Craftwytch Ice Cream

Frosted pink and white Circus Animal Cookies are one of the sweetest nostalgic treats that makes an incredible ice cream. I’ve made it many times and this is my favorite version. You can of course skip all the fun extras and still have a delicious ice cream but I highly recommend this version as it is beautiful, fun and a real crowd pleaser.

Make a Simple or Custard Ice Cream Base but cut the sugar to 1/4 cup as the cookies already have plenty of sugar.

In a heat safe bowl and while the base is still warm, combine with 200 grams of pink and white Frosted Animal Cookies. Use an immersion blender until it is completely smooth.

Strain out any unblended chunks and refrigerate for at least two hours until completely cold. Churn in your ice cream maker and use a piping bag with a large tip to full ice cream pop molds. Add your popsicle sticks and freeze overnight or about 12-15 hours.

Remove pops from the molds, one at a time. The mold I have allows each pop to be removable from their holder so I can leave the rest in the freezer. I like to boil a deep pot of water and dip each pop in for a few seconds to help loosen it up. If it doesn’t come out with a small amount of pressure, dip for another couple seconds.

Holding it under running hot water will also work if its very hot.

I place a piece of parchment or wax paper on a metal pan in the freezer and lay each pop on it as I remove them from the molds.

Make the white chocolate magic shell.

A magic shell is 1 part neutral oil to 4 parts chocolate, so you can make more or less to your needs, but for 10-12 pops I like to have 300 grams of chocolate and 75 grams of refined coconut oil so there is enough to dip each pop entirely. This will leave you with some leftover magic shell that you can store in the refrigerator for a few days or the freezer for a few weeks.

Make sure you use REFINED coconut oil which has a neutral flavor. Unrefined will taste like coconut.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave for 1 minute at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, and then continue at 15 second intervals until fully melted, stirring each time as well.. The stirring helps melt it so take your time with this step, Breaking up the white chocolate into smaller pieces or using mini chips will help to speed up the melting as well. You don’t want it to get too hot as you will need to wait for it to fully cool before using.

Once fully melted add a few drops of pink food coloring and stir or whisk until fully incorporated.

Set up your mise en place for dipping and decorating the bars. Place nonpareils, Pop Rocks, and whole animal cookies into bowls with spoons to be ready to decorate quickly, as the chocolate ill harden up as soon as it touches the cold ice cream.

For the magic shell, I use a tall glass that is just wide enough to dip the bars without touching the sides. Fill with the magic shell and make sure it is fully cooled before dipping.

Dip each bar and immediately place a cookie and sprinkle with rainbow nonpareils and strawberry Pop Rocks. Work quickly because you only have a few seconds.

Return to the freezer to firm up or enjoy right away!