Coffee Ice Cream. Do you love it? Hate it? Seems like there’s not much middle ground on this flavor. And you can probably guess that I’m seated in the “love” section of this arena. Oh yes…right in the very front row!
I think I fell in love with coffee flavored desserts even before I started drinking coffee in my late 20’s. The Fryn’ Pan restaurant (Wahpeton, ND) had a Mississippi Mud Pie on their menu that tempted me on every visit. It had a densely packed chocolate cookie crumb crust with a coffee flavored filling, topped off with a thick fudgy drizzle.
Ever since that discovery, I have gravitated toward anything with the coffee and chocolate combo. Which makes me wonder why it took me so long to try the “Mud Pie Mojo” at Cold Stone Creamery. How could I have possibly overlooked it all these years? Could it be that I passed it by, thinking there were just too many goodies mixed into that coffee ice cream? Or that I questioned the addition of peanut butter to the usual mud pie mix? What absurd assumptions!
It wasn’t until we visited Cold Stone Creamery at the Mall of America a few months ago that I finally decided to give that “Mud Pie Mojo” a go. From the other side of the glass, I watched the Professional Ice Cream Mixologist add Oreos, peanut butter, hot fudge sauce, and chopped pecans to the coffee ice cream. And then he quickly folded it all together on the frozen counter, with a deft wielding of his cold metal paddles. I can still hear the soft clink, clink, clinking of his paddles.
It was with only one bite that I knew I was going to have a seriously hard time passing up Cold Stone Creamery from there on out. This special creation was made just. for. me. It turned out that the peanut butter was the most thoughtful addition to mud pie ever. And the Oreos and pecans were just a super duper bonus.
I had already been wanting to make the Coffee Ice Cream from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, so recreating the “Mud Pie Mojo” at home was the perfect time to try it out. And, just like all the other ice cream recipes I’ve made of Mr. Lebovitz’, this was stunning. It was perfectly coffee flavored, with a beautiful consistency and creamy texture.
If you like mud pie anything, this here Coffee Ice Cream with Mud Pie Mojo is not to be missed. Make yourself a big ol’ bowl of mojo and then meet me in the very front row!
Coffee Ice Cream with Mud Pie Mojo
Ingredients
- for the coffee ice cream:
- 1-1/2 c. whole milk
- ¾ c. sugar
- 1-1/2 c. whole coffee beans – I used a full bodied dark roast
- pinch of salt
- 1-1/2 c. heavy cream divided
- 5 large egg yolks
- ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. very finely ground coffee
- for the mud pie mojo:
- Oreo Double Stuff cookies roughly chopped
- creamy peanut butter
- hot fudge sauce – I used our quick and easy favorite recipe Ann’s Hot Fudge Sauce
- roasted and salted pecans chopped to desired size
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt, and just 1/2 cup of the cream. Once the mixture is nicely warmed, cover and remove it from the heat. Let the mixture steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Now warm up the coffee-infused milk mixture again. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Then slowly pour the warmed coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape the warmed egg yolk/coffee mixture back into the saucepan.
- Over medium heat, stir the mixture constantly with a heatproof spatula. Scrape the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer, into the cream below it. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer, extracting as much of the coffee flavor as possible (I really enjoyed this part!!). Discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla and the ground coffee. Stir until cool over an ice bath. (Ice bath = simply fill a larger bowl with a good layer of ice and nestle the custard bowl on top of the ice, so the custard cools faster.)
- Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- This is the really fun part! And there really is no perfect formula. Simply add as much of the above ingredients as you like. To get the peanut butter’s consistency to “ribbon” over the ice cream, I put a large spoon of peanut butter into a small bowl and stirred it briskly to loosen it up.
- I made individual sundaes, dressing each bowl of ice cream with these toppings. And I also just stirred a bunch of the remaining toppings into the last of the coffee ice cream, right in the freezer container. This super yummy concoction went straight into the freezer, and I had instant mud pie mojo ice cream waiting for me at my next craving!
Notes
Nutrition Information:
I don’t know how this recipe doesn’t have thousands of five-stars.
I have never left a recipe comment before, but this deserves it!
My husband orders Mud Pie Mojo at Coldstone Creamery every single time, and as a non-coffee drinker, I actually think it’s pretty delicious. He has had a persistent hankering during quarantine, but decided to try making his own since it isn’t the cheapest ice cream on the block.
This recipe literally changed our ice cream eating life!!!
We used Peet’s Dark Roast Major Dickason’s Blend whole beans, used a little more whipping cream in place of the vitamin D milk (on accident) and don’t have an ice cream machine so just froze it in a bowl, but it turned out incredible.
We couldn’t recommend this copycat recipe enough.
THANK YOU!
Yikes!!! That is just ridiculous looking, in the most amazingly positive way. :) Love, love coffee ice cream and oreos are pretty high on the list too!
It’s been forever since I’ve been inside of a Cold Stone, but I do recall that the Mud Pie Mojo was one of my favorites!
I never used to look twice at Cold Stone as I drove by. Now I have to fight the urge to stop every time I see one! :)
Funny, I fell in love with coffee ice cream when I was a teenager, but HATED coffee. This is my FAVORITE flavor from Cold Stone too. MMMM, I need to make (or just drag my butt to cold stone).
Wow!! so mouth watering… can imagine how tasty it will be melting in my mouth. Coffee ice cream is a must make!! Love your photos.
Thank you so much!
Coffee ice cream is my second favorite next to chocolate! And what a great job you did finishing it! Wow!
This is my favorite Cold Stone creation! Love love love!!
Nicely done! Standing ovation, saluting, and bowing! :)
If that is not the most tantalizing photograph of a bowl of ice cream than I don’t know what is. You make me want to find a spoon and steal a few bites.
You, my dear, would never have to steal bites from my bowl. I would be honored to have you in my kitchen any day – have a great weekend, Paula!
Can you believe that we don’t have a Coldstone here?? :(
With that being said–this recipe will definitely come in handy. Looks so amazing, girl!!
Now that’s a crying shame – no Cold Stone! But with this recipe (or with a tub of Starbuck’s Coffee Ice Cream!), you could still feast on this combo. It’s such a bad tempting thing to have in my freezer! Great to hear from you, Kristan!
Put me in the LOVE category!
This looks AMAZING!!!
That just looks fantastic. Loved the post and your pictures are just great. I love coffee anything!!! Come over and visit us. We would love to have you and we have a great easy sorbet recipe this week for the hot weather.
Oh you are evil! I gave up caffeine a few years ago but I used to LOVE coffee ice cream and now I’m craving it again, lol.
I always grab a coffee milkshake from Coldstone, but next time I’m getting one of these! I probably can’t wait that long to try it so thanks for the recipe, looks right up my alley!
Mmmmmmm…thanks for letting me know about the milkshake. I’ll be sure to check that out!