Caramel Sauce

This caramel sauce is perfect! For ice cream, for dipping, pretzels, whatever! It sets up really nice and reheats to a beautiful drizzle.  Just 3 ingredients and about five minutes tops to make!

What you will need:

• 1 stick (1/2 c) butter
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/3 c heavy cream

Directions:

• Melt the butter
• Whisk in brown sugar and heavy cream
• Bring to a boil and boil for exactly 3 minutes
• Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature (I dropped a little vanilla in at this point, too)
• Store in the fridge and microwave for 60 seconds if you want it back to being drizzly

Thin Mint Brownie Ice Cream Cake

 I have some pretty big news! Yesterday our family went to Lagoon, and while we were there we wandered around Pioneer Villiage. We came upon a little shop that had a sign saying they sold Swig sugar cookies! I absolutely HAD to get one. I had only ever heard about them (a lot) up until that point. MAN were they good!!!! My husband had to listen to me marvel at how they got it to the perfect sweetness (both the cookie and the frosting) without feeling like it was just a bunch of powdered sugar, or worse, feeling the sugar while you ate it. It was just.....perfection. I turned to my 9 year old and asked if she wanted some.

"No.....I only like your sugar cookies."

Um, what? I tried to convince her that these were like mine but better! She was insistent on the fact that no, she doesn't like any other sugar cookies but mine and just won't even bother trying any others. This was news to me. 

The same thing happened for her birthday dinner. Her favorite food is taco's so I'm thinking okay we can go out for tacos or something. She said NO. "Mom's tacos." She likes mine more than anything.

SAME THING HERE, FOLKS. She wanted an ice cream cake for her birthday but wanted ME to make it. I'll be honest, I'd never made an ice cream cake before. I'd spread some ice cream over an oreo crumble before but the cake addition thing was new for me. 

She absolutely loves mint chocolate chip ice cream (and anything mint really). I spotted our girls scout thin mint cookie brownie mix in the cupboard I'd picked up since I had an Ibotta rebate for it. Why not give it a try?

I'm not sure why I decided to crumble the brownies and press them into a pan. Probably because the instructions say to use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan and I wanted an ice cream cake that was 13x9. So I was able to make a larger ice cream cake with just one box of brownies. The base layer was just a bit thinner than maybe some people would like their cake to be in it. 

I also decided to put the cool whip layer between the ice cream and ganache. In my head I was thinking that the ganache might melt the top part of the ice cream if I put it directly on top of it. But in reality, I'm sure if I'd just dumped it on when it was completely cool it would have been fine? So, do your layers however you'd like! You could even do ice cream as the bottom layer and brownie it up on top! Who cares! Have fun!

What you will need:  

• 13x9 cake pan
• 1 box Pillsbury girl scout thin mint cookie brownie mix
• 1 tub mint chocolate chip ice cream
• 1 tub cool whip
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 8 oz. baking chocolate chopped up (I used German chocolate)

Directions:

• Bake brownies according to directions
• When brownies are completely cooled, crumble them up and press them into 13x9 cake pan
• Place brownie layer in the freezer to firm up a bit
• Pull out ice cream and cool whip and let it thaw for about 20 minutes so it's spreadable
• Scoop out all the ice cream onto the brownies and spread evenly
• Spread cool whip on top of ice cream
• Freeze again until firm
• Place chopped up chocolate into a bowl
• Heat up 1 c of heavy cream until just boiling
• Pour cream over the chocolate an let it sit for about 5 minutes before stirring
• Stir gently until well mixed and you have a nice smooth and creamy ganche
• Either let it cool and spread it over the cool whip, or you can drizzle the top right before serving. Or you can let it cool completely and then whip it up into a frosting. The choice is yours!

Fresh Peach Ice Cream

Ice cream for breakfast?! Yes you can!

A little while back we stopped at the local fruit stand and grabbed a bazillion peaches. We went through those peaches SO FAST. Our family can't get enough. My husband and I crave late night bowls of cubed up peaches on the couch while we snuggle up to a movie. We choose it over brownies or other junk food when it's around. Which we find pretty weird.

We had a big bag that we froze also so we could pull some out for smoothies and such. Today we were all sick with the cold and it's been so windy and yucky outside we've all been curled up in blankets all day staying warm.

I opened the freezer to see if I could find a snack. I saw the frozen peaches and remembered the banana ice cream my kids loved a long time ago. I thought I'd give it a try with the peaches! The banana ice cream uses a little peanut butter if you want so it can get a nice creamy texture. I figured I'd just use some yogurt for the peaches.

I have to warm you, you need to be patient with this haha. It took me a good 5 minutes or so to pulse the peaches to the point of an ice cream consistency and about 2 T of yogurt. But let me tell ya, when it was done, my kids when NUTS over it! And hello, it literally is healthy for them. I have zero complaints about this!

What you will need

• Frozen peaches, whatever amount you want. I probably had 2 C of large sliced peaches
• 2 T yogurt or more (be patient with your pulsing and you won't have to add much in)

Directions

• Add your peaches to a food processor or a good blender
• drop 1 T of yogurt in and pulse for a bit
• Scrape the frozen crumbles off the sides and pulse some more
• Repeat a bunch of times
• Add another T of yogurt and pulse until it's done! Just keep scraping the sides and you'll be able to tell if the consistency is getting there!

Grasshopper Frozen Dessert

I made this for my daughter's 3rd birthday! It was really yummy. I mean it's basically just mint & chocolate chip ice cream, so of course it was good. But sometimes you just need that extra oomph to your desserts!

One thing I would note is that I'd try and make this the day before serving. I made mine the day of and the oreo's were still crumbly. The next day they were the perfect ice cream-crust texture!

What you will need:

• 1 pkg. Oreo cookies
• 1 1/2 cartons Mint & Chocolate Chip ice cream
• 1 8 oz. carton Cool Whip, softened
• 9x13 pan

Directions:

• Allow ice cream to soften up. I waited until I was able to press a spoon into it and it was really soft on the top and still pretty firm down in the middle
• Separate the cream from the cookies in the Oreo's
• Add Oreo's into a larg Ziploc bag and smash the heck out of them (or use your food processor, which I didn't do and wished I had ha!)
• Press Oreo's evenly into the bottom of your 9x13" pan
• Scoop large amounts of the ice cream and plop them all down onto the Oreo's crumbles (don't spread it until all the ice cream is "plopped down" first)
• Once all the ice cream is there, start spreading. It will take a bit of work. The best way I can describe the method that worked really well for me is a short and quick "sawing motion" with my large spoon. I'd spread some, then do the sawing motions, spread some, do the sawing motions. But do whatever works for you!
• Spread Cool Whip on the top of the Ice Cream and add sprinkles, chocolate shavings or whatever your heart desires
• Cover and freeze!
• Pull out about 20 minutes before serving to soften a little!

Homemade Horchata Ice Cream

I'm a little late posting this, but this recipe is a GREAT idea for a Cinco de Mayo celebration! Top it with banana's and homemade Dulce de Leche and you have yourself an amazing treat!

What you will need:

• 1 1/2 C white rice, toasted*
• 2 1/2 C heavy cream
• 1 1/4 C whole milk
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• pinch kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

• Pour rice into a blender and blend until coarsely ground
• Heat milk and cream in a saucepan until warm and creamy (do not boil)
• Add ground rice into pan and stir
• Cover the pan, remove from heat and let it sit at room temp. for 2 hours
• Set a mesh strainer lined with a few layers of cheesecloth over a large bowl
• Slowly pour milk/rice mixture through cheesecloth to remove the rice
• Add ground cinnamon to rice milk and reheat rice milk until steamy
• Whisk egg yolks, eggs and sugar in a large bowl
• Slowly pour heated rice milk into egg/sugar mixture whisking consistently
• Return egg/milk mixture to saucepan and add a pinch of salt
• Over medium heat, stir the custard constantly until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon or spatula
• Remove cheesecloth and pour the hot custard through the strainer only
• Stir in the vanilla
• Chill custard over night
• Use custard in your ice cream maker according to your ice cream makers directions

*To toast the rice, pour the white rice into a skillet on medium high heat. Stir constantly until the rice turns golden; about 3 minutes

Strawberry-Orange Sorbet

Mmmmmm. I am eating this right as I type out the recipe. I am so so...so so SO surprised at how amazing this turned out. It's a gem of a recipe if I ever saw one. The flavor is delicious, the creaminess is so right on and it's just so darn easy to make!

My one complaint is that this recipe did not make enough! I would say it makes about 1 Quart, so next time I plan on doubling, or even tripling the recipe.

You will need:

• 4 C strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 1 C water
• 1 C fresh orange juice + zest (for me this ended up being around 4 oranges)
• 1/2 C sugar

Directions:

• hull and slice strawberries and set aside
• Bring water, sugar and orange juice to a boil until the sugar has dissolved
• Add in the sliced strawberries and boil for about 8 minutes

• Using a blender, puree the mixture until smooth

• Strain the mixture using a fine mesh strainer  (I don't do anything with fruit enough to drop $30 for a fine mesh strainer. I used my splatter guard and it worked like a charm. Check out all those seeds!)

• Place in the refrigerator to chill (I chilled mine over night. See what I mean about the quantity?!)

• Use chilled mix in your ice cream maker and use like usual