Vanilla Hunny Shake

Original Recipe from Family Fun Magazine.

It only took one sip for all of my kids to declare this a keeper!  This tastes like a vanilla milkshake, but the honey and cinnamon give it an extra exotic flare.


1 cup vanilla ice cream
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp honey
pinch cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.  Pour into two tall glasses and serve immediately.


Tips and Hints:
*I doubled the recipe, but used about 3/4 cup milk for the double batch.  This made a thicker, richer shake.

Orange Marshmallow Pops

Original Recipe from Kraft Food and Family Magazine


1 cup boiling water
1 pkg orange flavor gelatin
1/2 cup orange juice
2 cups vanilla ice cream
12 large marshmallows


Add boiling water to gelatin mix in medium bowl; stir two minutes until completely dissolved.  Cool slightly.  Gradually add orange juice and gelatin to ice cream in a large bowl, beating with mixer on low speed after each addition until blended.

Insert wooden pop stick into center of each marshmallow.  Place, marshmallow end down, into each of 12 small paper or plastic cups.  Spoon about 1 Tbsp ice cream mixture into each cup.  Freeze 30 minutes or until slightly firm.  Place the bowl with the extra mixture in the freezer for about 20 minutes, then keep at room temperature for the remaining freeze time.

Pour remaining gelatin mixture into cups, approximately 1/4 cup mixture per cup.  Freeze 4 hours or until firm.  Remove pops from cups to serve.


Tips and Hints:
*We all agreed that the marshmallows didn't really add anything to this pop and were just cold and gummy.  I would leave them out the next time and just make these in ice pop molds.
*If you do use the marshmallows, definitely follow the directions and freeze with just a little of the mixture to start with.  If you overfill, the marshmallows float.
*You can substitute in other flavors of gelatin.  Substitute apple juice if you don't have a matching juice flavor.
*Kids can help!  Emily put the sticks in the marshmallows in the cups and helped scoop the ice cream mixture into the cups as well.

Candy ice cream pops

I saw this idea on a blog post somewhere.  I can't remember where to credit it!

Vanilla Ice Cream
M&Ms or other colorful candy


Let the ice cream sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften.  Sprinkle a few M&Ms in the bottom of popsicle molds or 5 oz plastic cups.

Layer about 2 Tbsp ice cream in each cup.  Sprinkle more M&Ms.  Repeat with another layer of ice cream.  Finish with more candy.  Sick a popsicle stick or plastic spoon in each cup.

Place in freezer for at least an hour. Eat and enjoy!


Tips and Hints
*I loved this idea because of the built in portion control.  Kids thought it was a fantastic treat, but it wasn't a huge amount of ice cream.  And I only did about 6 M&Ms per layer, so not a ton of candy either!
*We couldn't get ours to come out of the cups, so ended up eating them with a spoon.  I discovered by accident that they loosened up after about 5 minutes.  So just get them out a few minutes early and let them sit.  Then you can eat like a popsicle!
*These would also be good with chocolate ice cream.  You could substitute sprinkles for the M&Ms.  Or use other chopped up candy.  Really, candy+ice cream=you can't go wrong!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Cake

Originally from Cooking Pleasures Magazine

Crust

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

6 Tbsp butter, melted

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Filling

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cartons (1.75 quart) vanilla ice cream

4 cups chocolate chip cookies, cut in 1/2 inch pieces

Heat oven to 325 degrees.  Combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and cinnamon in medium bowl until crumbs are moistened.  Stir in 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips.  Press into bottom of 13x9 inch baking pan.  Bake 6 minutes until set.  Cool completely on wire rack.

Meanwhile, heat cream in medium saucepan over medium heat until hot and steamy.  Remove from heat.  Add bittersweet chocolate chips.  Let stand 1 minute; stir until melted and smooth.  Stir in vanilla.  Cool 20 minutes or until room temperature.

Place ice cream in refrigerator 20 minutes or until slightly softened.  Spread half of the ice cream over crust; quickly spread with spatula to level.  Sprinkle half of the cookies over ice cream.  Quickly spoon 1 1/4 cups of the chocolate sauce over cookies and ice cream; spread with spatula to cover.   Freeze 15 minutes to firm sauce.

Quickly spread remaining ice cream over sauce.  Sprinkle with remaining cookies.  Drizzle with remaining sauce.  Sauce will not completely cover top.

Freeze 2 hours to firm.  Wrap tightly; freeze overnight or up to 1 week.  Remove from freezer to soften slightly before serving.  Cut with warm knife.  Store in freezer.

Thoughts and Tips:

Do not use premium ice cream in this; it freezes too hard!

Soften the ice cream only to the point where it's easy to spread.  If it melts too much, the texture will not be good after it refreezes.

If ice cream is not soft enough to spread when you start, microwave in 30 second intervals on 50% power.

We liked this, but it was a bit of a pain to put together.  The graham cracker crust wanted to stick to the ice cream; if I were making it again, I would experiment with making a cookie crust instead.  I used homemade cookies, but you could definitely use store bought.  The bittersweet chocolate sauce was a little too dark for most of the family; I would use semi-sweet the next time.

No-Melt Sundae Pie

Originally from Kraft Food and Family Magazine

15 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed (approx. 1 1/2 cups)

3 Tbsp butter, melted

1 tub (8 oz) whipped topping, thawed, divided

1 cup cold milk

1 pkg (4 serving size) vanilla flavor instant pudding

2 squares Semi-Sweet baking chocolate OR 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk

Mix crumbs and butter; press onto bottom and up side of 9-inch pie plate.  Reserve 1/2 cup whipped topping; refrigerate.

Pour milk into large bowl.  Add dry pudding mix.  Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended.  Gently stir in remaining whipped topping.  Spoon into crust.  Mix melted chocolate and condensed milk until well blended.  Spoon over pie.  Cut through chocolate mixture several times with knife for marble effect.

Freeze 6 hours until firm.  Remove pie from freezer 15 minutes before serving.  Top with reserved whipped topping.  Garnish with maraschino cherry if desired.

Thoughts and Tips:

To speed up the process, use a premade chocolate crust instead of the cookie crumb crust.

Melt chocolate easily in the microwave:  use a microwave safe bowl.  For one square of chocolate, microwave on high for one minute, stirring after 30 seconds.  (squares will retain their shape.)  Add 10 seconds for each additional square.  Continue to microwave in 15 second intervals until melted.

I was a little dubious about this pie--frozen pudding?!-- but it turned out to be delicious.  The filling is super creamy and it has just the right amount of chocolate so you can still taste the vanilla.  Emily especially was a fan of this one.

Lemonade Stand Pie

(Originally from Kraft Food and Family Magazine)

1/3 cup lemonade flavor drink mix

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups vanilla ice cream, softened

1 tub (8 oz) whipped topping, thawed

1 graham pie crust (6 oz)

Place drink mix in a large bowl.  Add water; stir until mix is dissolved.  Add ice cream.  Beat with electric mixer on low speed until well blended.  Gently stir in whipped topping.  If mixture is too runny, freeze for about 10 minutes until thick enough to mound.

Spoon into crust.  Freeze at least 4 hours or overnight, until firm.

Allow pie to stand at room temperature for about 15 minutes prior to serving, until it can be easily cut.  Store leftovers in freezer.

8 servings

Thoughts and tips:

Make sure you use a presweetened lemonade powder (I used Countrytime) or this will be REALLY tart!

To soften the ice cream, place the carton in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before you are ready to add it to the other ingredients. 

An electric mixer is definitely helpful for this recipe to make sure everything is combined.

We all really really liked this-- the lemon was refreshing and not too overpowering.