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1. To make the crust:
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2. Lightly spray a 9-inch spring form pan with cooking spray and set aside.
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3. In a large food processor, crush the circus animal cookies until they make fine crumbs. Two heaping cups of cookies should yield about 2 cups of crumbs.
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4. In a large bowl, mix together the cookie crumbs and the melted butter and mix until the crumbs are well coated.
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5. Press the crumbs into the bottom of the spring form pan, making sure you pack them in nice and tight. Freeze for 24 hours.
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6. To prepare the layers:
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7. Thaw 31/2 cups of the ice cream until very soft, and spread it over the frozen crust. Pop it back into the freezer until it's firm.
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8. To make the circus animal layer:
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9. Process the cookies into crumbs using your food processor.
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10. In a large, microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate at 20 second intervals on a half power setting, stirring between each interval, until smooth.
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11. Quickly stir in the heaving whipping cream, oil and the circus animal crumbs. The mixture will turn very thick, almost like a ganache.
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12. Pour this over the frozen ice cream layer, spreading quickly to avoid melting the underlying ice cream. Place it back in the freezer until firm and set.
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13. For the final layer:
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14. In a large bowl, thaw the rest of the ice cream until soft and then mix it with the Cool Whip.
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15. Pour this over the chocolate layer, making sure the top is nice and smooth. Refrigerate until completely firm and set, at least 4 hours but overnight is even better.
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16. Decorate with more Cool Whip and sprinkles, if desired.
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17. Serve!
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Notes:
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- To serve: let it thaw on the counter for a couple of minutes before slicing, and use a very sharp and very hot knife to cut the slices, reheating the knife with hot water between each slice.
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- Make sure and read through the instructions before starting and note that there are several steps where it needs to be frozen; so plan ahead.
