It’s no secret how much I love ice cream, but I haven’t really tried to make much at home. With the beautiful weather we have been having, I figured it was time to try! I happened to have some shelled pistachios on hand, so why not make some Homemade Pistachio Ice Cream?
Pistachio ice cream is one of my absolute favorite flavors, and I had no clue how easy it was to make my own homemade version!
It’s no secret that I love dessert, especially ice cream. And I love toppings on my ice cream: sprinkles, chocolate chips, and most of all, hot fudge!
When I was young, my family and I would vacation in Vermont. There is a confectionary store (Mother Myrick’s) in Manchester, VT that makes THE BEST hot fudge. I love it so much that from time to time, my family will still buy it for me when they visit Vermont. Last time they brought me some, I dropped it and the jar broke into a million pieces. Sigh.
So. I’ve been craving their fantastic hot fudge sauce for a while now. I didn’t necessarily try to recreate Mother Myrick’s, but this Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce is pret-ty darn good. Best part? It only takes 15 minutes to make!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons salted butter
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk (I used Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk)
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SoHoppinGood #BlueBunny#CollectiveBias
Spring has finally sprung and this past weekend was absolutely beautiful. Warm weather has me dreaming about frozen treats, especially ice cream.
For more than 80 years, Blue Bunny® has been offering yummy ice cream made with fresh ingredients for families. Blue Bunny® Ice Cream just came out with their new 2017 lineup of ice cream flavors and treats, including two awesome Ice Cream Cakes: Bunny Tracks and Vanilla Bean Blondie. Bunny Tracks is made with the Blue Bunny® signature flavor: vanilla flavored ice cream with caramel and fudge swirls, chocolaty covered peanuts, and peanut butter filled chocolaty bunnies.
Their other new flavors include: Mint Cookie Crunch, Monster Cookie Mash, Toffee Brownie Twist™, and Rockin’ Rocky Road™. Also worth mentioning, Cherrific Cheesecake, which used to be seasonal is now officially available year-round!
One of my favorite ice cream treats are ice cream sandwiches. So what could be better than a cake sized ice cream sandwich like this Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwich Cake? I decided to make large peanut butter cookies to make the Blue Bunny® Bunny Track Ice Cream Cake into an Ice Cream Sandwich Cake.
I went to my local Walmart to pick up the ice cream cake and the ingredients I needed for the cookies. The ice cream cakes can be found in the same aisle as other ice cream.
I have a pretty intense sweet tooth; in my mind, dinner isn’t finished until I’ve had dessert! I do try to limit how many times a week I actually do have dessert after dinner, but sometimes you just need some!
This recipe from Cooking Light caught my eye because it involves two of my favorite things: ice cream and blueberries.
This fun little dessert takes very little time to make, and the blueberry sauce can even be made ahead of time!
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons water, divided
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/4 cups fresh blueberries, divided
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash of salt
2 cups vanilla low-fat frozen yogurt (I used French Vanilla)
Note: I was sent coupons for Graeter’s Ice Cream for review. Opinions are my own.
Happy National Root Beer Float Day! I had to celebrate the only way I know how, by making myself a root beer float, or, more specifically, an Adult Root Beer Float!
Luckily, Graeter’s Ice Cream wanted me to celebrate in style and sent me some coupons so that I could try their snazzy flavors in my float.
Graeter’s Ice Cream
Graeter’s Ice Cream is still made the same way it has been since 1870: by hand. Made with high quality ingredients, the ice cream is still made one batch at a time in 2 1/2 gallon French pots.
Graeter’s has some seriously awesome flavors. To highlight some of them, I decided to make an “adult” root beer float, made with Not Your Father’s Root Beer, because, why not?
The Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip Ice Cream seemed like the perfect way to make a root beer float more for adults– it’s made with the bold taste of Kentucky bourbon, then loaded it with roasted, buttered, salted pecan halves and our gourmet bittersweet chocolate chips. (There isn’t actually bourbon in it by the way.)
The Original Salted Caramel is one of the first flavors Graeter’s made over a century ago. Made with brown sugar, cream, and a pinch of salt, it’s a perfect complement to root beer in my opinion!
(They also have a Madagascar Vanilla Bean flavor if you’re not feeling particularly adventurous with your float this time around.)
Ingredients:
1 pint Graeter’s Ice Cream of your choice, (I suggest Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chip or Original Salted Caramel)
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #DairyFree4All #CollectiveBias
I love frozen dessert. No dinner is complete without a little treat from the freezer!
So Delicious® Dairy Free Frozen Desserts are the perfect solution for me. Their frozen treats are made from cashew milk, coconut milk, and almond milk and are so tasty!
The So Delicious® Dairy Free Frozen Desserts are certified vegan, dairy-free and egg-free, and non-GMO Project verified with no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives and no high-fructose corn syrup. They are also cholesterol-free and certified Kosher.
So Delicious® Dairy Free has been developing yummy desserts for over 25 years, using only the highest quality ingredients with many product being made with organic ingredients. Products are always 100% plant-based, and the company is committed to doing the right things for people and the planet. You can learn more at www.sodeliciousdairyfree.com.
I wanted to make a little treat this weekend, so I went to Walmart to pick up some of So Delicious® Dairy Free’s Frozen Treats: Cashew Salted Caramel Cluster, Cashew Dark Chocolate Truffle, and Coconut Vanilla Bean.
I made dairy-free cookies to make frozen treat sandwiches with these yummy flavors — Dark Chocolate Cookies for the Cashew Salted Caramel Cluster and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies for the Cashew Dark Chocolate Truffle. I threw in some Coconut Vanilla Bean sandwiches for the purists out there as well 🙂
Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate Cookies:
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder (or regular cocoa powder)
Did you know that May is National Barbecue Month? The weather is perfect for going outside and grilling, and with Memorial Day behind us, it’s time to take full advantage of grilling season!
I’ve partnered with Four Roses Bourbon to make an oh-so yummy summer barbecue-themed dessert. A lot of the steps of this can be made ahead of time to make serving the dessert easy enough for a weeknight.
This dessert includes ice cream, grilled fruit, a spiced bourbon butter sauce, and toasted pound cake pieces… what more could you ask for?!
The Republic of Tea is one of my favorite tea companies, their tea is so good! (One of my go-to’s is their Earl Greyer Tea) I also really like their packaging; the tins make it easy to transport and keep the tea bags more fresh than they would be in a box.
What makes this tea particularly noteworthy is that the caffeine content of this tea is enhanced with green tea extract and pure caffeine isolated from premium tea leaves, so it’s a great morning pick-me-up. This tea also has a natural coconut flavor and a touch of licorice flavor, making for quite the tasty tea! It’s really yummy with a splash of milk. To really enhance the coconut flavor, add a little turbinado sugar to your tea too. (You can now understand why my boyfriend stole this tea from me!) The HiCAF Toasted Coconut Black Tea is also gluten free, carb free, with no added sugars.
I love using tea and coffee in recipes and the flavors of this tea just begged to be used in a dessert! The inspiration for this recipe was a Sunset recipe for a Blackberry-Black Tea Sorbet. Because there is already a flavor of coconut in the tea, I wanted to further enhance that by turning this recipe for a sorbet into a vegan ice cream using coconut milk.
Making ice cream is really easy but it takes quite a bit of preparation. First, you need an ice cream maker. (Luckily my mom had one!) The bowl of the ice cream maker has to be frozen for at least 24 hours before it’s ready to use. For this particular recipe, the tea bags need to be steeped in the coconut milk, cooled, and refrigerated before making the ice cream. Plus the whole ice cream mixture needs a few hours in the fridge to get cold. Whew!
So, if you’re making this, be sure to prepare ahead!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, pumpkin season! My love of pumpkin flavored, well, anything, is well known among my group of friends. September means I am actually allowed to dive into my pumpkin obsession but it is still a bit warm so we will begin with a chilled version of my favorite gourd – Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes!
I had a Pumpkin Pie Milkshake post on here from 2011, but when I switched my blog over to WordPress, the post got a little funky. So I decided to make the milkshake again with a few changes.
Ingredients (makes 2 servings, multiply as needed):
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1 cup vanilla almond milk
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 graham cracker (I used cinnamon graham crackers), crumbled
Whenever I visit my friends who live on the Chesapeake, I try to bring some food. I found a recipe for a Tart with Grilled Fruit in a cookbook called Crazy About Pies that I bookmarked for my next trip to Maryland because we always end up grilling and I thought it would make a great complement to a barbecued dinner. I decided to instead make a dark chocolate brownie to go with the grilled fruit instead of the tart. (I will have a post about Crazy About Pies in the near future, there are some amazing sounding recipes in this cookbook!) The brownie recipe is adapted from an Alton Brown recipe.
Ingredients (makes 16 servings):
2 pints of ice cream, preferably fruit based (I used a strawberry almond milk ice cream)
Brownies
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
8 ounces melted butter (2 sticks) plus more for greasing
1 cup dark chocolate cocoa
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Fruit
Fruit of your choice (about 1 cup): I used pineapple, kiwi, and watermelon
I am so excited to share this cookbook with you. It’s an entire cookbook dedicated to Milkshakes! I have a serious ice cream addition, so it should go without saying that I love milkshakes. Although I’m never one to turn down a simple chocolate or cookies and cream milkshake, this cookbook brings milkshakes to a completely different level. Malts & Milkshakes: 60 Recipes for Frosty, Creamy, Frozen Treats has everything from the classics, to modern flavors, and even boozy shakes. The Author, Autumn Martin, is the founder of Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery in Seattle, so she knows her desserts!
All of the recipes can be made using ingredients found in your supermarket, but it also includes recipes for making your own homemade ice cream if you’re feeling particularly fancy. There are so many inventive recipes in this book: eggnog, earl grey, salted caramel, and mango rose milk shakes to name a few. And those don’t even include the boozy milkshakes! My two favorite ones from that section: Chocolate Espresso Whiskey Malt and Chipotle Spice Sipping Chocolate Shake. This book is not messing around!
Another favorite was the S’mores Shake. Few things symbolize wonderful summer memories like S’mores. Chocolate, Marshmallow, and Graham Crackers sound like a perfect combination in a milkshake too! I changed the recipe up ever so slightly, but the general idea is still in tact.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 marshmallows, roasted
1/4 cup milk (I used skim)
6 scoops vanilla ice cream (~3 cups)
2 scoops chocolate ice cream (~1 cup)
1/2 cup crumbled graham crackers, plus more for garnish
Do you remember the first time you had a root beer float? I remember thinking “soda and ice cream, why hadn’t someone mentioned this deliciousness to me before this very moment?!” Mind you, I was a kid and probably didn’t need any more sugar or desserts in my life. But root beer floats always have such a wonderful feeling of nostalgia. I was at Franklin Fountain in Philadelphia recently. I saw that they sell root beer floats, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them since. So when this month’s Cooking Light arrived with what I can only call an “Adult Root Beer Float” I was so excited to try it out.
The drink, referred to as a Black Cauldron (it’s the October issue), is just as simple as a traditional root beer float, but it uses a stout instead of root beer. To add a little bit more flavor, the drink also has a touch of vodka and brewed espresso. How can you not like this drink?
Ingredients: (makes 4)
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup vanilla vodka
1/4 cup brewed espresso (or coffee)
24 ounces stout beer (oatmeal, chocolate, whatever your favorite is)
Brew your espresso or coffee. Allow to cool.
Add 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream to each of 4 glasses.
Top each with 1 tablespoon vodka and 1 tablespoon espresso. (Note: espresso can make this drink very bitter. Feel free to use brewed coffee instead.)
Fill with the stout (it will get very frothy).
That’s it! What a great upgrade!
If you don’t like stouts, you are obviously not going to like this drink. But as a stout lover, I couldn’t get enough of this drink. The ice cream melts into the drink, making it really creamy. On a couple of mine, it actually floated to the top!
When I was creating my Labor Day Round Up post, I realized one of my favorite grilling recipes was conspicuously missing. My friends and I love to soak pineapple in a rum-sugar mixture, heat it on the grill until the sugars caramelize, and dig in. Although I have been butchering the recipe all summer, I used this Cooking Light recipe as inspiration for our favorite summer grilling treat. Now that I am making this in my kitchen on a grill pan, I’m actually able to pair it with the ice cream for the full effect.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup dark spiced rum (such as Captain Morgan’s)
1 pineapple, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 pint vanilla ice cream
I have many childhood memories of me chasing down the ice cream truck to get my absolute favorite ice cream treat: a Chipwich. I mean, honestly, what more could you ask for in a dessert? Two chocolate chip cookies with ice cream sandwiched in between. Mmm.
So I was, well, horrified, to find out that the Chipwich brand name is no longer in existence as of 2007. At that time, Nestle bought the rights to the name and stopped all production because it competed with their “Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich.” I mean, come on. The name Chipwich is exponentially more catchy. But hey, whatever floats their boat.
Since finding out this information, I can’t get the idea of making my own Homemade Chipwiches or Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches out of my head.
I was sent an Airbake cooking sheet recently and wanted to test it out. The Airbake Nonstick Insulated sheets are pretty snazzy. They are made of 100% aluminum and are comprised of two sheets surrounding a layer of air. This is said to reduce the temperature of the metal that actually comes in contact with the food which should result in more even baking. Airbake also claims that cookie bottoms won’t burn, win! (They also have natural sheets if you don’t want nonstick)
I decided to use a recipe from David Lebovitz for Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies because the only way I can think to enhance my homemade chipwiches would be to add a little salt to bring out the flavor.
Ingredients (makes about 12 hand-sized chipwiches, make cookies larger if desired):
4 ounces salted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt or kosher salt
1 1/3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 pint vanilla ice cream (or your favorite ice cream)
This recipe is a result of having all of the ingredients in my kitchen, and my endless sweet tooth. Pears hold up really well to being cooked so I thought they would be great with traditional baking spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves) and some pecans for crunch. I also had a bit of ice cream left in my freezer so I used the pears and pecans as a topping.