S'mores ice cream sundaes

Combine graham cracker no-churn ice cream, milk chocolate magic shell, and freshly scorched gooey marshmallows to make the best and easiest ice cream sundaes to celebrate summer! #meandthemoose #nochurnicecream #s’mores #s’moresrecipes #nochurnicecreamrecipes

Combine graham cracker no-churn ice cream, milk chocolate magic shell, and freshly scorched gooey marshmallows to make the best and easiest ice cream sundaes to celebrate summer!

Take me to the sundaes!

Combine graham cracker no-churn ice cream, milk chocolate magic shell, and freshly scorched gooey marshmallows to make the best and easiest ice cream sundaes to celebrate summer! #meandthemoose #nochurnicecream #s’mores #s’moresrecipes #nochurnicecreamrecipes

Before we get to the ice cream, I need to vent a little. I haven’t been making these posts as person lately because there’s so much kerfuffle on the internet about how people hate reading food bloggers’ life stories. But I guess if you’re reading this, you’re one of the people who is, at worst, neutral on the topic, so here we go! (If you’re here by mistake, there’s a “jump to recipe” button above.)

I need a break from the mental load. We all have one. It’s made up of the stuff that weighs on us and feels like quicksand because there’s no way to think ourselves out of it, though we can’t stop trying. It’s made up of the constant to-do’s and the guilt when they constantly don’t get done.

I’m stuck under the mental load of parenthood and all the ways in which it affects my identity. Lately I’ve been thinking about how I invest too much in both parenthood and my blog/food photography to feel really masterful at either. I suppose one can argue that there’s no such thing as “investing too much” in parenthood, but I really enjoy writing and taking photos and that work helps me feel like I’m something other than “someone’s mom.”

But I also feel guilty about the times I let Z play by himself in his playroom (that’s part of our kitchen, don’t panic) when I want to work on a new recipe or catch a specific light. I’m sure someone would argue that I’m selfish while someone else would point out that kids need to learn independence. And, frankly, both of those people are me. But really, who added “constant playmate” to a parent’s job description?

Anyway, it’s hard to feel productive or creative when so much bandwidth is devoted to pediatrician appointments and camp drop-offs and nap times and making sure all the little things are accounted for. But when I do focus on work, I wonder if I’m depriving M and Z of quality time that will have lasting affects on their development? Maybe that’s way too dramatic. It feels a little dramatic as I write this.

And then I worry (maybe that’s my actual full time job?) that I spend SO MUCH time thinking about parenting and work that I neglect all of the other import things. Like, when do I think about my marriage? And developing new friendships? And nurturing old friendships? And exercising? And did we give the dog his heartworm medicine this month? And what do we do about that front porch pillar that seems to be sinking?

And then my brain short-circuits and I have to cool it down with an ice cream sundae. What a transition!

Combine graham cracker no-churn ice cream, milk chocolate magic shell, and freshly scorched gooey marshmallows to make the best and easiest ice cream sundaes to celebrate summer! #meandthemoose #nochurnicecream #s’mores #s’moresrecipes #nochurnicecreamrecipes

If, like me, your brain is a funny place to live sometimes, you want to combine elaborate and easy. This ice cream sundae is sort of a three-part recipe, but each part is dead simple. So, it feels like you’re doing something tricky but also not.

We start with a straightforward vanilla no-churn ice cream base that has soaked graham crackers in it. Then, we top it with a two-ingredient milk chocolate magic shell and freshly charred marshmallows.

You might be wondering, why wouldn’t you just combine the milk chocolate bits and charred marshmallows in the actual ice cream? And you absolutely CAN do that! BUT, frozen marshmallows bear no resemblance to fresh gooey ones. And why have plain chocolate bits when you can spend 30 seconds melting them with coconut oil and pour it over for some ice cream magic? And some of the magic shell probably won’t freeze, so you get the gooey marshmallows AND the gooey chocolate, which feels very much like the real s’mores deal.

ALSO, leaving the graham cracker ice cream alone makes it adaptable to soooo many other flavor combinations. Cheesecake ice cream? Yup. Key lime pie ice cream? Yup. PB&J on a graham cracker ice cream? You bet. The possibilities are endless.

So what are you waiting for???

A couple of notes:

• You can let the graham crackers soak for as little as an hour or you can forget about them overnight. As long as the cookies are completely mushy, you’re good to go.

• When making no-churn ice cream, i’m a big proponent of throwing everything together and whipping it in one step, but in this case, whip the cream/graham cracker mixture first and then fold in the condensed milk.

• DON’T FORGET THE SALT! S’mores are a sweet affair to begin with. A nice pinch of kosher salt in the ice cream base before freezing cuts the sweetness just a bit.

• For charring: if you don’t have a kitchen torch (but they really are super fun to use and you can get one at Target), roast your marshmallows over a fire or in the oven, but WATCH THEM LIKE A HAWK. Marshmallows can catch on fire under a broiler, so I set the temp to about 400/425 depending on your oven and move a rack up to the top third.

• For the magic shell: I like to use filtered coconut oil because it doesn’t taste like coconut. Virgin is fine to use if that’s what you have, but it might taste faintly of coconut.

Combine graham cracker no-churn ice cream, milk chocolate magic shell, and freshly scorched gooey marshmallows to make the best and easiest ice cream sundaes to celebrate summer! #meandthemoose #nochurnicecream #s’mores #s’moresrecipes #nochurnicecreamrecipes

S’mores ice cream sundaes

Time: At least overnight, but about 15-20 minutes of active time
Yield: about 5-6 large sundaes

For the ice cream:
8 full sheets of graham crackers (or one package if they come three packages to a box)
1 pint heavy cream (2 cups)
14 oz sweetened condensed milk (1 small can)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large pinch fine kosher or sea salt

In a large bowl, mash the graham crackers into tiny bits. I use my hands for this because the bits don’t have to be uniform. Pour the cream over the bits and stir to combine. Cover and leave in the fridge until the graham crackers have turned to mush, about 1 hour or up to 1 day.

Once the graham crackers have softened, remove the large bowl from the fridge. Using a hand or stand mixer, whip just until the cream makes stiff-ish soft peaks (see photo above), about 45 seconds.

Add the condensed milk, vanilla, and salt and fold gently with a spatula.

Transfer to a freezable container and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.

For the magic shell:
6 oz milk chocolate (chips, chopped up bars, whatever)
2 Tbsp coconut oil (see notes above the recipe)

Marshmallows to taste

Combine the chocolate and coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir well. Repeat in 10 second bursts until fully melted. (Mine usually melted within 30 seconds, but it’s really hot here, so my chocolate and coconut oil were already soft.)

Let cool for 10-15 minutes while you char your marshmallows (see note above).

Assemble sundaes with ice cream, magic shell poured over and topped with marshmallows and an optional pinch of flaky sea salt.

Macadamia nut brittle no-churn ice cream

Since we’re all still social distancing this summer, cut down on your trips out for ice cream by making this simple, but fancy-seeming caramel-y, nutty, and creamy no-churn ice cream at home.

Take me to the recipe!

This dish is the epitome of “looks harder than it is” cooking. There are some tricky parts, but all told, the ice cream base only takes 10 minutes to put together and the brittle is about 10 minutes of prep and then 10 minutes of watching like a hawk and then you’re done!

So why should you bother with this recipe if it’s tricky? Well, it’s the best combination of a '‘project” because we all need things to fill the day, especially when those things result in delicious ice cream, and something simple. You won’t end up with hundreds of dishes and the ingredients are pretty easy to come by. (I mean, so far, there’s no run on sweetened condensed milk, but who knows. I got everything through a curb-side order from Target.)

I also love no-churn ice cream because, even if you have one, who really wants to haul out an ice cream maker? The texture falls somewhere between soft serve (the love of my life) and hard ice cream,

This is also a great kids’ cooking project. Maybe do the scalding-hot-sugar portion yourself, but the rest (smashing brittle to pieces! whipping cream! Gently folding the two together!) is 5-year-old approved.

And best of all, the final ice cream is so much better than the sum of its parts. I literally couldn’t stop eating it. It’s caramely and crunchy, but also super creamy. It’s sweet, but not overly sugary. And for my husband, it brings him right back to childhood when he used to eat this now discontinued Haagen Dazs flavor with his dad.

A couple of notes:

• I barely adapted this recipe for the brittle from Bon Appetite, and added copious notes to demystify this process (don’t be put off by the length of the recipe below! it’s actually really simple!). Caramel is basically just-burned-enough sugar, but it goes from perfectly browned to acrid in a matter of seconds. So, to save you from redoing the brittle a few times and wasting ingredients, I’ve added a lot of notes within the recipe itself.

• Read the directions through one or two times before making this. It’ll really streamline the process and help you anticipate what’s happening with the super hot sugar.

• I’ve used salted nuts and salted butter, but both are optional: Use what you can find. If opting for unsalted nuts and butter, add some salt to the dry brittle ingredients (see note in the recipe).
  

Macadamia nut brittle no-churn ice cream

Yield: 2½ cups brittle; about 5 cups ice cream  
Time: About 20-25 active minutes for the brittle; 10 minutes for the ice cream; 8 hours freezing time

For the brittle
(Adapted from Bon Appetite)

1 cup roasted, salted macadamia nuts, roughly chopped into peanut-sized pieces (you can also use unsalted, raw nuts, but you’ll need to roast them yourself in a 400 degree oven until they start to smell nutty and are slightly golden; and add ½ tsp of sea salt to the dry mixture)
1 Tbsp butter (salted or unsalted), straight from the fridge and chopped into 9 pieces
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
½ cup water (plus an extra ½ cup for wiping the sides of the saucepan while cooking)
2 Tbsp light corn syrup

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Grease a spatula with butter and set aside.

Place a trivet or oven mitt on an area of your counter.

Fill a cup with some water and unearth your pastry brush. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the chopped nuts, butter, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a medium-sized, but deep (not wide) saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and corn syrup. Stir to combine with a second spatula (other than your greased one). Place over a medium-high flame and stir until the sugar dissolves and you can’t feel any grit, about 2-3 minutes.

Leave the flame at medium-high and let the mixture come to a big, rolling boil for anywhere from 7-9 minutes. Do not stir.

• The sugar usually turns from a clear, light-ish yellow to a golden camel color in about 8 minutes, but if your flame is slightly cooler or hotter than mine, it may take an extra minute or one minute less.

Every minute or so, wipe the insides of the pan with a wet pastry brush to remove thin layers of sugar water that may have splashed up the sides of the pan. Start with your brush about an inch away from surface of the hot sugar and then work your way down the sides of the pan with the wet brush, shimmying it from side to side, dissolving that thin layer as you go. Re-wet the brush often.   

• It’s hot in there, so be careful. If the water bubbles or crackles so much that it spits onto your skin when you touch the sides with the wet brush, the pan is too hot. Turn down the flame slightly and try again in 30 seconds.

• However, if you brush the insides of the pot with the water and it doesn’t make any hissing sound, your pan isn’t hot enough. Turn up the flame slightly and try again in 30 seconds.

• Another temperature gauge is the steam or smoke coming off of your pan. You DO want some steam, you DO NOT want smoke. It can be hard to tell the difference. For me, the volume of that vapor is the easiest way to tell: Really visible, obvious steam that looks at all smoky means that your pan is too hot.

• Once you’ve found a comfortable angle for wiping the sides, rotate the pan to ensure that you get everywhere, but aren’t sticking your hand awkwardly over burning hot sugar.

• This cleaning method isn’t perfect and you’ll likely smell some burning sugar. Don’t let it fool you into thinking that your sugar is cooked too early. Just try to find the burning spot and give it an extra brush with water.

Let the pan bubble until the sugar turns that medium camel color. Every 30 seconds to 1 minute, give the pan a few swirls to make sure the sugar browns evenly. The edges of the sugar will cook faster than the center.

•  These swirls should be vigorous enough to really mix the sugar, but not so vigorous that you splash more sugar onto the pan’s sides than necessary. Rotate the pan occasionally too.

• If the bubbles make it hard to judge the color, use a rubber spatula to gently move the bubbles to one side and try to spot the color underneath.

Once you reach your desired camel color, remove the pan from the heat. (Don’t just turn the flame off, actually move the pan to the trivet we placed earlier. The caramel can burn quickly.)

Using the buttered spatula. stir in the nuts, butter, and baking soda and combine vigorously. It may take a minute for the butter to melt completely. The mixture should bubble up a bit thanks to the baking soda.

Immediately dump the mixture onto the parchment and spread into a thin layer with the buttered spatula. Let harden and cool completely while you make the ice cream base.

When it has completely cooled, smash the brittle into lots of small, pea-sized pieces. I use a kids’ hammer for this part.

For the ice cream
(Adapted from literally hundreds of recipes for no-churn vanilla ice cream)

2 cups heavy cream (1 pint)
14 oz sweetened condensed milk (1 small can)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 generous pinch salt

In a large bowl or the bowl of stand mixer, combine all of the ingredients. Whisk slowly to combine.

Gradually increase speed until you’ve reached the highest setting or second highest setting on your hand mixer or high speed on your stand mixer. It will splatter either in the bowl of the mixer or all over your kitchen if using a hand mixer. Keep mixing..

Slowly, you’ll begin to see tracks in the cream from the whipping of the whisk attachment. When those tracks deepen and remain after the whish has gone through the cream, keep whisking for one more minute.  

This entire process should take about 5 minutes.

When the cream is whipped to “stiff peaks” stage (when you run a spoon through it, the indentation from the spoon should stay firmly in place), Gently fold in 1¾ cups of the brittle.

Move to the container you’ll use for freezing the ice cream. Top with another ¼ cup of brittle.

Freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.   

Dole whip popsicles

If Dole Whip isn't your favorite Disney park food, then what's wrong with you? For those of you who don't know, Dole Whip is basically pineapple soft serve. But's it's so so much better than that description implies.

I swear I'm going to tell you how to make it in a minute, but first I need to talk about some parenting challenges we're having. As always, skip to the next photo if you're only here for the food!

Lately, parenting has felt like being on a high ropes course. It's wobbly and scary and you rarely feel surefooted. Occasionally you reach a platform and feel like a badass who has everything figured out. But then you start the next leg of the course and feel even more wobbly because now you're tired and also annoyed at yourself for not learning enough from the earlier stages. And while you're taking all the necessary precautions, what if you prove the tragic exception?

The long and short of it is, M started preschool 2 months ago and isn't adjusting all that well. He's acting out a bit and having trouble sitting still and it's been hard to watch.

I want to chalk it all up to his being three and starting a new school (any school, for that matter), but words like "evaluation" and "sensory issues" have already been floated.

Maybe I'm just taking it too hard. To me, he's still the chubby cheeked baby with long eyelashes and a silly lisp, so to hear anything different is hard to accept. I'm sure most parents go through some form of growing pains the first time they get any negative feedback about their child. But oof, does it feel like a knife to the heart. 

And I'm doing my best not to let the feedback make me feel distant or separate from M. At first, hearing about his behavior made me feel like I didn't know him at all. But some 3-year-old acting out doesn't make him a bad kid and the more empathy I can have for him while we all hang in there and try to figure this out, the more successful he'll be when facing challenges in the future. 

But for now, it's just... rough.

Anyway, this recipe is a great one to make with kids. M loves adding the ingredients and pushing the button on the food processor and that's really the whole shebang. He also calls Dole Whip, Dole "Yip," and it kills me.

If you plan on eating this right away, then you get the true Dole Whip experience (well, a close approximation anyway). If not, and this recipe makes a lot so you won't likely eat it all in one sitting anyway, freezing it as popsicles is the most successful way to enjoy the leftovers. It freezes really hard, so trying to recreate that soft serve texture is nearly impossible later on. But the mixture makes oh-so-refreshing popsicles. Hang on to some for the first 90-degree day (here in CT, anyway) and thank me later.

Dole Whip

2 large bananas, peeled and frozen
1 lb bag of frozen pineapple chunks
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 can full-fat coconut milk

Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. Eat immediately or pour into popsicle molds and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Yield: 24 small popsicles or about 4 cups of soft serve

Dole whip bowl. Feel no shame about eating this for breakfast.

Blueberry and beet popsicles

Whooooeeeey, what a week. I completely missed popsicle week last week, interestingly, because I was busy making popsicles for my very sick child. Have any of you dealt with Coxsackie? I had never heard of it before having children, but apparently it's a virus that's been around forever and we've all had it.

Also, it's terrible. Thanks to a really sore throat and a high fever, M basically ate nothing for two days, so we tried lots of different frozen treats. Aside from these blueberry and beet-sicles, we made carrot, apple, and coconut treats using carrot juice, apple juice, and coconut milk; Orange coconut creamsicles using orange juice and coconut milk; and a roasted mango concoction that I'm still working on. I'll be honest, the ones with vegetables didn't go over as well while M was sick, but when he's healthy, he gobbles them up. 

Can I confess something? I don't really like beets. I also HATE cooking them myself, though everyone claims that it's sooooo easy. Whelp, I bought the beets in this photo because they were cheap and pretty at the farmer's market, but I fully used the organic pre-cooked ones you can buy at the grocery store that are vacuum sealed in plastic. I refuse to ruin my cutting board for a vegetable I don't even like.

However, I DO like beets when they're mixed with other things; chocolate, goat cheese, blueberries, etc.

This puree is great on its own or when mixed with yogurt, cooked grains, or pureed proteins for more advanced eaters. I personally love eating these as popsicles and would one day like to spike them with some sort of alcohol. For M, I mixed the blueberry/beet puree with a yogurt, almond butter, and honey combo that cut the fruit and veggies with something a little creamier. I also encourage you to make popsicles using just the yogurt mixture because they. are. great. Even my sick,-as-a-dog child ate the frozen yogurt. 

A couple of notes: If you have the temerity to cook the beets yourself, here's how. Otherwise, do what I do and use the precooked ones. Be sure to roast the blueberries (don't skip this step!) because raw ones in frozen treats don't have a strong flavor. Does anyone else notice that frozen raw fruit tastes blander? Anyway, I also recommend eating these only while wearing dark colors and/or when you can immediately dunk your child in water to clean up because they're a little messy. But isn't that half the fun of a popsicle?

Beet and blueberry puree and popsicles  

For the puree:
1.5 cups fresh blueberries (about 1 pint, minus whatever is filched by your toddler)
¾ cup chopped beets (about 3 very small)
¼ tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375. Spread the blueberries on a foil- or parchment-covered baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes, until the berries are soft and fragrant, but haven't burst. Place the blueberries and beets in the blender, add the cinnamon, and puree until you've reached your desired consistency. 

Yield: 1.5 cups or 12 oz of puree

For the pops:
1 cup full fat plain yogurt
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp almond butter (preferably salted)

Fill the popsicle molds 1/2 way with the blueberry and beet mixture and freeze for at least 30 minutes or until the mixture begins to set. Fill the rest of the molds with the yogurt mixture and freeze solid, at least 5-6 hours.

Yield: 4 large ice pops

Cheers!

Orange, peach, mango smoothie

Orange, peach, mango smoothie | Me & The Moose. #Meandthemoose #Orange #Peach #Mango #puree #popsicles

Remember that flavor of orange, peach, mango juice? I was obsessed with it in college until I mixed it with vodka one too many times. But since that was 20 years ago (UGH), I decided to give it another try. Can confirm: still delicious.

Take me to the smoothie!

Orange, peach, mango smoothie | Me & The Moose. #Meandthemoose #Orange #Peach #Mango #puree #popsicles

Orange, peach, mango smoothie | Me & The Moose. #Meandthemoose #Orange #Peach #Mango #puree #popsicles

This smoothie, like a lot of the smoothies on this site, started its life as a baby puree, but transitioned to a drink as my kids got older. I used to add carrots, but they’re a lot of work if you’re trying to make this more liquid-y, so I would just add some store-bought carrot juice if you want to go that route.

Orange, peach, mango smoothie | Me & The Moose. #Meandthemoose #Orange #Peach #Mango #puree #popsicles

This one is great as a smoothie or a juice, but I also love freezing it as popsicles or turning it into a fantastic sorbet (I use this method from Zoe Francois).

Orange, peach, mango smoothie | Me & The Moose. #Meandthemoose #Orange #Peach #Mango #puree #popsicles

Orange, Peach, Mango smoothie

Time: 5 minutes
Yield: 2 smoothies

1 orange, squeezed
1 cup mango, fresh or frozen
2 large ripe peaches, 3-4 small ripe peaches, or 1 cup frozen
1/2 cup carrot juice (optional)

Combine the fruit in a blender and blend until totally smooth. If using frozen fruit, thaw it in the microwave for a few seconds before blending. Pass the mixture through a fine mesh sieve if desired for a smoother texture.

This puree is also delicious with 1 Tbsp of melted coconut oil thrown in for a bit of extra fat.