Cookie Monster Ice Cream

Naturally colored Cookie Monster Ice cream.

Blue colored six ingredient vanilla based ice cream loaded with Oreo and Chips Ahoy! Creamy, dreamy and straight out of Sesame Street.

Summers mean so many dessert recipes. Ice-creams, drinks, popsicles and so on. While we do enjoy a variety of desserts; this litchi ice cream, rose falooda, mango custard and thandai boba are definitely our top picks.

Making desserts at home is definitely on top of my list. Portion control, adjust the ingredients based on preferences and make any flavor your heart desires. From the most whimsical desserts to the standards; we love making them all.

And for me, I was never a sweets person. Over the years from having a bite off my husband's sweets to now ordering my own scoop, I have been pulled into this sweets world. And I now love it too!

Jump to:

• Why a Blue ice-cream
• Why is Cookie Monster so popular
• About Butterfly Pea Flowers
• Why this recipe works
• Ingredients and Substitutions
• How to make this recipe
• Other natural ways to color
• Expert Tips and Notes
• Storage
• Recipe FAQs
• More Ice-cream recipes
• Cookie Monster Ice Cream

Why a Blue ice-cream

Ever walked into an ice cream store and seen a blue colored ice-cream gleaming at you? And probably a parent trying to convince their kid to opt for a cookie dough or chocolate ice cream?

We have successfully moved from being a by stander to the parent struggling with a kid to avoid the 'colored' ice cream. And no wonder thus, that I had to come up with something that was great fro kids. This 'blue' cookie monster ice-cream is now a favorite and we struggle much less at the store!

Why is Cookie Monster so popular

For those unfamiliar, Cookie Monster is a blue muppet character from the series Sesame Street. He is blue in color, loves cookies (obviously) and always sings C is for cookies.

Inspired by this character, a lot of brands and ice-cream stores have a blue ice cream. While the base is vanilla and the ice-cream is studded with cookies, it has a striking blue color.

This ice-cream is popular among kids for several reasons; it is rather bright in color to grab their attention, it has an overload of cookies and is based on a popular character. What is there not to love?

Thus, it is not a surprise that the ice-cream is super popular.

About Butterfly Pea Flowers

While the store bought ice-cream may be made with food color and dyes; it is easy to make the ice-cream with natural colorants.

Butterfly pea flowers have a great color that is easy to extract and color foods. It is deep blue in color and is perfect in many ways.

The flowers give out their color on steeping in hot liquids like water or milk. These are steeped in milk and cream to get a deep color base for the ice-cream.

And if you want to eliminate the step of steeping, use butterfly pea powder instead. This powder is an instant colorant and yet derived from the flowers and completely natural.

Why this recipe works

• This recipe needs only six ingredients. Plus, five out of six are mostly available in most kitchens.
• There are no added artificial colors in the recipe; only a natural flowers.
• It is easy to make using an ice-cream maker.
• This is a dump and start recipe once the base for the ice-cream is ready.
• Though it is a two part recipe; we only need 10 minutes of active time each day.
• It is easy to switch the add-ins to make a different cookie based ice-cream.
• This recipe works well for Sesame street based parties or other parties too.
• It is a vanilla based recipe; a flavor loved by most people.
• It is eggless and super easy to make.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Whipping Cream: The ingredient to make the ice-cream creamy; this is an essential ingredient.
• Milk: While any milk works for the recipe, whole milk yields the creamiest ice-cream. However, lower fat milk can be used too.
• Butterfly Pea Flowers: We use these flowers to get the natural blue color. The flowers can be replaced with blue pea flower powder too. Suncore is the best brand I have used do far.
• Sugar: I like to use sugar to sweeten the recipe. However, sweetened condensed milk will work too.
• Vanilla Extract: This is the flavoring agent for the recipe.
• Cookies: Traditionally, the recipe is made with Oreo and Chips-ahoy cookies. This can be switched with cookies of your choice.

See the recipe card for detailed ingredient information, measurements and nutrition.

How to make this recipe

1- Add 1 cup milk, 2 cups whipping cream and ¾ cup sugar to a pan.

2- Heat on medium flame till the mix is just about to boil.

3- Turn down the flame and add ½ cup butterfly pea flowers.

4- Let them steep for 15-18 minutes. Check if the color is deep blue. Else steep for additional 10 minutes.

5- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

6- Strain the mix. Mix well and refrigerate overnight for the flavors to develop.

7- Place 10-12 Oreo cookies and 10-12 Chips Ahoy cookies in a ziploc bag.

8- Crush them lightly with the end of a rolling pin. Set aside.

9- Place the chilled ice cream machine base in the machine and add the blue mix.

10- Blend till the mix starts to thicken.

11- Once the mix thickens, add half the crushed cookies.

12- Run the machine till the cookies blend in the mixture. At this point soft serve consistency is obtained.

13- Remove ice-cream from the machine and transfer to a pan. Sprinkle the remaining crushed cookies and freeze the ice-cream for a few hours.

14- Remove from freezer, scoop and serve topped with more cookie bites and sprinkles.

Other natural ways to color

While butterfly pea flower is the preferred and most popular way to color any food item blue or purple, it does has a slight earthy flavor. If that is not what you want in the ice-cream; use any of these for the color:

• Blue Spirulina: Available as a powder, this natural colorant is blue. It has a mild salty sea like taste so pick that if you like.
• Butterfly Pea Powder: Just like the flowers, this butterfly pea powder is also great to color food items blue. It is versatile in a way that we do not need to boil it. It can simply be added to the milk cream mixture at room temperature. However, it costs twice as much as the flowers.
• Purple Cabbage: Another popular way to color food blue is to boil red cabbage with milk. It yields milk that is blue-purple in color. The color however is more on the purple side than blue.
• Natural blue food color: Watkins has color drops that is not made from anything but natural ingredients. Made with super food powders, these work to stain any food blue.

Expert Tips and Notes

• Make sure the ice cream base is cooled enough before starting.
• Moreover, the color turns paler on freezing so ensure the mix is deep blue.
• Chill the ice-cream machine bowl overnight. It helps make the ice-cream perfectly.
• The cookies in the ice cream tend to get soft on freezing. So pick crisp cookies like Oreo and Chips-Ahoy.
• Replace the flowers with butterfly pea powder or even food color if you like.
• Ensure the machine and everything else is away from anything acidic. The acid will turn the ice cream violet in color.
• Add the cookies after the ice-cream starts to thicken. Else the cookies tend to settle down and not blend well.

Storage

Like any other ice-cream from the ice cream maker; this one is like soft serve on making. It is great to enjoy straight from the machine.

However, for a more set version transfer to an airtight container. Place it in the coldest part of the freezer for 5-6 hours. Then it is perfect to scoop.

To store the remaining ice-cream, keep it in an airtight container for 2-3 weeks. It helps have less freezer burn. I have used a metal pan for the sake of photography. Else, I always keep my ice cream in this airtight container.

Recipe FAQs

More Ice-cream recipes