In most cases I'd agreed that ice cream is for eating rather than melting and using in muffins, but as luck would have it we had a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia in the freezer that no one really wanted to eat. We like Cherry Garcia, but we'd grown kind of tired of it, and it was taking up room in the freezer. When I saw his recipe for Melted Ice Cream Muffins, I knew exactly what to do with that Cherry Garcia!
The original Melted Ice Cream Muffins recipe is from the same little church cookbook where I found Cape Town Brownies. Having successfully used melted ice cream in cake, I had no reservations about trying it in muffins and was pleased to put the Cherry Garcia to good use. The big surprise was just how good the Melted Ice Cream Muffins turned out. Here's a photo of the texture.
They are not too sweet (the only sugar is what’s in the ice cream) and very light, so more like cupcakes in that regard. I’d still consider them muffins given the level of sweetness. Since I used Cherry Garcia I also threw in a dash of almond extract and a small handful of chocolate chips. It will be fun to experiment with more ice cream flavors and little embellishments such as extracts and extra chips or cookies. There are so many possible combinations. Still, I think just plain premium vanilla would also make terrific breakfast muffins to go with preserves or jam.
Here’s the recipe for 12 muffins. I halved the recipe and made the muffins slightly larger so I ended up with 4. I wouldn’t hesitate to make these again next time I have premium ice cream around.
Recipe
Cherry Garcia Melted Ice Cream Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour 190 grams
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- 2 cups softened ice cream I used Cherry Garcia (214 grams)
- 1 egg 48 grams
- ½ teaspoon of vanilla or almond extract optional
- Small handful of your favorite flavor baking chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
- In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together oil, softened ice cream and egg.
- Add flour mixture to ice cream mixture and stir until thoroughly blended. The batter will most likely be rather loose and shiny.
- Divide among the muffin cups leaving a little room for the muffins to climb.
- Bake at 425 for 20 to 25 minutes.
Notes
Anna
She does have one! I tried it a while back and it's pretty good.
vee
The cake mix doctor has a recipe like this using cake mix. I will try it from scratch too, for a breakfast treat.
Anna
Ha! I'm actually about due for another carrot cake baking bender but I've been too obsessed with other things as of late. Let us know how your experiment with "ice cream ends" muffin experiment goes.
Stephanie
I think of your website as a repository of interesting, unique and helpful recipes. Thanks for not posting something carrot-cake related this week.
I have all sorts of ice cream "ends" hanging around my freezer. I'm going to put them together and try this recipe.
Sue
We never get tired of Cherry Garcia! Your muffins look very good.
Sonya
OMG this is such a unique idea! Very cool! By the way, our first baby is almost here so I may be MIA for awhile. Happy baking...and eating!!