Ice Cream Shop {Using Ice Cream Dough}

2 / 1 / 133 / 6 / 14

After making a few batches of ice cream dough this afternoon, Gracen and I set up a simple little ice cream shop in the living room. We used an old wooden apple crate for her table top and made sure the floor was protected with a large bath towel.

Then we went around the house to collect a few other items. First up – ice cream cones. Yes, the real ones… We had them on hand from her 2nd birthday party and they’d never be used otherwise, so may as well use them for some fun pretend play, right?

Of course, for customers not partial to cones, you need to have a bowl option. These silicon baking cups did the job perfectly.

Next, we gathered up some spoons and an ice cream scoop…

As well as some buttons, beads, and straw pieces for candies and candy sprinkles.

And with that, our little ice cream shop owner got to work.

There was plenty of scooping, touching, smelling, and exploring to be done.

Of course the ice cream treats rolled out of the shop one after another too. A hazelnut ice cream cone for Papa…

And a strawberry ice cream cup {with extra candy sprinkles!} for Mama.

This was such a simple set-up, but I can already tell that she’s going to get hours of fun out of it. Of course, it’s more than just fun… This little ice cream shop incorporates pretend play, a sensory experience, and creativity too.

♥

And if you love ice cream and pretend play, check out our play dough ice cream shop too!

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{AMAZING} Ice Cream Dough

2 / 1 / 133 / 6 / 14

This afternoon Gracen and I tried out a new sensory material originally created by Jessie of Play Create Explore (if you’re a parent and haven’t checked out her blog before, you definitely should – she’s got hundreds of sensory play ideas, fun bath ideas, and tons more) and it was AWESOME.

The ingredients seem a little strange, but they work perfectly together to create a hard ice cream-looking texture. The main two ingredients are cornstarch and conditioner – yes, hair conditioner – the cheapest variety you can find. The other stuff is just food colouring and cheap imitation extracts to make it look and smell more like real ice cream.

We decided on making 3 ‘flavours’ (coconut, strawberry, and hazelnut), Gracen started us off by putting an equal amount of conditioner in 3 bowls.

Then she added our food colouring – none for coconut, red for strawberry, and a combination of red, green, and yellow for the hazelnut.

Then she added a generous pour of extract into each of the bowls…

And mixed them up.

One thing I will say is that we should have spend a little more time looking for an unscented {or at least a very lightly scented} conditioner. At $1.28, the price was certainly right, but the strong ‘fresh’ scent gave our imitation extracts a serious run for their money. Even something food scented would have been better… Next time we’ll look for something of the strawberry / coconut / mango variety.

Next up was the messy part… Mixing the cornstarch into the conditioner mixture.

After gently folding and blending the cornstarch and conditioner together, this was the end result.

Isn’t it crazy how much it looks like REAL hard ice cream?!

Here’s a close up view.

And as long as it’s handled like hard ice cream usually is (not rolled or smoothed over too much – thanks for the tip, Jessie!), it scoops perfectly – just as ice cream does. ☺

We followed Play Create Explore‘s ratios exactly, so please visit the original post here. The amounts we used for these batches, along with details on the colouring and extracts are as follows:

Coconut Ice Cream Dough

1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
1 cup of cornstarch
1 tablespoon of imitation coconut extract

Strawberry Ice Cream Dough

1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
1 cup of cornstarch
6 drops of red food colouring
1 tablespoon of imitation strawberry extract

Hazelnut Ice Cream Dough

1/2 cup of cheap hair conditioner
1 cup of cornstarch
4 drops of red food colouring
4 drops of green food colouring
12 drops of yellow food colouring
1 tablespoon of imitation hazelnut extract

Enjoy!

See how we put our ice cream dough to use in our pretend play ice cream shop.

♥

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{Heart-Shaped} Wholewheat Cheese Crackers

2 / 1 / 139 / 22 / 13

Today Gracen and I whipped up a batch of what is easily her most loved treat in the entire world – our homemade version of the classic ‘fishy crackers’. Though I’ve shared this recipe before, I thought I’d share it again as we did things a teeny bit differently this time around… Plus, this heart-shaped version would make a perfect treat for Valentine’s Day.

First off, our ingredients… We used the usuals, but tried using a coarse stone ground wholewheat flour, replaced the cheddar with Colby and fresh parmesan, and added some basil into our spice mix.

Then my little helper dumped everything together.

Instead of mixing everything in our mixer like we have in the past, this time we did it in the food processor I got for my birthday. It definitely allowed the dough to come together more easily, and as guessed, adding a touch of water wasn’t necessary in the food processor.

With all of the ingredients well mixed, we dumped everything out onto our workspace and used our hands to form it into a large mass.

Then we patted it down by hand, covered it with parchment, and rolled it out nice and thin.

It must be all the talk about Valentine’s Day festivities, because Grae chose a heart-shaped cookie cutter this time around.

We cut out endless hearts, carefully lifted them with the flat edge of a butter knife, and transferred them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

We popped them in the oven, and in no time, we had crispy, tender crackers that are full of flavour and free of preservatives.

See our original recipe here.

Wholewheat Cheese Crakers

2 cups of Colby cheese
1 cup of fresh parmesan
8 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon of cayenne paper
1/8 teaspoon of dried basil
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt (optional)

1/4 cup of warm water (if mixing by hand or using an electric mixer – not necessary in a food processor)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients and gently form dough into a ball.

Sandwich dough between two layers of parchment and roll it out to 1/8 of an inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time if needed. Gently transfer crackers to a parchment-lined baking sheet using the flat edge of a butter knife if needed.

Bake the crackers for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are just barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Enjoy!

♥

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