These Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Cream Puffs pretty much explain themselves. They’re cream puffs that are filled with ice cream and dipped in chocolate. The cream puffs themselves are not hard to make, but they look so cute when they’re done, that these simple frozen treats look pretty impressive. If you’ve made cream puffs before, you’ll know that they come out of them oven a little crisp on the outside. The cream puffs loose a little bit of their just-baked crispiness when frozen, but these are such a tasty treat to pull out of the freezer that it just doesn’t matter.

I dip these in chocolate before I freeze them, making the chocolate shell nice and crunchy when I’m ready to eat. This also makes eating the cream puffs a pretty non-messy affair, even considering the prospect of the ice cream melting if you eat too slowly. To make the dessert a little more interactive, you can serve undipped cream puffs with melted chocolate (i.e. fondue-style) or with some fudge sauce and let your family and friends dip to their hearts’ content.

These will keep in the freezer for at least a couple of weeks and can be made with any kind of ice cream you like. The recipe below makes smaller, easy-to-hold cream puffs. If you want to go big, double the size of each ball of dough and double the baking time.
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Even since I had an amazingly delicious coconut ice cream in Paris, I’ve wanted to make up a batch of it at home. That ice cream was amazing, creamy and full of shredded coconut. There are lots of coconut ice cream recipes out there to choose from, but since I wanted to maximize the coconut flavor in mine, I wanted to choose a recipe that used coconut milk, either in addition to cream or instead of it. I ended up trying the coconut ice cream from The Vegan Scoop. The cookbook is all vegan/nondairy ice creams and their coconut caught my eye because it only used coconut milk (not soy milk and, being a vegan book, obviously not any cream), as well as shredded coconut.

The ice cream was easy to make and turned out to be delicious. It was creamy and smooth, and seemed to taste a little lighter and more refreshing than some other coconut ice creams I’ve tried. It froze and softened up again (for seconds) nicely, without getting icy or turning into a sorbet-like consistency. The ice cream uses arrowroot starch as a thickener, not eggs. You could get away with using cornstarch as a thickener in its place if you don’t want to buy a batch just to try this recipe. That said, if you’re planning to try others from the book - they all look good - it might be worth picking up a small bag, since all the recipes call for this thickener.

I made a few small changes to the recipe as it was written. I used 800 ml coconut milk instead of the 825 ml called for in the original recipe because my cans of coconut milk each hold 400 ml, and I didn’t want to open another can just for a few tablespoons of liquid. I didn’t add coconut extract, as was suggested to boost the coconut flavor, to see how the natural flavor stood out on its own. I also doubled the amount of shredded coconut that I mixed into the ice cream. I love the chewiness that the coconut adds and you can’t beat the flavor. Unsweetened and sweetened coconut will both work in this recipe. It’s not particularly sweet on its own, and sweetened coconut will not make it too sweet if you choose to use it.
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One of the reasons that I love living in California is that phrases like “I have a surplus of ripe avocados” are pretty commonly uttered in my kitchen. I love avocados and use them all the time on sandwiches, in salads and in guacamole. I often eat them plain, with just a sprinkle of salt if I get a really good one. I’m often tempted to turn them into a sweet dessert, as it is frequently done in Central and South America, but I almost always turn back to a savory dish in the end.

Almost.

This is an avocado ice cream and, while it may share its color with some savory avocado dishes, it is definitely a dessert dish. The ice cream is made by pureeing avocados with some sugar, milk and half-and-half. A food processor works best for this, as it does an excellent job blending everything together and making sure that all of the sugar is well-incorporated into the ice cream base. I added some rum, for a little flavoring and because a small amount of alcohol will help to lower the freezing point of the mixture, making it softer in the freezer, and a little bit of vanilla extract. You could leave out the alcohol, if you like, but your ice cream may not be quite as creamy once it has been stored in the freezer.

The finished product is a very creamy sorbet, with a definite splash of rum and vanilla, and the slightest aftertaste of avocado. it’s not quite as creamy as an ice cream, but much smoother than most fruit-based sorbets. I think that if the ice cream wasn’t green, you might get away with pretending the avocado isn’t in there at all. The ice cream is good on its own, but gets even better if you introduce a little bit of texture to it. I found that chopped pistachios looked great on top of the ice cream and added a nice crunch, as well as a little bit of a toasty flavor. The ice cream also went fabulously with hot fudge sauce, which seemed to really bring out the rum notes in the dessert.
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Almost every shop that sells frozen yogurt is now offering “tart” yogurt, which is little more than yogurt-flavored yogurt, complete with the tang of the real thing. I like it, but not as much as I like regular yogurt or my homemade frozen yogurt, which uses a base of tangy Greek-style yogurt that is lightened with beaten egg whites. The tartness of the commercial frozen yogurt can be quite strong, and while this isn’t a bad thing in the plain yogurt variety, it’s not always a big plus for the fruit-flavored “tart” yogurts.

When it comes to these, although flavors like mango, blueberry and strawberry sound promising, the aforementioned tartness can overwhelm the flavor of the fruit. I like it when the sweetness of fresh fruit is showcased by the yogurt, not overshadowed by it. In this homemade variety, strawberries are definitely the star in the flavor department - even though a tangy yogurt is the base.

I used my usual frozen yogurt base and added lots of fresh strawberries to it, omitting vanilla and other flavorings that might mask the berries. My berries happened to be very, very sweet, but if yours aren’t quite sweet enough, you can always add a bit of extra sugar to the recipe. The only caveat to using fresh berries is that your yogurt (or ice cream, gelato, etc.) can develop large ice crystals after it has been stored for a while, since fresh fruit has a high water content. One trick that I used to make sure the yogurt stayed creamy was to add a little vodka to the mixture. This isn’t necessary and can be omitted if you prefer, but since alcohol has a lower freezing point than water, a little bit in a mixture can really help discourage the formation of large ice crystals. You can’t taste it in the finished product unless you want to try and punch up the strawberry flavor with some berry-infused vodka.

Even with the vodka, the yogurt did need to thaw a bit before it was soft enough to scoop again after a couple of days in the freezer. I like this best fresh from the ice cream maker, but a 15 minute wait for the yogurt to thaw still takes less time than a trip to the nearest frozen yogurt shop.

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I spent a lot of time at the park when I was little. I did all kinds of things: biking, roller skating, playing soccer and just about any other sport/activity you can think of alone or with my friends. One of my favorite activities - if I had a bit of change in my pocket - was paying a visit to the ice cream truck when it rolled through the parking lot. I tried everything, from flavored chewing gum that only cost pennies (when I really didn’t have anything to spend) to colorful, shaped ice cream pops with balls of rock-hard frozen chewing gum embedded in them (awful, but oh-so appealing anyway). My absolute favorite treats were Drumstick Sundae Cones: sugar cones filled with vanilla ice cream, dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with nuts.

The original cones will be classics for a long time to come, but these days I’m not content to stick with only one kind of ice cream treat. I want better chocolate, more interesting flavors and - most importantly - I want it to be homemade. So, just like I did earlier this year with Girl Scout Cookies, I set about making my own homemade ice cream Drumsticks!

I picked up a package of sugar cones at the grocery store and searched through the ice cream to find a flavor that appealed to me. Homemade ice cream or gelato would be great, too, but I didn’t have any ready in my freezer. I settled on a delicious flavor called “French Silk”, which is vanilla and coffee swirl ice cream with big chocolate chips.

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Ice cream cakes are one of the best summertime desserts out there. While a cold mousse or a simple strawberry tart might make the covers of food magazines, nothing lights up a gathering of hot, hungry people like a gorgeous ice cream cake - especially if there are kids involved. And, of course, I feel that a homemade cake is always better than an store bought one (especially considering that ice cream parlors are not necessarily known for the quality of their cake). When I outlined the process of making an ice cream cake the other day, it was a teaser for this recipe for the whole ice cream cake.

This cake uses mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiched between two chocolate cake layers and topped with vanilla buttercream. In my book, it’s the best that ice cream cakes get. The green-tinted of the ice cream immediately lets guests know what flavor they’re in for and it looks quite nice set against the dark chocolate-colored cake.

I like this cake recipe for ice cream cakes because it is tender, has a good flavor, and stays very moist even after it has been frozen and refrozen repeatedly (since leftovers need to be kept in the freezer). I credit the cake’s excellent texture to the use of vegetable oil instead of butter. The chocolate/cocoa flavor of the cake is strong enough that you will never miss the “buttery” flavor of butter and vegetable oil does a much better job of preventing baked goods from drying out than butter does.

The frosting here is my real vanilla bean buttercream. The recipe makes just enough to put a thin layer all over the cake and it tastes wonderful with the chocolate and mint layers. It holds up quite well to freezing, too. When cold, it becomes quite firm, but like the ice cream layer, it becomes soft and easily sliced when the cake warms up even slightly.

This recipe makes a big cake - three 10×15-inch layers - so you might want to keep this fact in mind before you bake it. It is fantastic for parties, barbecues and pretty much any summer gathering where a freezer will be available for storage. If it’s too big, use my how to make an ice cream cake tutorial to make an ice cream layer for a smaller cake.

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