Christmas Leftover Desserts

Now that the holiday is over, Christmas leftovers may seem to be taking over your fridge.  Here are some creative and tasty ways to clear out the space for some New Years dishes.

Christmas Pudding Ice Cream

Photo by Christmas Stock Images

If you are caroling this year, We Wish You a Merry Christmas is most likely on your singing list. As you sing out the lyrics, “bring us some figgy pudding,” you’re asking for a fig-filled version of Christmas pudding.  Originating from England, this dish would go great with ice cream.

Ingredients:

Leftover Christmas pudding

Vanilla ice cream

Instructions:

Crumble up the leftover Christmas pudding in a bowl and place in large mixing bowl.  Blend in ½ gallon vanilla ice cream on medium speed.  Scoop your Christmas pudding ice cream into a freezer-safe container for chilling.  Chill overnight and enjoy!

Fruitcake Ice Cream

Fruitcake may have a checkered past, but this recipe is perfect for the fruitcake lovers out there. You also may not have to worry about your fruitcake leftovers from expiring since the alcoholic preservatives can keep it fresh for over 20 years.  However, we wouldn’t recommend waiting that long to try Fruitcake Ice Cream.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup chopped fruitcake

½ gallon vanilla ice cream

Instructions:

Soften the vanilla ice cream in a bowl and stir in 1 cup of the fruitcake pieces.  Once the fruitcake is evenly dispersed in the ice cream you can place it in a freezer container and sprinkle the remaining fruitcake on top.  

Christmas Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Photo by Oakley Originals

If Santa couldn’t eat all your Christmas cookies this year, you can use them to make these delicious ice cream sandwiches.

Ingredients:

An even number of cookies

Vanilla Ice Cream

Instructions:

Use a spoon to scoop a small amount onto one cookie, face down.  Spread the ice cream evenly with a small knife or spatula, and place the matching cookie face up on top of the ice cream covered cookie.

Candy Cane Ice Cream Sundaes

Each year more than 1.76 billion candy canes are produced specifically for the holiday season, so chances are you may have a few leftover after Christmas.  Instead of just throwing them out, you can take your extra candy canes, wrap them in sealed plastic bags, and crush them to make colorful and minty sundae toppings.  Add some hot fudge or chocolate for extra sweetness!

Candy Cane Drink Stirrers

Photo by Mark Doliner

Another clever use for leftover candy canes is to use them as flavorful stirrers in warm seasonal drinks like hot cocoa. You can dip them in some melted white, milk, or dark chocolate and wrap them up as favors for New Year’s party guests.

Christmas Themed Desserts

Christmas is just days away! At Cold Cow we are preparing for the Christmas celebrations with some festive desserts.  You too can have a dessert table that even Santa Claus would be green with envy for with this list of recipes.

Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees

Christmas trees are planted and grown in all 50 states, even Hawaii.  Now you can create Christmas trees in your own home with this simple recipe for Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees! These tree treats make a simple and delicious activity for the whole family

(Recipe adapted from SheKnows)

What you’ll need:

Waffle Cones

⅓ cup sugar cookie dough

Chocolate Chips

White Chocolate Chips

M&M’s (or some other small colorful candies)

½ cup coconut flakes

Lollipop Sticks (or Popsicle Sticks)

Sprinkles

Instructions:

Put your waffle cones upright by placing them in jars. Mason jars are acceptable. Fill the cone with cookie dough until it is about ½ full.  Then, fill the rest with the chocolate chips. Once the tree is filled, you can stick a lollipop stick in each cone. Set the oven to 365 and bake the cones for about 16 minutes or until golden brown. Freeze the cones for close to an hour. While the cones are freezing you can melt the white chocolate chips. Take the cones out of the freezer and coat them with the chocolate.  Before the chocolate set you can dip it in coconut and put the M&Ms on. (You can also add green food coloring to the chocolate mix for tradition trees!)

Snowman Cones

If Frosty the Snowman is part of Christmas tradition in your family, then you will love these creations. You can have guests create cute snowmen without even venturing out in the cold! These little guys can be created right at your dessert table with a few simple ingredients.

(Adapted from: This Homemade Life)

Ingredients:

Ice Cream Cones

Vanilla Ice Cream

Pretzel sticks

Colorful Sprinkles

Mini Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

Assemble your ice cream cone like usual.  You can add more scoops of ice cream for a larger snowman. Once your ice cream is scooped into the cone, you can add sprinkles and chocolate chips for the buttons and face.  Lastly, stick in the pretzel sticks for arms and enjoy!

 

Ice Cream Yule Log

The Yule Log has been tied to Christmas traditions hundreds of years before Santa or trees. The yule log was originally meant to set in the fireplace and burn throughout the 12 days leading up to Christmas. This recipe for an Ice Cream Yule Log would not last 12 days in the fireplace and may not even last long on the dessert table with guests devouring it! You can get the full recipe from the Cookbook Project.

10 Gift Ideas for Ice Cream Lovers

According to the History Channel, 93 percent of Americans exchange gifts during the holiday season, and this year marks one of the shortest shopping seasons in over 10 years.  That means gift givers have even less time to devote to scooping up the perfect gift for those ice cream lovers on their list. As fellow ice cream lovers, we have compiled a list of some of the best gifts you can give this season.

1. Ice Cream Cats Wear

Who doesn’t love cats and ice cream? Forever21 has a super cute ice cream kitty shirt that is a great two-for-one gift for that ice cream and cat lover on your list!

2. Ice Cream Pillows

This gift is a real hoot!  You can get a playful pillow of an owl eating ice cream from ModCloth.

 

3. Cookies and Ice Cream

For those that love cookies and ice cream, an ice cream cookie jar from Boston Warehouse  is a must-have! Pair it with some Moo & Cookies ice cream to make it an extra sweet gift.

4. Scooper Cool

For the techie who loves ice cream, the design company, Lunar is offering a newly re-invented ice cream scooper. The angled design makes scooping ice cream fast and easy!

5. Spoonfuls of Goodness

You can get personal with His and Her ice cream spoons from MilkandHoneyLuxuries.  

6. Personalized Bowls

If personalizing your spoons isn’t enough, you can claim your bowl too!  These bowls from Gifts.com are great for adding a personal touch to your gift!

7. Mini Ice Cream Sandwich Maker

This could be a neat idea for both ice-cream-loving tikes and socialites.  An ice cream sandwich press from Uncommon Goods makes cute mini treats that are just the right size for parties and other fun activities.

8. Movies and Ice Cream

If there is a movie and ice cream lover on your list, a bowl from the LennyMud shop on Etsy, would be quite the treat!

9. Ice Cream

Don’t forget one of the best gifts an ice cream lover could receive, ice cream!  You can get one of Cold Cow’s ice cream products at a local retailer or at our online store!

10. DIY Sundae Kit

Lastly, to put some extra sweet flavoring into your ice cream gift you can make an ice cream lover gift box with this DIY tutorial from Family Bites. You can customize the box by packing it with favorite ice cream toppings or ingredients to make your very own banana split.

Ice Cream Themed Christmas Trees

During this time of the year, many are putting up their trees and decorating them for Christmas.  You can really get into the Christmas spirit this year with a whimsical decoration theme like ice cream.  If you’d like to try an ice cream themed tree here is a step-by-step guide of how you can do it.

Step one: Tree

Photo by Phil Roeder

Grab your Christmas tree and set it up. You can go the natural route and buy a real tree or you can buy an artificial tree.  If you plan on using a real Christmas tree, here are a few buying tips from gardening expert Mark Cullen. If you are buying an artificial tree, here are a few buying tips from U.S. Index Live.

Step two: Lights

You can buy ice cream lights from Walmart or just go with some regular white lights and complement them with some whimsical ice cream ornaments.

Step 3: Ornaments

A number of retailers offer ice cream ornaments. You can purchase ornaments from Fab or Walmart or you can make your own!  Here is a neat ice cream cone ornament tutorial from BiblioBags.

Step 4: Garland

You may also decide to make or buy garland.  You can purchase ice cream garland online at Christmas Central or make it with one of these fun tutorials from Hello Lately and Crafts ’n Coffee.

If you’d like to go a step further with your whimsical ice cream theme, you can incorporate other Christmas decor like wreaths.  Here is a very sweet wreath from the Etsy store, Vanitacrafts.  You can also make your own wreath on a budget with this tutorial from the Dollar Store.  

Lastly, all this Christmas decorating could work up an appetite! Be sure to take the time to enjoy decorating with your family and have an ice cream break.  You can have ice cream delivered to your door when you order from Cold Cow’s online store.

Gobble-worthy Thanksgiving Crafts

Edible crafts are a delicious way to bring the family together during the Thanksgiving holiday.  At Cold Cow, we like to incorporate ice cream into our family gatherings.  We have adapted some creative, edible crafts from She Knows that you could do with your family this Thanksgiving.

Waffle Cone Cornucopias

You can get crafty with these ice cream cone cornucopias! The cornucopia has a long and interesting history.  It is known as the horn of plenty and is said to have originated in Greek mythology.

Traditionally, the cornucopia is filled with vegetables and other food produced from the fall harvest, but you can fill these cornucopias with ice cream or some other crunchy goodness.

Image from sheknows.com

Tee-pee Topped Cupcakes
Although tee-pees were not used by the Wampanoag people of the first Thanksgiving, these tee-pee topped cupcakes make cute and easy crafts often found at modern Thanksgivings.

Turkey Spoons

Hot beverages like apple cider and coffee are popular choices at Thanksgiving dinners.  You can add some flair to your beverage table with these Turkey Spoons.

We hope you have a fun Thanksgiving trying out these delicious treats with your family! If you don't want to navigate busy stores during the holiday you can order any ice cream ingredients at Cold Cow's online store.

Cool Ice Cream and Thanksgiving Dessert Pairings

As a family business, we know the importance of spending Thanksgiving with the people and the ice cream that we love.  We also love traditions like pumpkin pie and ice cream but understand that sometimes it’s nice to try something new. So here are some creative Thanksgiving food and ice cream pairings from our family to yours.

The traditional pairing of Pumpkin Pie and Ice Cream is a staple of any Thanksgiving, but you could mix it up with Pecan Stampede ice cream instead of vanilla.

This one could be a new local favorite!  Try pairing two local Pittsburgh companies together by adding one of Cold Cow’s ice cream flavors like Udderly Vanilla Super Premium with this recipe for Heinz Ketchup Cake from Heinz.  It’s reminiscent of pumpkin spice cake with an added ketchup zing!

A sweet potato dish may be common on Thanksgiving but we have a feeling this Sweet Potato Cheesecake from Martha Stewart would be one of a kind at your dinner.  Pair it with some Gimmi S’more Moo Super Premium ice cream and you might have guests moo-ing for more!

Do you have any chocolate lovers in your family?  If so, pairing our Chocolate Moo Premium ice cream with this recipe for Chocolate Toffee Pecan Tart from the Food Network could steal their heart away.

Lastly, family members that love a little seasonal fruittiness will cherish our Holy Cherry Cow ice cream with this Cranberry Pear and Walnut Cake from Better Homes Better Gardens.  We think the two make a very pear-fect couple!

Which combination will you try at your family dinner?  If you don’t want to venture into the wintery weather for your Cold Cow ice cream, you can always order your flavor ahead and have it delivered to you with our online store!