By: Hannah Oppenheimer
Uncategorized

Moose Tracks Ice Cream

Moose Tracks is an ice cream flavor invented in 1988 in Michigan, featuring vanilla ice cream, mini peanut butter cups, and a fudge swirl. It quickly spread along with the peanut butter craze of America, so if you’re a 90’s kid from the American Midwest, chances are, you probably grew up obsessed with Moose Tracks.

Moose Tracks Ice Cream in a peanut butter cone surrounded by peanut butter cups

The Original Moose Tracks flavor is a registered trademark of Denali Flavors, Inc., which makes many varieties of Moose Tracks. My family includes their biggest fans. My grandma’s favorite is the chocolate-packed version, “Extreme! Maximum Moose Tracks”, my mom’s favorite was always the Bear Claw, and mine is definitely the Mint Moose Tracks (no peanut butter involved in that one). If you want to get some of the Denali specialities, you can find a nearby retailer. Also, I just love that they have a blog post that’s simply a list of gifs about Moose Tracks.

The dogs Zeke and Gimli jealous of my peanut butter cup ice cream

But if you’re looking to make a custom batch at home, enjoy my take on a Peanut Butter + Fudge Swirl Ice Cream recipe below. I made peanut butter cones to go with it, and needless to say the dogs were jealous. I didn’t give them the peanut butter cups (chocolate) but I did sneak them each a piece of that peanut butter cone!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1/2 cup milk powder
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 egg yolks

For the Peanut Butter Cups

  • 6 ounces chocolate chips (I use dark)
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 4 tablespoons peanut butter (I use creamy)
  • 2 tablespoons powdered (or confectioner’s) sugar

For the Fudge Swirl

  • 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons coconut oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

 

Directions

  1. Make the Ice Cream Base. Heat the milk, cream, milk powder, and sugar over medium-low heat and stir lightly until the powder and sugar are dissolved. Turn off the heat. Whisk the egg yolks and temper them with about 1/2 cup (no need to be precise) of the milk mixture to warm up the eggs gradually without scrambling them. Then pour the egg mixture into the remaining milk mixture on the stovetop. Turn the heat back to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it reaches between 74-78 degrees C on a candy thermometer. Pour it through a strainer into a bowl with lid or Tupperware, and place it in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (or an ice bath for about 1 hour).
  2. Make the Peanut Butter Cups. In a double broiler (or carefully in the microwave), heat the chocolate and coconut oil until all the chocolate has melted. Mix to combine. In a small bowl, mix the peanut butter and sugar together. Using a muffin pan with paper muffin liners, pour two teaspoons of the chocolate coconut sauce into each liner. Make sure the liners aren’t tilted–the chocolate should lay evenly flat. Add a slightly heaping teaspoon of the sugary peanut butter to each on top of the chocolate in each liner. Then, go back and cover that peanut butter layer with another teaspoon or two of the chocolate coconut sauce. I used the teaspoon to push the peanut butter down flat while adding the top layer of chocolate so that it covered the peanut butter. Place the whole pan in the freezer until frozen hard. Take them out and quickly give them all a rough chop, and place them back into the freezer until right before you add them to the ice cream. (The coconut oil helps the chocolate melt in your mouth when you eat the ice cream, but it also means that those cups will melt almost immediately while you chop them!)
  3. Make the Fudge. Place all the ingredients for the fudge except the vanilla into a small saucepan. Heat on medium and stir constantly until boiling. Turn off the heat, add the vanilla, and mix to combine.
  4. Finish the Ice Cream. Churn the ice cream base according to your ice cream machine’s directions. When it’s finished, pour about 1/3 of the ice cream into a freezer-safe storage container. Top this ice cream layer with some of the fudge and chopped peanut butter cups. Repeat with each of the remaining two-thirds of ice cream, fudge, and chopped peanut butter cups. Place it in the freezer until it’s ready for scooping (usually a few hours or overnight).