Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes

My little brother Scott’s not so little anymore, last weekend he turned 18, much to my objection. Regardless of these feelings, I still wanted to provide a special treat for a day he spends 364 days looking forward to. In the past few months, Scott has taken up a recent obsession with ice cream, compared to previous years where he’d eat all the toppings and leave the ice cream to melt. My Dad and I could practically live on ice cream, so finally Scott has proven that he is in fact related to us. Last year I celebrated his love of candy with a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cake and the infamous Skittle Cake, but this year I focused on his new love affair with ice cream. Ice cream in a bowl is never a suitable birthday treat from a food-blogging sister, so I fashioned the homemade ice cream into cupcakes with a brownie base — it’s an ice cream brownie sundae all wrapped up into one cute cuppie.

Rather than doing plain ‘ol mint chocolate chip ice cream (one of Scott’s favorite), I decided to make it super special with a rather non-healthy dose of mint Oreos instead. It may also have something to do with the fact that I will use any excuse to buy a package of these, but regardless it was a great choice. The ice cream is quite similar to Ben and Jerry’s Mint Chocolate Cookie, which I was very pleased to discover. I chose to add food coloring and use mint extract rather the fresh herb because Scott doesn’t branch out much when it comes to food, so I wanted to make sure he wasn’t turned off by the lack of color or an overly herbaceous flavor.  I’d love to try that kind of recipe out sometime for myself!  Also, distributing the chocolate cookie flavor throughout the mint base with cookie crumbs, rather than with larger chunks of chocolate chips, guarantees chocolate in every bite. And I wasn’t about to deprive Scotty K of chocolate on his big day!

I’ve learned my lesson from a comment left on my Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cups to use foil liners every time you want to peel away the liner before presenting a dessert. So in this case, you bake the brownie bottom in the foil liners, fill them with softened ice cream, freeze until solid, and leave the liners on until right before your serve them. They peeled away very easily, and left a cute scalloped edge in the ice cream. I also used mini chocolate chips to write out a birthday message in the cupcakes while the ice cream was still soft.

Feel free to use any kind of ice cream you want, store-bought works well if you just leave it out of the freezer a bit before filling the liners. With homemade, it’s best to fill them right after the ice cream finishes its whirl in the ice cream maker and is similar to the consistency of soft serve. No matter how you decide to do it, any combination of brownie and ice cream can never gone wrong. I’ve use an adapted version of the Baked Brownie recipe, so you know it’s gonna be good :)

Happy 18th Birthday Scott!!

Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes
Idea adapted from Annie’s Eats 

For the brownie base:
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1″ pieces
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

– Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin tins with foil liners
– In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and cocoa powder
– Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until completely smooth
– Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. Allow mixture to come to room temperature
– Add the egg and mix until combined.
– Add the vanilla and stir until combined — do not over beat batter at this stage
– Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture and fold the flour into the chocolate with a spatula until just incorporated.
– Use a 1 tablespoon measure to distribute the brownie batter into each liner. You may have a bit left over, use it as you wish!
– Bake for about 10 minutes, or until cake tester comes out clean
– Leave liners in the tin, and place on a wire rack to cool to room temperature
– Once cooled, place in the refrigerator until you’re ice cream is ready

For the Mint Oreo Ice Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp peppermint extract
Green food coloring (optional)
15 Mint Creme Oreos, crushed

– Make sure your ice cream maker bowl has been in the freezer for at least 12 hours
– Bring cream and milk to a simmer in a large pot over medium-low heat.  Stir occasionally, but do not allow mixture to reach a boil.
– While the cream is heating, beat sugar and egg yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer until mixture becomes smooth, thick, and light in color.  While mixer is still on, add 1 cup of hot milk mixture to the eggs to temper them.
– Transfer egg mixture back into the pot, and continue to cook for about 5 minutes, or until it coats the back of a spoon.
– Remove from the heat, and stir in extracts and food coloring. 
– Transfer mixture to a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap so that it touches the surface of the mixture as to prevent a skin from forming on the top.  Refrigerate overnight, or until thoroughly chilled.
– Freeze mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions (mine is 25 minutes).  When the ice cream is done, add the crushed Oreos and incorporate using a spatula.  

Assembly:
– While ice cream is soft, fill each liner to the top with ice cream and level off with a spoon or knife.  It is best to keep the liners in the pan for this part so they are more stable as they freeze.   
– Place the pan in the freezer for 45 minutes to an hour, or until solid
– When read to serve, remove cupcakes from the freezer 5-10 minutes before serving.  Top with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and enjoy!

Recipe yields 12 ice cream cupcakes.  Double the ice cream recipe and keep a pint around just because :)

Photobucket

    Pin It

15 Responses to “Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes”

  1. #
    1
    Rose — October 19, 2010 @ 11:54 am

    whoooa yum! I Havent seen mint oreos in the shops yet. What a great idea to use the foil liners.

    Rose

  2. #
    2
    lacasitainspirada — October 19, 2010 @ 7:18 pm

    what a tempting looking little cupcake! I love mint chocolate chip ice cream, I can only imagine how amazing it is on top of a brownie.

  3. #
    3
    bridget {bake at 350} — October 19, 2010 @ 7:53 pm

    wow…those look insanely good!!!

    Love your blog! :)

  4. #
    4
    culinaryneophyte — October 20, 2010 @ 7:05 pm

    Oh my gosh — these look amazing! I will definitely be trying them out. Thanks for sharing! :)

  5. #
    5
    Kall — October 21, 2010 @ 12:27 am

    Loved seeing your precious blog on Mouthing Off! Keep it up, Erica! Have a great day!!

  6. #
    6
    Feast on the Cheap — January 5, 2011 @ 2:19 am

    Oh my goodness…these look so adorably over the top

  7. #
    7
    laderamom — June 28, 2012 @ 9:03 pm

    I can’t wait to make these for my husband’s birthday!! his mother has always made ‘ice cream pie’ – and this is similar, but in individual servings! Thank you!

  8. #
    8
    Devon — January 30, 2013 @ 3:43 pm

    Asking questions are in fact good thing if you are not understanding something totally,
    but this article offers fastidious understanding yet.

  9. #
    9
    Monica — March 15, 2013 @ 6:12 am

    That’s a really beautiful cover photo of the mint Oreo ice cream cupcake! Love the idea of birthday cupcakes. So cute and original!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Pingback: Erica's Sweet Tooth » Funfetti Ice Cream Cupcakes

  2. Pingback: Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes

  3. Pingback: Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes | Cupcake Recipes

  4. Pingback: Summer in the kitchen | making life fit

  5. Pingback: Mint Oreo Ice Cream Cupcakes

  6. Pingback: 27 Delicious Oreo Recipes | The Divine Miss Mommy | Atlanta Georgia Mom Blogger | Travel Blogger

Leave a Comment