Lucky Charms Ice Cream

Originally published May 23, 2019.

I’m not the first person to come up with a lucky charms ice cream recipe but this one stands apart and here’s why: I include whole marshmallow bits, and lots of them, in the ice cream base itself. This means your ice cream base won’t be ‘flavored cereal milk’ nor will it be just gently flavored with marshmallows that were sieved out of the milk. It will be a full-blown experience of every bite tasting like lucky charms marshmallow milk. How wonderful does that sound??!! This is for the inner child in all of us!

2023 note: When I tell you the people I live with (husband, kids) GOBBLED this up before I could get proper photos… and actually fought over it… I’m glad I brought this one back!

Baking with Cereal Milk

I spent a good chunk of March playing with lucky charms cake batter. Cereal milk cakes (of the cornflake variety) have been around for awhile thanks to Milk Bar and I guess that spurned a trend of baking with lucky charms cereal as well. I made a ‘lucky charms cake’ for Lily’s 6 month bday (+two years ago now!), by flavoring the milk with the grain part of the cereal and adding a handful of marshmallows to the batter to look like funfetti.

But with that cake and other cereal cakes I’ve had, I always felt something was missing. The actual cereal milk taste wasn’t really distinguishable to me, no matter how long I left it to soak. I noticed most recipes make up for this with imitation vanilla so it becomes a hybrid of birthday/cereal cake. It’s fun, it’s delicious, but it doesn’t taste like lucky charms.

Getting that Lucky Charms Flavor

I really wanted a dessert that tasted like the actual lucky charm marshmallow milk. Because let’s be real, nobody cares or wants the grain part. We’re in it for the colorful marshmallows and the sweet, sweet taste they impart onto the milk. That marshmallow milk is what I wanted my cake to taste like. So I made a white cake with cereal milk, left out the vanilla to remove any distraction, and brought in some serious marshmallow dust.

I will preface this to tell you – yes it is possible to make this and can be DELICIOUS. The issue is that it makes a terribly ugly batter and even worse colored cake (the baking process will always yellow or ‘golden’ the batter). My batter turned light gray and, once baked, the cake went full greenish-gray. We ate it, loved it, and I shelved the idea because of the color. Careful readers will note that when I made the lucky charms version of my rainbow cake, I left out the marshmallows to ensure a white background.

How to make this recipe, in a few simple steps

1. Separate the colored marshmallows from the rice cereal.
2. Soak the rice cereal in the heavy cream, leave it in the fridge for an hour or longer.
3. Sieve out the rice cereal, pressing to capture all the flavored cream.
4. Blend marshmallows with the milk.
5. Combine all the ingredients in a pot (you can also temper the eggs if you want to be careful) and cook until slightly thickened, about 160 F.
6. Chill the base for 4-8 hours in the fridge.
7. Pour into ice cream machine and churn, adding more marshmallow bits toward the end.
8. Freeze.

Notes on Lucky Charms Marshmallow Ice Cream

• In some of the photos you’ll see the ice cream is green (2023 photos) and in some it’s purple (2019 photos). I got the purple coloring tip from here. The author removes the green and yellow charms from the mallows she soaks into the milk (which she then sieves out). Curious if it would work and in pursuit of a non-gray color, I also sorted my charms which is why I had leftovers for decorating, but oops, once I tempered in the yolks, the base turned grayish-green anyway! For this reason I don’t believe it’s necessary to separate the mallows you put in the base if you plan to color it.

• Also.. I don’t seem to care about the color anymore and I kind of think the sage green from the newer photos is quite pretty?? Maybe I’m getting old :p

• I left out any vanilla flavoring (as I did when cake testing). I personally think it interrupts the marshmallow charms taste. But, if you desire it, once you’ve got your base off the heat, taste it – if you think you would like some vanilla, add 1/2 teaspoon at a time until it gets to your desired flavor.

Lucky Charms Ice Cream

Smooth, creamy ice cream that tastes of lucky charms cereal.

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 10 minutes mins

Chill Time: 8 hours hrs

Yields: 1 quart

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Ingredients

• 480g or 2 cups milk
• 240g or 1 cup heavy cream
• 40g or 1 cup lucky charms grain cereal only
• 1 cup marshmallow bits only
• 100g or ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 6 egg yolks cracked into a bowl
• 1 cup lucky charm marshmallow bits to sprinkle in after churning
• Optional: food coloring

Method

• Pour the heavy cream into a bowl and add the grain cereal bits. Submerge with the back of a spoon and allow to sit for at least an hour. Once the cream has absorbed enough flavor, sieve out the cereal and press the cereal bits to extract as much flavor as possible.
• In a food processor or blender mix the marshmallow bits with the milk and allow to sit until they soften (this wont take more than 15 minutes or so). Once soft, blend the mixture.
• In a large pot, mix the milk, and heavy cream with the sugar and salt. Once sugar has dissolved, add some of this mixture to the egg yolks to temper and whisk with the yolks. Repeat twice more. This is to temper the eggs.
• Add the egg yolk mix to the pot and whisk to combine. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mix reaches 160 F, is slightly thickened.
• Sieve the mixture into a heat-safe bowl to remove any egg or cereal bits. Add food coloring, if using, and stir to combine. Chill overnight.
• Freeze, according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. In the last minute of freezing, add the additional marshmallow bits. Place in an ice cream tub (I use old pho containers) and store in your freezer.

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