The cutest and most festive ice cream coming at you!!
Forget the Guinness, I am willing to go out on a limb here and declare this classic cereal to be the most festive part of Saint Patrick’s Day. It’s for all ages and if neon-colored marshmallows do not excite you just a bit, well, I don’t understand.
Lucky Charms ice cream has been floating around in my recipe idea notes for a couple of weeks now but I really wasn’t sure how it would come together.
The combination of cereal and ice cream is not a new one for me. Even before Momofuku entered the scene, my siblings and I were pouring cereal into our bowls of ice cream. My mother, another texture fanatic, taught us this edible magic and I still love a generous topping of frosted flakes atop my vanilla bean gelato.
For this recipe however, I really wasn’t sure how the combination would work out. I did not know if I could successfully capture the distinct flavor of the cereal. But after a bit of experimentation, I did, and somehow the final ice cream wound up tasting more like Lucky Charms than Lucky Charms itself. I cannot explain it, so you will just have to try it for yourself.
To begin, let’s make cereal milk. Several cups of cereal join half & half. This is probably the only time you will want your cereal to get soggy.
After thirty minutes, the cereal will have leant much of its flavor to the half & half, which will form the base of our ice cream custard. Use your blender to then blend the entire mixture, until the cereal is in teeny tiny pieces. This will turn the milk green, which is oh-so-convenient for the holiday that inspired it.
Ice cream is generally a two-day process for me. On the evening before I want to serve it, I will make the ice cream base and refrigerate it overnight so it can be really cold.
The next morning, I will churn the ice cream. The soft ice cream spends the rest of the day in the freezer to set up and become scoopable. That said, you can certainly expedite this process by quickly cooling the ice cream custard in an ice bath. I have done this many times in a pinch.
Now, back to the ice cream itself. We are going to make the cutest dipped cones.
White chocolate + gold sugar + more cereal = cones that would set any leprechaun’s heart a-flutter.
If you are making the ice cream over the course of two days, I would recommend making your cones on the second day so that neither the cereal nor the cones themselves become stale.
This electric rainbow pallet makes me so happy.
After your cones have been given the full tacky treatment, it is time to check on our ice cream.
I added a generous splash of Bailey’s to the ice cream base to further play off of our Irish theme, and also to keep the ice cream soft and scoopable.
Homemade ice cream can be surprisingly difficult to scoop if you are accustomed to store-bought ice cream, which is churned at much higher speeds than most home machines can achieve, resulting in softer, easy-to-scoop ice cream.
However, a bit of alcohol resolves this issue. Alcohol does not freeze, so adding a glug or two to your base keeps it soft and ready to serve at all times.
When did ice cream ever look so cute?!
If you have ever looked down at your breakfast and wished it came in a gold-flecked cone, today is your day. Let’s celebrate!
Sincerely,
Pedantic Foodie
Lucky Charms Ice Cream
makes 1 quart
2 1/2 cups Lucky Charms cereal, plus extra for decorating the cones
3 cups half & half
6 large eggs yolks
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
gold sugar, optional
6 waffle cones
Combine cereal and half & half in the base of your blender. Use a large spoon to press the cereal down into the milk and allow the mixture to sit at room temperature for thirty minutes.
Once the cereal has had a chance to permeate the milk, place the lid on your blender and blend on high speed until the cereal has completely broken down. Place your blender base in the refrigerator while you prepare the other components.
Place egg yolks and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk vigorously until the yolks are very thick and have just begun to lighten in color. Whisk in Irish cream and set aside.
In a small saucepan, combine heavy whipping cream and granulated sugar. Place over medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is steaming, but not boiling.
Remove the pan from the heat and slowly stream the hot cream into the egg yolks will whisking rapidly. Once the eggs have been tempered, pour in the chilled cereal milk and stir.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6-8 hours, or overnight.
Pour the ice cream into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Scoop the soft ice cream into a glass container and place in the freezer for 6-8 hours, or until the ice cream is hard.
In the meantime, prepare your adorably festive cones!
Melt white chocolate in a small bowl by microwaving at 30 second intervals, stirring well after each, until the chocolate is smooth.
Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper and pour roughly 2 cups of cereal into a pie dish.
Dip each waffle cone into the white chocolate so that about 3/4-inch of the cone is coated. Then, roll the cone in the pie plate full of cereal and gently press the cereal into the white chocolate. Sprinkle with a bit of gold sugar and place each cone on the prepared baking sheet upside-down.
Once all of the cones have been dipped and decorated, place the baking sheet in the freezer and chill the cones for 10 minutes to set the chocolate.
Serve your ice cream in the prepared cones and sprinkle with a bit more gold sugar.
Enjoy!