Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: ice cream

Monday, August 11, 2025

Chocolate (Cottage Cheese) Ice Cream with Brownie Crumble #recipe Kim Davis

With summer in full swing, my thoughts turn to desserts that don’t require baking. Ice cream is a go-to favorite and not only satisfies my sweet tooth but imparts a nice chill to counteract the outside temperatures. However, as much as I love ice cream, my cholesterol levels (darn those family genes!) don’t allow me to indulge nearly as often as I’d like unless I want to resort to taking medication. Last year I started seeing a trend on Pinterest where cottage cheese had a starring role in every dish imaginable, from savory to sweet alike… and found a cottage cheese dessert cookbook, which I purchased. (Cottage Cheese Dessert Cookbook by Kenzie Akers.) The recipe I’m sharing today is adapted from the cookbook, and while I felt there were several changes that needed to be made to the original, my final version proved to be utterly decadent and received high praise from my taste testers. It’s a good thing I keep several containers of cottage cheese in my fridge because I’m craving another batch of this frozen treat!

Chocolate (Cottage Cheese) Ice Cream with Brownie Crumble

Ingredients

Brownies:

1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant chocolate pudding mix
1/4 to 1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons peanut or almond butter
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Ice Cream:

16 ounces cottage cheese (I used the low-fat version)
3 tablespoons honey
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant chocolate pudding mix
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Instructions

Brownies:

In a medium-sized bowl, mix all the ingredients (starting with just 1/4 cup maple syrup) until it easily clumps together. If it appears too dry, add additional maple syrup, 2 teaspoons at a time, stirring well after each addition. Using clean hands, press the mixture into clumps. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

Ice Cream:

Mix all the ice cream ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy, scraping down the sides of the blender as needed. The mixture will be very thick starting out. Alternatively, you can use a handheld stick blender.

Refrigerate the mixture for at least two hours until well chilled.

Add the cold mixture to an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Once it reaches soft-serve consistency, transfer to a freezer-safe container. Gently fold in 3/4 of the brownie mixture, reserving the remaining mixture. Seal the container and freeze for 4 hours, or until desired consistency is reached. Crumble remaining brownie mixture over each bowl of ice cream right before serving.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can, alternately add the ice cream mixture to a freezer-safe container. Gently fold 3/4 of the brownie mixture into the ice cream. Cover and freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight. The longer the ice cream is frozen, the harder it will become. If frozen overnight, allow to sit at room temperature around 10 minutes before scooping.

*Adapted from the Cottage Cheese Dessert Cookbook by Kenzie Akers

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF of the recipe!💕

READERS: Do you have a favorite ice cream flavor?

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Cupcake Catering Mysteries * Essentials of Murder

About the Author:

Kim Davis writes the Aromatherapy Apothecary cozy mystery series, and the award-winning Cupcake Catering cozy mystery series. She has also written several children’s nature articles published in a variety of magazines. For ten years she’s written the Cinnamon, Sugar, and a Little Bit of Murder culinary cozy mystery blog, in which she features reviews of cozy mysteries along with a recipe from the book, and photos of the prepared dish. And now she’s a member of Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen!

Kim Davis is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

She lives in Southern California with her husband and rambunctious mini Goldendoodle, Missy, who has become an inspiration for several plotlines. When she’s not spending time with her granddaughters or chasing Missy around, she can be found either writing on her next book, working on blogs, or in the kitchen baking up yummy treats to share.

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Tuesday, July 22, 2025

How to Make Easy NO-CHURN VANILLA ICE CREAM (No Machine Needed) from Cleo Coyle

From Cleo Coyle: While many no-churn (no machine) ice cream recipes exist, they are not all equal. A number of years ago, I experimented with the most common no-churn recipe and tweaked it into a final version that delivered excellent results. Today I'm sharing those results with you.

Below you'll find the two ways I make my no-churn vanilla. One is an insanely easy method using vanilla extract, and the other is an even more outstanding version using vanilla beans.

With the sizzling summer days upon us and tomorrow "National Vanilla Ice Cream Day," it's the perfect time to whip up some cold, creamy, amazingly delicious homemade ice cream...

So, let's get started!

To download the
simple (vanilla extract) version
of my recipe in a free PDF
document that you can print,
save, or share, click here.

Click here or on the image above
for Cleo's Free Recipe PDF.

Cleo Coyle writes two
bestselling mystery

series with her husband.
To learn more, click here.

🍦 A Note from Cleo

So, what is the culinary strategy behind no-churn ice cream? Well, freezing straight cream gets you a block as hard as ice. Churning that cream as it freezes introduces air, which keeps the ice crystals small and creates that soft, fluffy texture that we enjoy.

No-churn ice cream replaces the churning of air into the cream with whipping the air into the cream before freezing. This does a good job of keeping the end product as soft and fluffy as churned ice cream.

A number of years ago, I tried out the most common no-churn recipe at that time (sweetened condensed milk + cream whipped into stiff peaks), which was found on the Eagle Brand Condensed Milk can. For my taste, it produced an ice cream that was too soft, melted too easily, and left a waxy aftertaste on my tongue from too much butterfat. In short, it produces a product like ice cream but not as good.

What to do? I began experimenting and came up with an improved version (IMO, of course).

Why was it better? A few reasons...

(1) Adding evaporated milk to the mix before freezing created a final product that had a much cleaner, more ice-cream-like texture, eliminating that waxy butterfat coating on the tongue.

(2) It allowed very fine ice crystals to form, which made the final product colder in the mouth and gave it a more stable form in the dish and on my cone.

(3) By only whipping the cream until it was thickened, rather than until it formed "stiff peaks" (as the original recipe required), the final product turned out denser and more like a churned ice cream or gelato.

My tweaked version of the popular recipe yielded creamy, smooth, delicious results, and today I'm re-sharing two options for making it: (1) a simple method using vanilla extract and (2) an even more outstanding version, one that uses vanilla beans.

🍦 To jump to my separate post now on how to make No-Churn Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, which includes great tips on how to work with vanilla beans, click here.

🍦 Cleo Coyle's Easy
No-Churn (No-Machine)
Vanilla Ice Cream

This recipe uses pure vanilla extract.
For my "vanilla bean" version, click here.

Makes a little over 1 quart, about 5 cups

2 cups Heavy Cream (aka Heavy Whipping Cream)
1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk (about 1-1/4 cups)
2/3 cup evaporated milk (or one 5-ounce can)
2-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract*
2 pinches of table salt (or finely ground sea salt)

*Note: For the best flavor when making this recipe, be sure to use pure vanilla extract and not "imitation" vanilla.

Directions: In a chilled metal, glass, or ceramic bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until thickened. (Do not create whipped cream, simply beat it until it resembles thickened white gravy, as in my photo below.)

Add the sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, pure vanilla extract, and salt. With the mixer on low, blend the mixture well until smooth.

Pour the blended mixture into a 9 x 5 metal loaf pan. Why? Because a metal pan will conduct the cold better than a plastic container. Do not fill the pan to the very top. Here’s why. You'll need to stretch a sheet of plastic wrap across the top of the pan, keeping the plastic from touching the ice cream itself.

Place the pan in the freezer for 8 to 12 hours. By then, the entire pan should be ready to... Scoop, serve and enjoy!

To store: transfer the ice cream into a re-sealable plastic container or continue to re-wrap the metal pan in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn.

🍦

Click here or on the photo below to get
my recipe for No-Churn Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
with tips on how to work with vanilla beans...

While vanilla extract may be convenient, vanilla beans truly bring recipes to another level, and this one is no exception. It's outstanding.

If you've never worked with vanilla beans, no worries! My recipe includes tips (and photos) showing you how to work with them, and I link to places online where you can buy them fresh and have them delivered right to your door.

Click here or on the photo above to get my

recipe for No-Churn Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.