawberry and basil—might seem unexpected, but the basil only enhances the strawberries’ bright sweetness. This is essentially a no-bake dessert: the only oven time needed is a short toast for the waffle-cone crust. The result is fresh, fragrant, and perfectly suited to hot weather.
Meanwhile, Paris has turned out to be even more beautiful than I remembered. After a delayed arrival due to odd weather, the city greeted us with espresso, baguettes, wandering streets, and inspiration at every turn. For now, though, here is the pie I mentioned—so you can make something delicious while avoiding a hot oven.
If you’ve been reading since the beginning or this is your first visit, thank you for making this little corner of the web a welcoming, creative community. Your comments and enthusiasm mean a lot.
Now, back to French pastries—those croissants won’t eat themselves.
Strawberry Basil Ice Cream Pie with Waffle Cone Crust
Makes one 9-inch pie
Ice cream adapted from David Lebovitz
For the ice cream:
1 pint (2 cups or 473 ml) heavy cream
1 cup (236 ml) milk (2% works well)
3/4 cup (165 g) + 1/2 cup (110 g) sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn and tightly packed
5 egg yolks
1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and quartered
For the waffle-cone crust:
One 5-ounce package waffle ice-cream cones, broken into pieces
4 tablespoons (56 g) butter, melted
1 tablespoon (12 g) brown sugar
Pinch of salt
Make the ice cream base: In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup of the cream with the milk, 3/4 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt. Warm over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves and small bubbles begin to form around the edge. Stir in the torn basil leaves, cover the pan, remove it from the heat, and let the basil steep for about an hour to infuse the cream.
Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter the sides of a springform pan and line it with two strips of parchment that extend past the top for easy removal. In a food processor, pulse the waffle-cone pieces until they become fine crumbs. Mix in the melted butter, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Press the crumbs evenly into the bottom of the springform pan and bake for about 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Let cool completely.
Finish the ice cream: Clean the food processor bowl, then finely chop about 1/2 cup of the quartered strawberries and set them aside. Puree the remaining berries until smooth, then press the puree through a fine sieve into a bowl, stirring in 1/2 cup sugar until dissolved and discarding any seeds.
Prepare an ice bath: fill a large bowl with ice and water and set a smaller metal bowl inside it. Pour the remaining cup of cream into the metal bowl and place a fine-mesh strainer on top. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks briefly and set aside. Reheat the basil-infused cream over medium heat until small bubbles form again.
Temper the eggs: with one hand whisking the yolks, slowly pour about half of the warm cream into the eggs to bring up their temperature gradually. This prevents curdling. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon—about 6 minutes. Do not let it boil.
Immediately strain the custard into the cold cream in the ice bath, pressing on the basil to extract maximum flavor, then discard the leaves. Stir the strawberry puree into the custard, let it cool in the ice bath, then refrigerate until completely chilled. Churn the custard in your ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, adding the reserved chopped strawberries during the last few minutes of churning.
Assemble the pie: Spoon the soft ice cream over the prepared crust and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Freeze for several hours or overnight until firm. To serve, release the springform ring, remove the parchment, slice into wedges, and serve immediately.
