Not Your Grandmother's Egg Nog

We’re in he midst of the holidays, and most people are still stuck at home. It seems that most home improvement jobs have been completed, the exercise equipment gathers dust, and Netflix binges are becoming stale. However, it looks like many are still cooking and baking and trying to come up with new recipes. We’ve been baking cookies, cakes, and pies and making hot chocolate bombs. Today, I’m going to experiment with pumpkin spice bread pudding. I can’t wait to taste it!

One thing that is always the hit of the party in our family is our homemade ice cream cake. At the end of Island of Promise, it’s what Kayla makes for Todd for his birthday, and subscribers to my newsletter received the recipe in my Island of Promise Companion Cookbook.

This year, my mother had the brilliant idea to make an egg nog ice cream cake for Christmas, and I decided to make my own version. We decided one a challenge to see what recipe seemed to be preferred. I can’t tell you that there was a clear winner because not a scrap of the cake was left over in either house. Clearly, this is one that may need to become a staple in our Christmas recipe file!

Try it for yourself…

Egg Nog Ice Cream Cake

Note that this recipe takes a few days to prepare, but each step is quick and easy.

Ingredients (both mine and mom’s):
1.5 packages of ginger snaps or gingerbread cookies* and
1 stick of butter
OR
2 graham cracker pie crusts
½ gallon ice cream egg nog ice cream
1 jar of caramel ice cream topping
1 tub of Cool Whip
Nutmeg

Step 1 – If using cookies, place all of one package and half of the second package in a large ziplock bag. Smash cookies into crumbs, using a mallet or potato masher.*
Melt the stick of butter. Pour the butter into a 9×13″ brownie pan or baking dish. Add cookie crumbs and press together to form crust. Freeze overnight.

Step 2 – Spoon warmed caramel over crust and spread to completely cover the bottom of the crust. Freeze again for at least two hours or overnight.

Step 3 – Take ice cream out of freezer and let sit on counter until it is soft (30 minutes to an hour).
Layer softened ice cream over the frozen caramel to completely cover the caramel and bottom crust. Spread evenly and smoothly. Refreeze overnight. If not eating the next day, be sure to cover tightly with plastic wrap or pan covering.

Morning of serving – Spread the Cool Whip completely over the ice cream. Mom lightly dusted with nutmeg, but I gave it a good, hearty sprinkling since the girls and I love lots of nutmeg on our egg nog! Refreeze for several hours or overnight.

About 15 minutes before serving, take the ice cream cake out of the freezer so it can be cut. Believe me, there will be none left! If there is, it can be frozen again. ENJOY!

* You may use two packages of cookies – one package to make the crust and one package with which you stand cookies around the sides just before adding the ice cream. This makes the cake more fun, but I prefer just doing the bottom crust as it’s easier to serve.

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Amy Schisler is an award-winning author of both children’s books and sweet, faith-filled romance novels for readers of all ages. She lives with her husband and three daughters on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her books, Picture Me, Whispering Vines, and Island of Miracles are all recipients of Illumination Awards, placing them among the top inspirational fiction books of 2015, 2016, and 2017. Whispering Vines was awarded the 2017 LYRA Award for the best romance of 2016. Island of Miracles has outsold all of Amy’s other books worldwide and ranked as high as 600 on Amazon. Her follow up, Island of Promise is a reader favorite. Amy’s children’s book is The Greatest Gift. The suspense novel, Summer’s Squall, and all of Amy’s books, can be found online and in stores. Her latest novel, Island of Promise, was recently awarded First Prize by the Oklahoma Romance Writer’s Association as the best Inspirational Romance of 2018 and was awarded a Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2019 for Inspirational Fiction. It is the 2019 winner for Best Inspirational Fiction in the RWA Golden Quill Contest, Best Romance in the American Book Awards, and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award of Fiction. Amy’s 2019 work, The Devil’s Fortune, a finalist in the Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing Awards and winner of an Illumination Award, is based, in part, on Amy’s family history. The third book of Amy’s Chincoteague Island Trilogy, Island of Hope, was released in August of 2019.