No Scream Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream

 

I scream, you scream . . .

Oh hell, it's August, in case you didn't notice, it's too damn hot out to scream. Or do pretty much anything else, and I'm a summer person. But being land locked has taken a whole lot of the fun out of summer. Days at the beach are not an option.

But cold dinners, frozen cocktails, and refreshing desserts, those are all great summer options.

Before I go on, I should tell you that I'm not a use every pan in the kitchen and take all day to cook or bake kind of person. Quick, easy, minimal clean up is usually the way to go.

Maybe I'm traumatized. I had a boy friend, just after college, whose mom was Italian. He didn't cook, but decided one day to make me some of her recipes, a big Italian dinner (yay). I offered to help, but he pushed me out of the kitchen, told me not to come back while he was cooking. He'd cook, if I wanted to help, I could do the dishes. OK.

Or not OK. I didn't see him for the rest of the entire day. And don't get me wrong, dinner was delicious, but the clean up? He used every pan in the kitchen and some I didn't even know I had. There was food dripping from the wall, hanging from the ceiling, covering the floor. 

I think it was about seventeen hours later (I may be exaggerating a tad), when I had my kitchen at least somewhat back to functional.  

Fine, so maybe not traumatized really, more inspired (yeah, let's go with that). 

It was at that time that there was a show on TV called Semi-Homemade Cooking. I loved the concept. I'm neither a foodie nor a snob, if there's an easier, less messy, reduced clean up way to cook, I'm in. It's not always about the process (although I admit that sometimes it is), it's about the taste.

Maybe, like me, you're someone who's taken a cake mix and enhanced it to make it your own, more moist and flavorful. You can substitute butter or milk, or add extra eggs, sour cream, yogurt, pudding, fruits, nuts, baking chips . . .

Anyway, all of this came full circle for me on one recent hot summer day. Everyone wanted ice cream after dinner, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. Actually, I couldn't find anything close to what I wanted.

No need to scream. 

I, like so many others, have made a number of flavors of no churn ice cream. When Little Debbie and Hudsonville collaborated to make ice cream but did not initially use my favorite snack as one of their flavors, I did it myself. My Fudge Rounds Ice Cream is still a popular recipe and family favorite.

But on this day, I was hot and tired. I didn't want to do a lot of work, create a lot of clean up, or take a whole lot of time. That's when I realized I could take inspiration from that cake mix. I didn't need to start from scratch. 

I'd enhance.

Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream

 

And that's exactly what I did. I grabbed some vanilla ice cream, that's my cake mix here. Just two other ingredients would make that base ice cream a whole new treat. Fifteen minutes to prepare, one bowl used, an hour in the freezer, and that's it. 

Delicious, if I do say so myself (and I do).

Let them eat cake? Hell, yeah, I'm all for it. But don't forget the Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream.

Lemon Blackberry Ice Cream         

                                                                                      ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:
1 (48 oz) carton vanilla ice cream

12 lemon cream sandwich cookies

3/4 cup seedless, sugar free, blackberry jam

Directions:

*Place the ice cream in a large bowl on the counter for about 10 minutes to soften.

*Chop the cookies. Once the ice cream has started to soften, mix the cookies into the ice cream.

*Pour the jam over the ice cream and using a knife, cut the jam into the ice cream.

*Place the ice cream into the freezer for at least an hour. Store, covered, in the freezer.