Have you ever had Baked Alaska with it’s a delicious smoky browned meringue covering a mountain of ice cream? Well, this S’mores dessert is made very similar to the Baked Alaska with just a few tweaks to honor the ever-favorite campfire S’mores treat. I call them S’mores Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Cup Sundaes.
You can make this smoky ice cream treat any time of the year. You don’t need to wait for someone to build campfire since it’s made in the convenience of your kitchen broiler, oven or countertop.
Get your taste buds ready for the smokiness of browned marshmallows, graham cracker crumbs, ice cream and chocolate chip cookie cups. Topped with a squirt of whipped cream and a chocolate covered whatever you want, it goes even further than a campfire s’more. What a big burst of flavors!
You’ll need a recipe for your favorite chocolate chip cookies, or a recipe created specifically for baking cups in muffin tins. I have found that a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe works just fine. I always brush a little butter in the sides and bottoms of the muffin tins before I place the dough balls in the tin so the cups pop out after they’ve cooled a little. When the cups have been baked, you’ll press the center down with the end of a wooden spoon handle so you have a nice little cup into which to place the scoops of ice cream. Bake them so they are just a little still soft. I baked mine just a minute or two less than what’s called for in the recipe. I tested with one muffin cup before I baked all of them to make sure I was happy with them.
The nice thing I like about this S’mores Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cup is that I can bake just a couple or a few cups – just what I need for today or the next day. The rest of the chocolate chip cookie dough I make into dough balls and freeze. Or I bake the rest of the dough into cookies.
You’ll scoop ice cream into the cups - about a half cup or more for each one. Then cover them completely with mini marshmallows and freeze for at least 30 minutes. I even turned the temp colder on my freezer so I was sure they froze solid and froze them for an hour while I lined up the toppings on the counter. Speed is essential when you assemble before broiling the cups. If the ice cream begins to drip, pop them back into the freezer for a few minutes.
When the marshmallows come to a golden brown, I take them out of the oven, quickly arrange the whipped topping and any candies I want to place on top.
Immediately serve your tasty S’mores Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cups or place them in the freezer again until you are ready to serve.
I’ve made a few different versions here today. All have the chocolate chip cookie cups. You could create even more flavors by using peanut butter cookie cups, double chocolate cookie cups, etc.:
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Salted Caramel Ice Cream with chocolate bits
Big Chocolate covered dried cranberries on top
Small Chocolate covered dried blueberries on top
Small Yogurt covered coffee beans on top
Preheat your oven:
To bake your cookie cups in the muffin tins, set your oven for the baking temp of your cookies.
When you just about ready to brown the mini mountain of marshmallows on top of your ice cream domes, turn on the oven broiler and get it heated up so the coils are red hot. (Make sure the kids are not involved in this part of the prep.) I have only made this in a regular oven, but you might want to try browning them in a countertop broiler appliance.
Prep your baking pan:
I always lightly brush the muffin tin with butter…on the sides and bottoms of each cup. It helps to pop the cookie cups out, even from a non-stick muffin tin.
Prep your pan for broiling the assembled s’mores cups:
You will need to place the s’mores marshmallow covered cups in a pattern to match where your hot oven coils are. You want all the cups directly under the coils so the marshmallows brown evenly. So, have a large flat stable baking sheet ready to arrange your marshmallow covered s’mores cups on. This will also let you pull all the desserts out of the oven at the same time, taking less time to pull them all out.
Gather your Ingredients:
Chocolate Chip Cookie dough recipe, your favorite(s), into baked cookie cups
Ice Cream, your favorite
Whipped cream, to spray
Toppings including graham cracker crumbs, whipped cream, small chocolates, mini-candy bars, or chocolate covered dried fruit, etc.
Make and assemble your S’mores Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Cup Sundaes:
- Mix up your cookie dough. You can do this even a few weeks ahead if you freeze your cookie dough. Or I refrigerate my cookie dough overnight or for a couple of days before baking, depending on what else I have going on in life. I always bring the dough to room temperature before forming and baking the cups in a muffin tin.
- To bake, make dough balls with a 2-tablespoon scoop.
- Press the dough balls into a buttered muffin tin.
- Bake according to the time stated in your cookie recipe. I usually bake them a couple of minutes less, check them and then bake longer if I think they need it.
- Cool the cookie cups in the muffin tins for a few minutes and them pop them out using a silicone spatula, using a corner to get in between the edge of the cookie cup and the muffin tin cup. I have found that my plastic/rubbery orange peeler is perfect for this project.
- Cool the cookie cups completely. Sometimes I freeze them ahead of time and pull out what I need when I need to assemble them.
- After they are completely cooled, scoop a nice big scoop of your favorite ice cream into each cookie cup, creating nice rounded ice cream domes.
- Freeze for at least an hour.
- While you’re waiting for them to freeze solid, line up your toppings so that you can work fast to broil and then add toppings when they are out of the broiler.
- Turn the broiler on, with the door ajar. You want the coils to be red hot when you stick the cups in for broiling.
- Arrange the marshmallows all over the ice cream domes, sticking them into the ice cream. If the ice cream seems to be melting, go ahead and stick them back into the freezer with the marshmallows attached.
- Place the marshmallow covered cups onto your firm baking sheet so that the cups will be aligned under the coils. My oven has oval coils, on side of the oven, so I placed the cups into two rows, so they would all brown at the same time. If you don’t have them lined up under the coils, they may brown at different rates, burning some and under-browning others.
- I do not close the oven door, but pull up a kitchen stool so I can sit and watch them through the 6” space that I leave for the door opening. They only take a few seconds to a minute. The pan I use is long enough that I can easily pull it in and out with a couple heat safe protective pads in order to view how they are doing. My goal is to get them all a nice golden brown. The marshmallows on the sides of the domes may not brown much but they will puff up a little bit from the high heat.
- When you’ve achieved the golden brown color you desire, pull them out of the oven on the large pan.
- I place them on top of the stove, wait for them to cool a little and squirt some whipped cream on top. Then, sprinkle with graham crackers and top with candies, chocolate covered dried fruit, or Teddy Grahams.
This is a fun campfire dessert to make any time of the year. When you get a hankering for a summer fun dessert in the winter, this one is easy to create for the family. Let the kids decorate the top of the whipped cream or stick the marshmallows on the domes of ice cream.
Flavor options:
- At Christmas time, use a mint ice cream and add peppermint sticks or sprinkle the tops with crushed peppermint candies. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.
- For Halloween or Thanksgiving, prepare with a caramel or apple flavored ice cream and add cinnamon or caramel candies or pumpkin spiced malted milk balls on top. Drizzle the top with caramel sauce.
- What are your kids' favorites flavors? Let them choose how and what to decorate the marshmallows with. Don't forget the sprinkles!
Make an adult version by drizzling caramelized whiskey sauce on top, a chocolate liqueur or Irish cream on top. Whoever you make these fun S’mores Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cup Sundaes for, “Bake your own Memories!”