I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Samoa Ice Cream!

Sing along with me, will ya?

It’s the most… wonderful time… of the year! With the Girl Scouts door-belling, and all of them selling Girl Scout cookie cheer! It’s the most… wonderful time… of the year!

I look forward to mid-February for about 11.5 months every year. I love those clover-green boxes of Thin Mints and the sticky pull of Samoas. I would never turn down a Do-Si-Do or a Tag-A-Long. I inwardly cheer when groups of uniformed girls stand behind their towering tables of cookie boxes just under the grocery store awnings. The first Thin Mint of the year makes my taste buds tingle. The second, third, and… well, the rest are just as thrilling as the first.

Now, I love a Girl Scout cookie all on its own, but I like to be a little creative, too. One year I baked a bunch of crushed Thin Mints into a batch of brownies. Awesome. Then I baked another batch with Samoas crunched up inside. Delightful! The Samoas melted into the batter as it baked. This year, I’m on an ice cream rampage.

Here it is: Coconut Samoa Ice Cream.

Creamy Coconut with Girl Scout Samoa Cookies

Today I’ll make chocolate Thin Mint ice cream. I have to use up the rest of that pint of whipped cream, after all.

Sometimes I get all fancy and cook up a custard base for my ice creams, but lately I’ve been using a simple no-cook base. The trick to keeping this base from becoming icy after freezing is to whip the cream before adding it to the mixture. A little brandy helps as well.

Coconut Samoa Ice Cream

1 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup whipping cream

1-2 tsp brandy* (optional)

7 Samoa cookies, chopped.

Whisk the sugar into the coconut milk until dissolved. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until thickened, but not stiff. Fold whipped cream into coconut milk mixture. Add 1-2 tsp brandy (if you’re using it). If you do not want to use brandy, add in 1-2 tsp vanilla extract or  1/2 tsp almond extract.

While your ice cream base freezes in your ice cream maker, chop the cookies into small chunks. I chopped about 2/3 of the cookies into fine pieces and left the remainder in chunks about the size of garbanzo beans.

Add the cookies in during the last minute of freezing, or, if your ice cream maker doesn’t deal well with mix-ins, just stir in the cookie bits when you transfer the ice cream to a container.

Take a little taste now, then let the rest of the batch “ripen” in the freezer for 2-3 hours before digging in! Yum!

What’s your favorite Girl Scout cookie flavor?

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