Cookies and Cream Ice Cream (Eggless Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 55: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Cookies & Cream Ice cream

My theme for the final week of this month's blogging marathon is 'Bookmarked Recipes'. Since it is almost the end of summer (sigh -- why does it have to end so soon!!!), I thought it is time to post the ice creams that I made during summer.

First up is 'Cookies & cream ice cream'. I read somewhere that 'Cookies & Cream' flavor is one of the most popular ice cream flavor and I told this little tidbit to my son. From that point on he started pestering me to make it for him (thanks to the summer vacation, he had too much free time on his hands to pester me).

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Kid's Flower Pot Dessert

Kids love Ice cream. Kids love Cake. So what happens when we combine 2 of their favorite desserts in one easy to make/ assemble dessert -- they will ABSOLUTELY LOVE it. I made these for a party last weekend and all the kids when googoo-gaagaa over it. This is will be my last entry for Valli's Kid's Delight: 5 ingredient fix event happening right here this month.

I saw Pioneer Woman make edible flower pots on her show and thought it is a cool idea to serve cake and ice cream in a little terracotta pot, sprinkled with oreo (dirt) and some gummy worms. I bought tiny terracotta pots (2.25") from AC Moore and they were just the right size for my little guests. 'Ice cream wafer cones' would also be great as edible flower pot.
I used homemade chocolate cake and homemade flavored ice creams (here are recipes for homemade ice creams). But good quality store bought stuff would work perfectly. Pioneer woman used store bought pound cake.

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Oreo Frosting

For Day 4 of the Blogging marathon, I have these sweet little cupcakes that I made for our picnic last weekend. These are rich chocolaty cupcakes with some oreo cookie frosting. I know I had to make these cupcakes when I saw the drool-worthy pictures on Kirbie's cravings blog. I was very excited when my host told me later that the kids really enjoyed these cupcakes with the frosting ending up on all their faces. :-)

I wanted to pipe the frosting neatly on the cupcakes, but as luck has it, I didn't have any heavy cream in the fridge and by the time I ran to the store and bought, we were almost ready to go to the picnic. So I ended up smearing the frosting on the cupcakes. So make sure you have enough time to frost the cupcakes beautifully like Kirby did.

Here's how I made these:

Ingredients:

Bread flour - ¾cup

Unsweetened chocolate - 3 oz. chopped

Dutch processed cocoa - 1/3 cup

Hot, strong-brewed coffee - ¾cup (or use ¾cup of hot water instead, but using coffee is advisable since brings out the chocolate flavor better)

Sugar - ¾ cup

Salt - ½tsp

Baking Soda - ½tsp

Vegetable oil - 6tbsp

Eggs - 2 large

Vanilla extract - 1tsp

White Vinegar - 2tsp

For the Frosting:

Heavy cream - small ½ pint carton, about 250 ml

Confectioners sugar - 3-4tbsp

Oreo cookies - 6

Vanilla extract - 1tsp

Oreo Cookies - 12, for topping

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the muffin baking tin with paper liners.
  
• In a large mixing bowl, add chopped chocolate and cocoa. Pour the hot coffee/ water and mix well until smooth. Set aside to cool completely or refrigerate to cool. I set it aside for about 15-20 minutes on the counter.
• In the meantime get all the other ingredients together for the cake batter. Whisk bread flour, salt, sugar and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside.
• In a measuring cup, whisk together oil, eggs and vanilla. Pour this mixture on to the cooled chocolate and mix well.
• Finally add the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix well until smooth.
• Divide the batter evenly in the prepared muffin pan, pouring to about ¾ full.
• Bake for 17 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out only with very few crumbs.
• Remove from the muffin pan after 5 minutes and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
• For the frosting: Blend the oreo cookies in a food processor into very fine powder, make sure that there are no pieces visible. Whip the heavy cream with confectioners sugar in a stand mixer with whip attachment or with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.
• Add vanilla and the oreo cookie powder, mix very gently to incorporate.
• Put the frosting in a piping bag with a decorative tip and pipe on to the cupcakes (or if you are like me just smear using a spatula or bread knife).
• Decorate with extra oreo cookies on top.

Notes: Make sure that these cupcakes are kept as cold as possible in the picnic. Since the frosting is made of cream, under the sun frosting can easily melt.

Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have been cooking up for Day 4 of our BM#6.