Oat-of-this-swirled Copycat Ice Cream has brown sugar ice cream with cinnamon oat cookie dough and crumbles, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chunks and toasted oats.
Oat-of-this-swirled is my husband and I’s favorite Ben and Jerry’s flavor. Something about oats, brown sugar, chocolate and cinnamon is just so magical. One thing I love about all Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is how the chocolate pieces always melt in your mouth. I hate when an ice cream has chocolate chunks/chips/flakes and they are like chewing on cold plastic.
I achieved this melt-in-your-mouth chocolate moment by using chocolate melting wafers rather than traditional chocolate chips or chunks. Chocolate melting wafers have additional ingredients that help the chocolate easily melt, which works well even in a cold environment (like inside ice cream).
The best melting chocolate wafers
The best melting chocolate wafers are the Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers. I used them to coat my Chocolate Covered Strawberry Swiss Roll Cake and absolutely fell in love with the flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture. Once again, not sponsored…though a girl can dream.
I melted the wafers and spread them thin on parchment. I let it cool and harden before peeling away the parchment and chopping the chocolate into bite-sized chunks.
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How to make Oat-of-this-swirled Copycat Ice Cream
Ben and Jerry’s states that the Oat-of-this-swirled Ice Cream contains “Buttery Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Fudge Flakes & Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookie Swirls”. So I start with a brown sugar ice cream base.
Brown sugar ice cream is made by combining cream, milk, brown sugar, salt and vanilla in a pot. I warmed this mixture before tempering egg yolks with it and returning it to the heat to thicken slightly. I then let the mixture cool completely before adding it to an ice cream maker to churn.
For mix-ins, I toasted oats and made a cinnamon oat cookie dough and crumbles, and then melted chocolate wafers, let them cool and chopped them into chunks.
I took half of the cookie dough and baked it into crunchy crumbles and then left half as is. I think this was important to create a variation of texture in the ice cream.
Tips for homemade ice cream
Homemade ice cream is pretty easy, but there are some common mistakes. Here are some tips for avoiding those common mistakes:
- Let your ice cream base / custard cool COMPLETELY and chill COMPLETELY before pouring it into your ice cream maker.
- Whisk constantly while adding warm cream to the egg yolks and then again when you return the mixture to the heat. When in doubt, whisk it out. Otherwise, you risk cooking the egg and having to start over.
📖 Recipe
Oat-of-this-swirled Copycat Ice Cream
Ingredients
Brown sugar ice cream base
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- ⅔ cup brown sugar 145g
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 large egg yolks 108g
- Vanilla bean paste
Cinnamon oat cookie dough and crumbles
- 100 g granulated sugar ½ cup
- 25 g dark brown sugar 1 ½ tablespoons tightly packed
- 90 g cake flour toasted* (see notes, ¾ cup)
- 2 g baking powder ½ teaspoon
- 2 g kosher salt ½ teaspoon
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 20 g toasted oats 3 tablespoons
- 40 g grapeseed oil ¼ cup
- 12 g vanilla extract 1 tablespoon
Other and garnish
- 10 oz Chocolate wafers or magic chocolate shell
- Toasted oats see note for toasting instructions
Instructions
Make the ice cream base
- In a medium pot, simmer heavy cream, milk, brown sugar, salt and vanilla until sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Whisking constantly, slowly stream about a third of the hot cream into the yolks. Then add the yolk mixture back into the pot with the cream.
- Return the pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170°F on an instant-read thermometer), while whisking constantly.
- Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding any solids.
- Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.
- While the ice cream base is chilling, prep the mix-ins.
Make the cookie dough and crumbles
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Whisk the sugars, flour, baking powder, salt and toasted oats in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a medium bowl).
- Add the oil and vanilla and use the paddle attachment (or beaters with a hand mixer) to mix on low just until small clusters form. Remove half of the mixture and set it aside.
- Dump out the rest onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Pinch together smaller bits into larger clumps if you like larger cookie crumbles.
- Bake for 15 minutes until crunchy. Remove from the pan (saving the parchment) and let the crumbles cool completely.
- Dump the remaining dough onto the parchment and place another layer of parchment on top. Roll out with a rolling pin to form a sheet of cookie dough about ⅛-inch thick. Chill until ready to layer the ice cream.
Prep the chocolate chunks
- Melt the chocolate wafers in the microwave in 30 second bursts (or on the stove over a bain-marie). Pour the chocolate onto parchment paper and spread it thin with an offset spatula.
- Let cool completely. Peel the chocolate away from the parchment and chop into chunks. Set aside.
Churn the ice cream
- Pour the chilled ice cream base into an ice cream maker and churn according to instructions. (I use the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker Attachment and mix on 1 for 30-40 minutes).
- When the ice cream consistency is similar to soft serve, add the chocolate chunks and toasted oats (saving some for layering and garnish) and mix on low until combined.
Layer the ice cream
- Place three scoops of ice cream into the pan you’ll freeze it in (I used a 9”x5” metal loaf pan). Tear off bits of the sheet of cookie dough and place them atop the ice cream, pushing them in a bit if you’d like. Sprinkle additional chocolate and toasted oats, if desired. Repeat layering until the pan is full.
- Cover and freeze at least 4 hours or overnight. Scoop and enjoy!
