With my birthday coming up, I almost forgot to mention that July 20th is National Ice Cream Day. Thankfully I remembered in the nick of time, because the guilt of forgetting to tell you guys that eating tons of ice cream is your patriotic duty on National Ice Cream Day would have been crushing. Like, sitting on the couch, crying tears into my pint crushing. Instead, I can proudly make one of these fabulous ice cream recipes using our favorite ice cream finds or if you’re intrepid, homemade stuff you make yourselves.
So many options. Just one day. It’s going to be a serious one.
EASY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM RECIPES WITHOUT A MACHINE
Delectable ice cream creations start with delicious ice cream. If you’re game to make your own (it seems National Ice Cream Day is as good a day as any to try), check out our round-up of how to make ice cream without a machine. All four methods yield fantastic results including this mouth-watering selection from Brown-Eyed Baker. it’s just up to you to come up with a flavor combination you love. Oh, the pain of that exercise.
ICE CREAM SANDWICH RECIPES
Whether you’re making your own ice cream, or scooping from a container, leave some to make one of these 5 delicious ice cream sandwiches. Seriously, you cannot let another day pass without eating a Chocolate Dipped Homemade Peanut Butter Oreo Mocha Ice Cream Sandwich from Half Baked Harvest or Baking a Moment’s Thai Ice Cream Sandwich made perfect with soft, homemade peanut butter cookies. You just can’t. (And there’s more where that came from!)
ICE CREAM SUNDAE RECIPES
If sundaes are more your speed, we’ve got five sensational fruity ice cream sundae recipes for you, too. I’m partial to the Roasted Strawberry Sundae that we found on Simple Bites because, well, there’s nothing better than sweet roasted fruit with vanilla ice cream. But we’ve got other, gooier, more decadent options, too.
MILKSHAKE RECIPES
If making ice cream sandwiches or ice cream sundaes sounds like too much work (they’re not, but I’ll let it slide since National Ice Cream Day falls on a lazy Sunday), throw ice cream, milk and mix-ins into a blender and call it a day. It’s easy to do with these six amazing milkshake recipes. I’m choosing between the Chocolate Malt Milkshake (pictured) and the Key Lime Milkshake (pictured in top collage), both found on My Baking Addiction. What about you?
ICE CREAM FROM THE STORE: NO, IT’S NOT CHEATING.
If you’d rather just buy ice cream, consider giving Phin & Phebes ice cream a try. They’re one of our favorite small-batch brands of ice cream with fun flavors that appeal to kids and grownups alike. Think, Banana Whama, Vanilla Cinnamon, and Peanutty Pretzel. And we love that it’s all made with hormone-free dairy from family owned-farms, so it’s no wonder that this stuff tastes so delicious.
We’re also big fans of Steve’s Ice Cream. With flavors like Mexican Chili Chocolate, Cinnamon Coffee and Nola Coffee and Donuts (coffee and donuts flavored ice cream!), can you blame us? Plus, Steve’s offers a non-dairy ice cream collection that is so amazingly delicious, our milk-drinking editor, Liz, didn’t even notice the Dark Chocolate and Salty Caramel was dairy-free until she polished off the whole container. That’s impressive.
However you eat ice cream on National Ice Cream Day, eat it with an appreciation of how lucky we are to have so many ice cream options in our great nation. What a country.
