Ice Cream Easter Eggs

This was one of those crazy ideas that came to me too late to buy a proper egg mold so I used plastic Easter eggs from the dollar store. Yep. The kind you put candy in for an Easter egg hunt. I have no idea if these things are food safe so, if you want to make these, do as I say, not as I did and use a proper candy/cake egg mold.

After wracking my brain trying to come up with an Easter themed ice cream, this idea suddenly  came hopping down the road like an Easter bunny so I decided to run with it, proper equipment be darned. 

Several bottles of these lovely pastel colored nonpareils were leftover from my Easter cookie decorating class. I had found them for a ridiculous price at a NYC discount store and bought a ton of them to give away to the class attendees. This was a great way to use up some of the extras I had left.

You can also use magic shell (homemade or store bought) to cover these ice cream eggs. Another idea is to throw together all your leftover spring/Easter themed sprinkles, sugar pearls, nonpareils, etc and roll the ice cream eggs in a mixture of them.

I used plain vanilla ice cream for both the “yolk” and the “white” parts. You can certainly be more creative and make two different flavors. Or just be a super smart time saver and use store bought ice cream. I had leftover yolks  (from making French macarons) and a good amount of heavy cream I had to use up so I went the homemade ice cream route.

This is a fun project, great to do with kids as well.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Easter weekend!

Ingredients:

• 4 egg yolks
• 1&1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Yellow food coloring
• nonpareils or sprinkles

Directions:

• Whisk the egg yolks together in a heat proof bowl and set aside.
• Heat the cream, milk, sugar and salt together in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add vanilla extract.
• Remove mixture just before boiling and slowly pour into the egg yolks whisking constantly.
• Strain the mixture back into the saucepan and heat until it thickens, until it covers the back of a wooden spoon.
• Pour back into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap so the wrap is touching the mixture and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
• Remove the plastic wrap, pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• When ice cream reaches soft serve consistency, separate 1/2 cup and mix in the yellow food coloring.
• Place the different colored ice creams into separate plastic containers and store in the freezer. 
• Remove the ice cream and let it sit on the counter for 10 minutes or until it softens a bit.
• Transfer the white ice cream into the egg molds.
• Using a teaspoon or melon baller form the yellow ice cream into little balls.
• Carve out a small rounded spaces in the white ice cream, place the yellow balls in the center.
• Seal the molds together and place back in the freezer until firm.
• Pour your nonpareils onto a flat plate. Remove ice cream from egg molds, roll in the nonpareils and place back in the freezer until ready to serve.