Easy "Homemade" Ice Cream Flavored-up!

Today is National Ice Cream Day!

OF COURSE WE CAN'T!!!!!

This is something fun I found at USA Weekend & Three Many Cooks blog.

USA Weekend is a weekly paper 'magazine' that is tucked into our newspaper.

I'm not a huge ice cream fan...mostly because I like to have something to BITE into...I don't just want smooth and soft...I want crunch too.

So this idea really appealed to me.  And I've included a fun video (at link above) to watch this mom and her two daughters at Three Many Cooks create some yummy ice cream dishes with B.I.T.E. 

Hurrah!!!!!!!!

These are DIY instructions to have your own "Cold Stone" ice cream!

credit: Three Many Cooks

Be sure to watch the video to get all the details.

1. Start with 1 pint of store-bought premium ice cream.
2. Smash in your favorite flavors.
3. Enjoy the party for your taste buds.

 Tips for Mixing: Don't soften the ice cream too much - you want it firm but pliable.
 Quickly cut the carton away from the ice cream and then cut the ice cream into chunks on a work surface to facilitate folding.

Return the ice cream to the freezer to firm up and for flavors to blend -- 30 minutes to 2 hours. After that, the crunchy ingredients start to soften.

Here's a couple of vanilla variations...

Lemon Meringue: Fold 1/4 c. prepared lemon curd, 1 cup crumbled meringue cookies and 1 cup crumbled graham crackers into vanilla ice cream.

Strawberry Shortcake: Mix 1 cup sliced strawberries with 2 Tbs. strawberry jam.  Fold into vanilla ice cream along with 2 slices pound cake (about 1-1/2 cups crumbled) and 1 cup crumbled meringue cookies.  

Chocolate variations...

Turtle: Stir 1/4 cup caramel sauce, 1/2 cup chopped pecan pralines or candied pecans and 1/2 cup chopped semi- or bittersweet chocolate into chocolate ice cream.

Chocolate-Hazelnut: Stir 1/4 cup Nutella, 1 cup crumbled Famous Chocolate Wafers and 1/2 cup roasted chopped hazelnuts into chocolate ice cream.

(Sounds Scrumptious!!)

Coffee variation..

Cookies and Coffee:  Stir 1 cup crumbled refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough and 1 cup crumbled chocolate chip cookies into the slightly softened coffee ice cream.

Hope this helps you keep 'deliciously' cool this summer!