Cool summer off with a sundae party. Check out these recipes for homemade ice cream and toppings as well as an easy, two-minute recipe for homemade magic shell.
We are dessert people here. My children have been conditioned since infancy to have a little dessert after dinner and sometimes after lunch as well. These courses are differentiated from one another by the technical terms of dessert and lunch dessert.
Having your mother want to go sugar-free kind of puts a crimp in your dessert style. I realize this. So, we are taking baby steps toward having our treats and reducing our sugar. I don’t want to give them another thing to complain about in twenty years.
A happy compromise is making some of those sweet treats at home.
There’s no end to the homemade ice cream or ice cream toppings that you can make yourself. I don’t recommend making everything all the time, but mixing it up a bit so that you can control the ingredients you feed your family is a great way to eat just a little bit better.
Often homemade is cheaper than storebought. Last year when I bought an ice cream maker, I discovered that I could make nearly-organic ice cream cheaper than I could buy conventional at the store. Win!
For years I’ve made whipped cream in the Magic Bullet. It’s pretty quick and works great. But, I’ve always wanted a whipped cream dispenser. (I am a sucker for small kitchen appliances and gadgets.)
For Mother’s Day, FishPapa bought me one. You can see it here. Lest you go into sticker shock, know that he bought it from a local distributor and paid a much lower price. It’s taken us awhile to get it work just right, however. In fact, the other night when I threw a sundae party for the FishKids and the neighbors, the whipped cream dispenser kind of exploded on me — and the whole table.
By the end of the night, we had it working just perfectly, though. Homemade whipped cream that’s lightly sweetened makes things fun, especially when it comes out looking all fancy.
This week while I bought the ice cream, I made the whipped cream myself and made an easy homemade magic shell. Unlike a typical chocolate or fudge sauce, magic shell hardens on contact with something cold, much like the crunchy chocolate coating on a Sidewalk Sundae.
My friend Lynn walked me through making magic shell the first time, and since then I’ve made a variety of combinations, sometimes using chocolate chips, sometimes using chocolate squares typically for baking. A few seconds in the microwave and we’ve got magic shell that beats the bottle. You can use whatever kind of chocolate you want. I’ve heard that you can use margarine, but I prefer using coconut oil since it’s a little bit healthier for you.
Our family is always fascinated to watch the chocolate liquid harden and lose its sheen when it firms up against the cold ice cream.
Recipe: Homemade Magic Shell
Ingredients
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate (4 squares or 1/2 chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Instructions
- In a small glass jar or dish, heat the chocolate in the microwave for 30 to 60 seconds, until melted.
- Stir in the coconut oil until well blended.
- Use as an ice cream topping.
Preparation time: 2 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 8
Serving up a sundae party is super easy, whether you buy all the sundae fixings or follow some of these recipes for homemade ice cream.
Triple Chocolate Sundaes
Homemade Ice Cream Recipes
If you’re going to make homemade ice cream, be sure to make far enough in advance that the ice cream has time to “ripen.” Otherwise, you’ll have a tasty product, it will just have a more soft-serve texture.
- Simple Vanilla Ice Cream from Life as MOM
- Simple Chocolate Ice Cream from Cuisinart
- Toffee Dream Ice Cream from Life with L & E
- Cherry Garcia Ice Cream from Life with L & E
- Dairy-Free Creamy “Vanilla” Ice Cream from Simply Sugar & Gluten Free
- Dairy-Free Coffee Ice Cream from Simply Sugar and Gluten Free
Homemade Sauces & Toppings – The beauty of homemade sauces and toppings is that you can control what’s in them…and they taste so much better than storebought.
- Creamy Hot Fudge Sauce from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures
- Chocolate Mint Syrup from Good Cheap Eats
- Homemade Raspberry Sauce from Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures – Simply substitute frozen strawberries if you prefer strawberry sauce!
- Marshmallow Sauce from Epicurious
- Easy Caramel Sauce from Ree Drummond
- Dairy-Free Dark Caramel Sauce from Amy Green
- Butternut Squash Brownies from Good Cheap Eats – You can cut these up into brownie bites.
- Chocolate-Coconut Crunch Topping from Amy Green
- Maple Spiced Almonds and Pepitas from Life as MOM
An ice cream sundae party can be super easy and doesn’t have to be all junk food. Plan a few simple toppings, an abundance of ice cream, and some freshly whipped cream, and you’re ready to rumble.
Don’t forget the spoons!
What’s YOUR favorite sundae topping?
This post is part of the DIY on a Dime: Summer Fun series. For more ideas on how to enjoy the summer holidays on a budget, check out the list.
I know what we’re gonna do this summer.
This post is part of the Summer Fun: Sundae Party & a Recipe for Homemade Magic Shell is a post from: Life As Mom. © Jessica Getskow Fisher - All rights reserved.
