Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Have you ever come across a recipe that fills
you with so much hope and excitement that you won’t allow yourself to believe
that it will be as delicious as it promises?
I mean, you assume it’s going to be really good provided that you don’t
misread the quantities or make some weird, accidental substitution, but you
still won’t let yourself believe it’s going to be that amazing. You figure it
will be good. You figure you’ll be
pleased with the result, but you will not allow yourself to get your hopes up.
S’mores ice
cream is that kind of recipe, and, better yet, it is about 500 times better
than you allowed yourself to believe it’s going to be. Even when you don’t put in enough s’mores
stuff. Even when the ice cream doesn’t
set as firmly as you like. Even when
you’re shouting, “Jesus take the wheel!” while shoving sticky s’mores mess into
your rapidly melting ice cream. Even
when there’s not nearly enough of it to satisfy you, your sister, your coworkers,
and your friends it is still.
Freaking. Amazing.
The recipe in question
comes from Robyn at Add a Pinch. As you learned in my thrilling Saga
of the Toasted Marshmallows, the recipe has a vanilla base with s’mores
chunks in it, and the marshmallows are toasted in the oven, giving them a
crisp, smoky flavor reminiscent of campfire-cooked marshmallows. The base is creamy and intensely sweet but
pairs extremely well with the s’mores chunks, especially the toasted
marshmallow. However, the recipe did
present numerous small challenges including:
- Broiling the marshmallows. As I learned through a bit of trial and error, it only takes about 30 seconds to broil marshmallows. Any more and you have a charred, blackened mess.
- Allowing the base to churn and thicken adequately before adding the s’mores bits. You basically need to allow the base to thicken completely before adding the bits. In fact, a good idea would be to make the base and then fold in the bits manually. Otherwise, the ice cream never really sets and melts very easily once served. The melting doesn’t detract from the creaminess of the base or the wonderful combination of flavors, but I’ve always found melty ice cream just a bit sad.
- Figuring out how to add the marshmallows without getting huge marshmallow-only mouthfuls. What I mean is that it’s really hard to shove gooey, melty marshmallows into the base. They stick to your fingers as well as the spoon, pan, canister, etc, and you pretty much have to shove them in whole. A partial solution was to smash a marshmallow between a graham cracker, pull the graham cracker apart, and then throw the chunks in. Another option, which I plan on incorporating the next time I make this recipe (and you bet your ass there’s going to be a next time), is swirling a bit of marshmallow fluff into the base and broiling miniature marshmallows so that the chunks aren’t as big. Obviously, the broiling time will go down if I do that, but at least you’ll get a greater profusion of marshmallows and more chances to taste toasted marshmallows in each spoonful (which is super important to me because the toasted marshmallow flavor was so, so good).
Keeping
all that in mind, this recipe is actually fairly easy. The addictive taste also makes any slight
difficulties well worth it, and it will definitely wow your friends and
family. And now, without any further
ado, here is the S’mores Ice Cream Recipe.
Ingredients- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Approximately 12 large marshmallows
- Approximately 6 large graham crackers, crumbled
- 1 large Hershey chocolate bar, frozen and then broken into pieces
Directions
- Place marshmallows on a baking sheet and broil on high for 30 seconds, taking care not to burn. Watch very carefully. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Mix together milk, whipping cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Leave in the fridge to chill for at least an hour.
- Once the base is cold, pour it into the chilled canister. Make according to instructions.
- Once ice cream is ready, add crumbled graham crackers and chocolate pieces. Allow the ice cream to finish churning.
- Remove the ice cream from the maker and place in a sealable container. Tear apart the marshmallows and add to the ice cream, incorporating well.
- Allow ice cream to set overnight.
If
you’ve allowed the ice cream to churn with the graham crackers chunks, you’ll
get a very strong graham cracker flavor.
Don’t worry about the chunks getting soggy – they won’t. Add some whipped cream and a chunk of
chocolate and graham cracker to garnish and you’ve got yourself a delicious,
delicious treat that will leave you wishing you’d doubled the ingredients. Enjoy!
Overview
- Base prep time: 15 minutes
- Base chill time: at least 1 hour
- Marshmallow toast time: approximately 30 seconds
- Ice cream set time: overnight
- Taste: creamy, intensely sweet vanilla that brings out the strong graham cracker flavor and pairs well with the slightly-smoky toasted marshmallows and sweet chocolate chunks
- Difficulty level: low to medium
- Expense level: medium
- Makes: about 2 quarts (8 cups)
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