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Can you guess what’s hiding in those scrumptious Homemade Ice Cream Pops? I hate to give it up so soon so I’ll give you clues. First of all it involves luscious vanilla ice cream, peanut butter swirls, chunks of ice cream cones dipped in chocolate, some more chocolate and pure ice cream lush! Now can you believe that this amazing treat takes 15 minutes of work while your freezer does the rest?!
YES I am excited for this post like nothing else. It involves some of my favorite things in life—Ice cream and Chocolate! I love treats like those homemade ice cream pops since they’re perfect for kids and grown ups at the same time. It’s always a plus when you have people over and you don’t need to think which dessert is best for each group. I don’t know what it is, but I think those pops bring out the kid inside all of us. And today’s recipe has seriously the BEST combo of flavors and textures!
While I know it isn’t summer yet, we absolutely devour ice cream in Spring too! Frankly even in winter, there is no fixed season for ice cream in my house lol And I blame my dad for this! So imagine how all of us (ok, most of us) need to wake up with that cup of coffee, likewise my dad has to finish off his evening with a big bowl of ice cream! So it’s only normal (and genetic) for us to carry on this LOVE! And frankly who would resist ice cream everyday?
Before I get into the details of these homemade ice cream pops, I wanted to share a few tips on enjoying ice cream this Spring (and all year round!). Well obviously it starts with amazing quality ice cream, and for us it’s always been the Blue Bunny® ice creams. Always. I can not stress this enough lol I haven’t tasted a single flavor that I didn’t love. Even at times my hubby would buy a flavor that I wouldn’t probably pick, as soon as I would taste it, I would LOVE it! And the only reason is, the quality of ice cream is absolutely AMAZING! You can’t not love it.
Last week, an old friend who moved to NYC was visiting with his family and we had a BBQ for them with some other friends. I thought about these pops for a perfect ending to a BBQ, and again it’s kids and grown ups approved! So I went to Walmart with my girls grocery shopping and it was time to pick our Blue Bunny® ice creams. Probably all of us were staring at the freezer section in complete silence for long seconds, just trying to decide which flavors to pick! lol This year a whole line up of ice cream flavors came out—today’s hero the Blue Bunny® PB ‘N Cone™, and Rockin’ Rocky Road, Monster Cookie Mash, Toffee Brownie Twist™ and Mint Cookie Crunch, Cherrific Cheesecake.
And then those new Blue Bunny® Cakes and Blue Bunny® Bunny Snacks—all sorts of flavors like Salted Caramel Pretzel, Chocolate Vanilla Twist, Chocolate Chip Cookie and Cookies ‘N Cream. How can you chose! I picked the Blue Bunny® PB ‘N Cone™, one of my girls picked the Blue Bunny® Cherrific Cheesecake, the other one picked Blue Bunny® Toffee Brownie Twist™. Thank goodness all the shopping was done because we needed to rush home and taste all those new flavors!
Seems like I got carried away, so back to the homemade ice cream pops. After you settle on which flavor you’ll be using (or maybe more than one flavor), then you’ll scoop out any size ice cream scoops in to a parchment lined baking sheet. Here it’s really a taste thing. You can prefer really large scoops of ice cream, or really smaller mini sized ones. I used the standard scoop size today and I felt they were just right! Probably a little big for the kiddos, but just right for us! And I know for sure the kiddos didn’t mind 🙂
After scooping your ice cream, you’ll stick a wooden ice cream stick in the centre of each scoop (even a lollipop stick would work) then pop the sheet into the freezer for the scoops to really harden. This step is important to get the chocolate coating to stick to your scoop in seconds with no melting and no fuss. In the meantime, you’ll melt some chocolate in the microwave or over a water bath. I used a fifty fifty ratio of milk and dark chocolates—to me that’s what I absolutely love. But if you’re a dark chocolate person, then just go ahead and use only that.
Finally, just take one homemade ice cream pop at a time and dip it in chocolate, and quickly sprinkle any extra toppings you like. I’ve used chocolate chips for sprinkling—because well there’s enough chocolate in life! Also I’ve used some honey roasted crunchy peanuts, because well it’s crunchy and that’s always a good thing. And I’ve also used fresh raspberries, because it’s my little one’s favorite 🙂 The toppings are endless here so feel free to get creative!
Before I let you go with the recipe, can you not MISS out on these amazing flavors? This Blue Bunny® PB ‘N Cone™ is like creamy dreamy vanilla ice cream, swirls of peanut butter and chunks of chocolate dipped cones—seriously I don’t know how they come up with these ideas! PURE lusciousness!! And have a look at this Homemade Summer Ice cream Cake I made last year using Blue Bunny® ice cream too—it’s a recipe (and technique) that’s always requested at the cooking school and my class sells out each time it’s on the menu! And here you’ll find plenty more of delicious recipes and inspiration! Now are you heading out to Walmart yet staring at the Blue Bunny® section lol I don’t blame you!! Just Enjoy 🙂
Homemade ice cream pops
Ingredients
- 1 box of Blue Bunny® PB 'N Cone™ Ice cream
- 2 cups of chocolate chunky (milk, dark, semisweet or a combo)
- Extra:
- chocolate chips
- roasted peanuts
- raspberries
- ice cream sticks or lollipop sticks
Instructions
Take the Blue Bunny® PB 'N Cone™ from the freezer and take your favorite sized ice cream scoop.
On a parchment lined baking sheet, scoop out the ice cream and leave about half an inch border between each scoop.
Place an ice cream stick int he centre of each scooped ice cream ball and push it down until it reached the end.
Freeze the baking sheet with the ice cream scoops for at least 45 minutes until it hardens.
In a microwave or over a water bath, melt the chocolate chunks until runny.
When the ice cream is ready, quickly take one at a time and dip it in the chocolate, then sprinkle any topics you prefer over it.
Place the ready dipped ice cream pos in another baking sheet lined with parchment and place them back in the freezer.
Repeat with the remaining ice cream pops. If the chocolate begins to harden, place the bowl back in the microwave for 30 seconds or over the water bath to melt again.
Once all the pops are done, freeze them for 30 minutes at least or until ready to serve. Enjoy 🙂
These look super easy and delicious – I love all of the different toppings you used! #client
Thanks Mary–these were one of my favorite treats ever!