Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream

This post and recipe was created for #SummerDessertWeek! I was sent samples by some of the sponsor companies but as always opinions are 100% mine.

Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream – homemade vanilla ice cream with frosting swirls, circus animal cookies, and sprinkles. Such a fun treat for summer!

Hi guys!

I’ve got 3 summer treat recipes coming for you this week and I’m so excited about all of them. The lovely and talented Angie of Big Bear’s Wife organizes #SummerDessertWeek every year and I’m always so excited when I have time to participate.

There will be a list of all the recipes from other bloggers below and a giveaway for some really great prizes right under the recipe. 

We’re kicking off #SummerDessertWeek with this Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream! It is my new obsession. It’s a vanilla ice cream with pink frosting swirls, my favorite circus animal cookies, and sprinkles! Literally everything I’ve ever wanted in an ice cream. You have to make it before summer is over!

How To Make Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream

This is a custard based ice cream so it’s a little more work than the no-churn ice creams that are so popular right now but I promise it is worth the extra few minutes. The custard base just makes the creamiest, smoothest, richest ice cream.

To make the custard, you warm cream, milk, and sugar together and slowly add it to egg yolks – very, very slowly so you don’t scramble the eggs. And then it all gets heated together until it’s thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Then you can stir in the vanilla and refrigerate it until it’s completely chilled.

I always chill my custard overnight. You want it to be very cold.

Then you can freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Now you can add the fun stuff! The chopped circus animal cookies and frosting swirl! I used a store-bought pink frosting but you can use homemade. You want to be able to see and taste the frosting, so when you add it, just do a couple quick stirs with a rubber spatula. 

And then as you transfer the ice cream to your container, you can add the nonpareil sprinkles. You don’t want to stir these in because the colors will bleed like crazy. So I layer them with the ice cream so they stay bright and vibrant.

How To Store Homemade Ice Cream

You need to store homemade ice cream in an airtight, freezer-safe container.

I love this 1.5 quart container that’s meant specifically for ice cream. It’s under $8 and well worth it. Plus it’s shaped like a regular ice cream package so it’s super cute if you also take pictures of your food. 

Plastic storage containers work well, too, but make sure you use a decent quality one. I’ve had cheap ones crack once frozen.

Homemade ice cream tastes best if eaten within a week of freezing.

For the best tasting vanilla ice cream, I always always always use Adams Extract. It is just the most intense (in the best way) vanilla flavor you will get from an extract. Plus, they’re a Texas brand and I do love to support Texas brands!

Adams is also a sponsor of #SummerDessertWeek and if you scroll down past the recipe, you can see all the sponsors and enter to win some really great prizes.

More Ice Cream Recipes

• Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
• Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream
• Birthday Cake Ice Cream
• Banana Pudding Ice Cream
• Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

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