Cinnamon Bun Ice Cream

As I have mentioned, I am trying to participate in the weekly Gastropost challenges and have managed to keep up so far and have even made three out of four of the weekend roundups published in the Saturday National Post. My Oh Canada Pops , boozy cherries and rhubarb simple syrup have all made it to the paper but that is not nearly as exiting as seeing my mug in a pencil drawing looking all journalistic and legit. I will overlook that they gave me an actual jowl in my pencil drawing since they were the only people to ever do that for me. A jowl is a small price to pay.

Funny story, when I was checking to see if the boozy cherries made it to the paper, I happened upon two pages of book reviews by kids and there, thought "Oh, that looks interesting. I should read these and see if there is anything I should get for The Kid" and on page WP17 was a book review written by The Kid himself!  His classmates had all been given a book to read and review a while back but I thought it was just a class assignment. We had no idea this was going to happen and if I hadn't been looking for my own thing in the same section, we would have never even known that he also made the paper, along with a bunch of his classmates. Frankly, we are disappointed in his father for not whipping something up for, perhaps, the Wheels section and dropping the ball. Way to make the family look like slackers Shack.

This week's challenge was to make or taste a frozen treat. I was going to make boozy pops like my mojito pops but I am still pretty hopped up on the condensed milk ice cream and wanted to try another one. If I wasn't so lazy, it was going to be a healthier mango/mint but that would have entailed a trip to the magical asian produce stand so cinnamon bun ice cream prevailed. 

Kevin and Amanda's Recipes has all kinds of great ideas for flavouring the condensed milk/whipped cream base and I loved the sound of this one - I also think it would be great in an ice cream sandwich with oatmeal cookies, no? Once I started mixing the condensed milk part up, I realized that I wanted way more cinnamon and I also wanted a bit of crunch and since lots of cinnamon buns have some sort of nuts on them, I settled on some chopped walnuts. The dulce de leche adds just a little more caramel goodness to the finished ice cream but next time I am thinking of cooking the condensed milk until IT turns into dulce de leche and using that for ice cream base so stay tuned for my next batch. You know I had a moment's hesitation over the addition of the melted butter and then I thought "what, are you afraid that your ice cream made entirely of condensed milk and whipped cream is going to become fattening if you add that butter?"

Thank god my kid is a skinny rail and loves ice cream because this stuff is as high calorie as it is delicious but it is also easier than making toast, so there you go. You can't have everything and delicious always trumps fattening in this house which is probably why I have that jowl in my pencil drawing.


Cinnamon Bun Ice Cream
adapted from Kevin and Amanda's Recipes


1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups (500ml) whipping cream
3 tbls melted butter
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 tbls PC dulce de leche

Whip the whipping cream until stiff. Meanwhile, stir the melted butter, cinnamon, vanilla and walnuts into the condensed milk. Fold the condensed milk mixture into the whipped cream and then gently drizzle in the dulce de leche and very gently fold a few times. If you can't find actual dulce de leche I am sure you could use any good, thick caramel sauce.

Put in a 1 litre container in the freezer and leave it for at least 6 hrs.