Pumpkin Swirl Ice Cream Pie with Chocolate Almond Bark and Toffee Sauce

My brother asked me several weeks ago already, "can you pleeeease make me ice cream?"  The kid seriously loves ice cream.  But not with nuts, he won't eat those.  He won't even pick around them.  You add nuts to his ice cream and he's done.  I told him I would.  Something with caramel was what I promised.  And I fully intended to, I swear, but one day led to the next and before you knew it, three weeks had passed.  My brother's other favourite dessert is pumpkin pie.  The kid loves pumpkin pie.  He would eat it year round if I would make it for him.  And he'll gladly eat half a pie himself.  I decided to combine the two for our thanksgiving dinner and this was the result.  Pure deliciousness.

My grandparents dropped by as we were finishing our thanksgiving lunch, just in time for dessert.  This ice cream pie got rave reviews all around.  It's perfectly spiced, precisely sweetened, and oddly enough, wickedly appropriate for the hot thanksgiving day we were given.  The graham crumb crust shrunk, but was still good. The ice cream was marbled nicely with the pumpkin filling and the chocolate bark offered a nice crunch.  The toffee sauce was wicked, like sex on a spoon.  We were all thoroughly impressed.  I'd say the whip cream was optional, and I'm glad we opted not to.

Baking notes:
-As I said, my graham cracker crust shrunk, there was nothing left on the sides of the pan.  I'm not sure what size graham cracker it is referring to because mine (which I thought were a standard size) were clearly not big enough. I ended up adding a few more to the food processor and crossing my fingers.  (which clearly didn't work)
-I found the ice cream difficult to work with.  The recipe asks that you soften the ice cream in the microwave, but I don't have one, so I scooped it out in little scoops and tried to press them flat so they'd soften quickly.  I ended up quickly tossing it all together and pressing it into the dish and tossing it in the freezer hoping for the best.
-I couldn't be bothered to whip up the whip cream before we ate this dessert.  And maybe it's a good thing.  In my experience the whip cream eaten with the frozen ice cream causes the fat to stick to your mouth.  I find it unpleasant, but the contrast in textures would have been interesting.

37/369

The recipe for Pumpkin Swirl Ice Cream Pie with Chocolate Almond Bark and Toffee Sauce can be found on the epicurious website.