If you loved those sweet, frosted circus animal cookies as a kid then this pretty pink ice cream recipe will be a favorite!
Table of Contents
❤️ Why you'll love it
- Decadently rich, homemade ice cream made with simple ingredients.
- Unque flavor that's hard to find in the store.
- Full of the frosted animal cookies so it's pretty AND delicious.
If you are looking for a pink ice cream recipe it just doesn't get better than this. Creamy vanilla ice cream that's exactly as pink as you want it... bites of crunchy circus animal cookies, and loads of sprinkles - who doesn't like sprinkles?
🧾 Ingredients
This is an overview of the ingredients. You'll find the full measurements and instructions in the green recipe card (printable) at the bottom of the page.
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- frosted animal crackers (Mother's Circus Animal Cookies)
- heavy whipping cream
- milk
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- vanilla beans
- sugar
- rainbow sprinkles
🥄 Equipment
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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
🥫 Storage
Pack homemade ice cream tightly in an airtight container and store in the freezer for a month or two.
📖 Variations
- Add a handful of white chocolate chips.
- Use golden Oreos cookies instead of the frosted circus cookies.
- This is a good ice cream base for just about any cookie.
💭 Things to know
Circus animal cookie ice cream is an easy recipe but here are some tips to make sure it's delicious every single time.
Expert Tip: Ice cream needs to spend the night in the freezer. before it's served for the best texture. Pack it firmly in an airtight container and freeze it for 24 hours. This is called "ripening".
- Use the freshest, highest quality ingredients you can get.
- Split the vanilla beans in half before adding to the milk to get the most flavor. Save the empty pods after use to be added to a canister of sugar for vanilla sugar.
- Chill the base mixture before freezing. Overnight it best.
- Add the circus animal cookies and sprinkles when the ice cream has thickened but isn't completely frozen, or as your manufacturer directs.
- If you'd like a swirled effect with the pink color dribble in the food coloring when the ice cream has thickened instead of in the beginning.
- Store leftover ice cream in the storage container with a piece of plastic wrap pressed firmly over the top.
- Be sure to serve with extra sprinkles and a whole cookie or two.
👩🍳 FAQs
Don't skimp on the fat! Good homemade ice cream is high in fat! But if you use too much fat you risk ending up with frozen butter. It's important to follow the recipe and use the mixture of cream and milk called for.
Homemade ice cream turns icy because there is too much water in the mixture, allowing big ice crystals to form. This happens most often when the ingredients aren't measured properly or you try to cut back on fat or sugar called for in the recipe.
Ice cream gets grainy when it melts and refreezes or if the ice crystals are too large. Be sure to follow manufacturers instructions for freezing and store, tightly covered, in a freezer.
Ice cream is at its best within two weeks of being made. It is perfectly safe to eat after that but it does lose quality.
📚 Related recipes
Love homemade ice cream? Me too! Here are more of my favorite ice cream recipes - try one next time.
- French Vanilla Ice Cream
- Cinnamon Gelato
- Key Lime Hatch Chile Gelato
- Ginger Peach Sorbet
- Peanut Butter Ice Cream
What’s new? Check out my Restless Chipotle & Co. Store on Amazon where you'll find all kinds of nostalgic goodness! Thanks so much for being a part of Restless Chipotle!
📞 The last word
I absolutely LOVE circus animal cookies. I don't buy them often because I will literally sit down and eat an entire bag of them at once. So, making an ice cream out of them?
Absolutely yes!
If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
📖 Recipe
Circus Animal Cookies Ice Cream
Print Pin Recipe SaveIngredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 vanilla pods
- 4 egg yolks
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pink food color
- ¼ cup sprinkles
- 2 cups circus animal cookies, ,broken
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Instructions
- Beat the egg yolks and sugar until very light and the sugar crystals can't be felt when you pinch a little between your thumb and forefinger.
- Set aside.
- Combine the milk, cream, and vanilla pods in a heavy saucepan.
- Turn heat to medium high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture comes to a simmer and bubbles form around the edges of the milk mixture. DO NOT BOIL.
- Remove the vanilla pods and scrape the seeds into the milk mixture. Save the pods to use to make vanilla sugar, if desired.
- Add a little of the hot liquid to the egg yolks, beating constantly.
- Continue to add the hot milk mixture to the egg yolks while beating - make sure the eggs don't curdle.
- If you think you've curdled some of the egg pour the mixture through a strainer to catch any cooked egg.
- Return the custard mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat.
- Cook, stirring, until the custard coats the back of the spoon and your finger leaves a track. Make sure it doesn't boil.
- Remove from heat.
- Let cool to room temperature then stir in the vanilla and food coloring..
- Cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
- Pour the cooled mixture into an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer's directions. If your ice cream maker allows different settings use the "gelato" setting or slow churn setting.
- When the ice cream is thick, just before it’s completely done, add the sprinkles and the cookies.
- Continue to churn until done.
- Remove from churn and pack tightly into a freezer container.
- Seal and freeze overnight for best texture and results.
Notes
- After it's finished in the ice cream maker pack it firmly into a freezer safe storage container and let "ripen " in the freezer overnight..
- Split the vanilla beans in half before adding to the milk to get the most flavor.
- Chill the base mixture before freezing. Overnight it best.
- Add the circus animal cookies and sprinkles when the ice cream has thickened but isn't completely frozen, or as your manufacturer directs.
- Store leftover ice cream in the storage container with a piece of plastic wrap pressed firmly over the top. Keep in the coldest part of the freezer.
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.First published February 5, 2019. Last updated June 16, 2023 for readability, structure, and minor editing.
✍🏻 A note from Marye...
I know y'all don't always like the stories bloggers tell so when I have one I try to put it at the very bottom so you can read or skip as you like.
These were my favorite childhood cookie...and I blame Miss Smith, my first grade teacher...
Miss Smith was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She wore white lipstick, blue eye shadow and her dark hair was cut short (Twiggy style) with a short "c" right in front of each ear. She wore mini skirts and white boots and smelled like sweet flowers. She also brought Circus Animal cookies to school to give us at lunchtime.
I'd never had those little bites of sweet, frosted goodness before and I was addicted. I had every intention of wearing white lipstick and eating mountains of Circus animal cookies when I grew up.
Sadly by the time I was old enough for lipstick in 1974 white lipstick was totally out of style and I carried flavored roll-on "Kissing Gloss" in my purse like everyone else.
But I still had a secret passion for pink and white frosted animal crackers.
Lauren
Marye! This looks so fun! I've had trouble getting the right pink (previous recipes have turned out dusty rose-colored or *gasp* — mauve — instead of party pink like you got. Do you use a specific brand of coloring? This is like spot-on. Thanks for your tips! 😉
Marye
I use a wilton pink food coloring paste and add just the tiniest bit at a time with a toothpick.
Winfrey @ Chesterland Info
Absolutely amazing recipe. Made it for the weekend for a family gathering, none of them were left 😀
Marye Audet
I'm so glad you liked it!!!