Magically Delicious Ice Cream {Recipe: Lucky Charms Cereal Milk Ice Cream}

Sugared Cereals are somewhat of a forbidden fruit in our family. My mother would only purchase it if she had a coupon. Of course that was just something she would say to appease my brother, sister and I to keep us from constantly asking her for them. Once in a while she would come up with a coupon and buy us a box of the coveted cereal.

I have managed to buy even fewer boxes of sugared cereal than my mother. My kids never got the coupon excuse because, in general, I do not save coupons. I learned long ago that most coupon are for items I do not use or need, and for items I do use it takes more time to hunt them out than what they are worth. The time I would spend trying to find these coupons is worth more than the dollar or two I would save.

The one exception, until now, I have for these cereals is traveling. If the hotel we are staying at has them at a breakfast bar, the kids choose them if they wish. Also, when the kids were little,  they liked to get the individual size boxes of sugared cereals to snack on without milk while traveling in the car.

Then while traveling to NYC this past winter, we visited a place called Momofuku Milk Bar. We tried their Cereal Milk Ice Cream with Cornflake Crunch. The entire family loved it! So when trying to think of some treat to make for the kids for St. Patrick's Day, and taking inspiration from the Milk Bar, I came up with Lucky Charms Cereal Milk Ice Cream. This is one of the best ice creams I have ever made! In fact it is so good my son wanted to learn to make it so he would know how to when he goes off too college (which will be in a few short years-too soon for me). So we wound up making two batches of it this weekend.

So, in addition to having sugared cereals while traveling, I will be purchasing a box every St. Patrick's Day from now on.

Lucky Charms Cereal Milk Ice Cream

Cornflake Crunch is an excellent topping for this ice cream. It provides just the right amount of salty sweetness, The recipe for Cornflake Crunch can be found in the Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook by Christina Tosi.

1 cup Lucky Charms Cereal Milk*, well chilled
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 scant teaspoon salt
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and salt with the cereal milk. Whisk until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. Pour the mixture into a one quart electric ice cream freezer. Process according to your ice cream maker's instructions. In general, process in the ice cream freezer until thickened, about 20-25 minutes. The ice cream will be soft and creamy. Put into an air tight quart-size container, place in the freezer and let the ice cream "ripen" for at least 2 hours. 

* For Lucky Charms Cereal Milk:  Pour 2 1/2 cups Lucky Charms Cereal into medium sized bowl, then pour 1 1/2 cups whole milk over the cereal. Set a smaller bowl on top of the cereal mixture to force the cereal down into the milk. Steep the cereal in the milk for about 20 minutes. Using a medium mesh strainer, strain the milk into another bowl; cover and chill. This may make just a bit more milk than needed for the ice cream, you can just drink it or add it to coffee.:)

Enjoy!