Dairy Queen Blizzard Battle: Pumpkin or Apple?

Are you Team Apple Pie or Team Pumpkin Pie?

That's what Dairy Queen asked Tina and I when they reached out to us about their Blizzard Battle! Though Tina and I are both pumpkin fans, when our contact offered to send us pumpkin or apple swag, we decided the best idea was for one of us to be sent pumpkin and the other apple.

So as you can see, I was sent a lovely package of pumpkin themed goodies, along with a couple of gift certificates to try the Blizzards.

to divide the swag though, so Tina got the apple swag and I got the pumpkin swag and we both got gift certificates to Dairy Queen to try the Blizzards. 

When I took my family, I opted for the smallest size of each of the two Blizzards so I could try both. Small is not, well, small. In this supersized world we live in, I shouldn't have been surprised. I don't think I could have finished one of the smalls, never mind two. Anyway, in the name of science, I ordered both and knew I wouldn't be able to finish.

As you can see at left, my girls thoroughly enjoyed some cones with rainbow sprinkles while I was there doing the hard work of research for our blog about ice cream.

And what's a trip to Dairy Queen without a crown?! (Actually, I think my oldest had been wearing that crown all day and it was pure coincidence that she was wearing it...!)

And in the end? Surprise! I was totally Team Apple! I loved the flavor and the cinnamon-y pieces of pie crust mixed in.

I wonder what Tina will choose as her favorite? Do we have to switch gear? Here's the swag that Tina got in the mail -- but last I heard she hadn't made it out to DQ yet to actually try it out! Tina...we'll be waiting!

And readers, we'll be waiting! Enjoy your autumn -- if you are a pumpkin and/or apple fan like we are, this is your season!

Both Apple and Pumpkin Blizzards are wonderful. I do suggest you head out to try them out before the season ends!

Tis the season for Limited Edition Flavors

I never ever get to catch a segment of the Today show but I gave myself 10 minutes this morning to down my breakfast in front of the TV rather than my computer and glad I did. They had a quick segment on fall Limited Edition flavors with Roker and friends taste testing them all. I love the fall and the flavors that come with it. Sometimes I wish they were year round but maybe then I wouldn't appreciate them so much. It's all about....pumpkin lattes, pumpkin soup, pumpkin butter, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin martinis, pumpkin cupcakes....everything pumpkin. Love it!

So onto the flavors they highlighted and there's more to this than pumpkin. There were four flavors and all the hosts agreed on which they thought was the winner. Interestingly I didn't agree but to each there own. What's your pick?! Read on to the end of this post to see what the Today show gang chose.

Edy's Slow Churned Pumpkin
Sweet and Light Pumpkin Flavored Ice Cream Blended with the Perfect mix of Nutmeg, Cinnamon, and Ginger.

Blue Bunny 24 Karat Carrot Cake
Carrot Cake flavored Ice Cream Swirled with Cream Cheese Frosting Flavored Ice Cream with Carrot Cake Pieces....inspired by Duff Goldman

Turkey Hill Whoopie Pie
Chocolate Ice Cream with Whoopie Pie Pieces and Creamy Filling Swirl

Ben and Jerry's Cannoli
Marscapone Ice Cream with Fudge Covered Cannoli Pastry Shell Chunks and a Marscapone Swirl

And the favorite amongst the Today show hosts was ......drum roll please.....Turkey Hill Whoopie Pie!

My favorite (but to be fair I haven't tasted them all but know I don't even have to because I am biased on the all things Pumpkin....Edy's Pumpkin. 
Get out there and try these while they are around. I have a feeling none of these will disappoint.

Perfectly simple Pillsbury Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwiches

Start with Pillsbury Perfectly Pumpkin boxed cookie dough.

Just add an egg and butter.

Make teaspoon scoops.

And voila...awesome pumpkin cookies! Just the right amount of pumpkin and spice flavor and for added sweetness I sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top before baking.

Wait we're not finished yet....scoop your favorite ice cream in between two cookies. We chose oreo cookie to get some chocolate in there and then simple vanilla bean.

Roll sides in festive sprinkles or sugar

And you get a perfectly simple and festive and yummy ice cream sandwich!

Recipe: Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

I mentioned on Facebook that I may have found the ultimate pumpkin ice cream recipe but I wouldn't know until I froze it. I finally froze it. And...it's amazing!

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

• 1 can minus 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin (you could use the whole can, and I am sure it would be fine. See below as to why I didn't.)
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• a dash of ground cloves 

Mix all ingredients and chill. Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and churn according to your machine's instructions.

Here are my thoughts on this ice cream. It's fantastic. My friend and I tried it tonight and we both agreed. It tastes like a perfect frozen pumpkin pie.

My complaints? For some reason a ton of this ice cream stuck to the edges of the canister as it froze and so I had about 1/8 inch of hard frozen base against my canister that didn't get any air mixed in. In fact, the ice cream as a whole was really dense, so with the loss of the ice cream along the edge of the canister, and the denseness of the ice cream, I only got about two good cups.

Secondly, the after the ice cream was churned, I put it in the freezer to ripen. When I took it out of the freezer, it was rock hard. Once I let it soften for about ten minutes, the ice cream was perfect scooping temperature, and ended up being perfect on our palettes. Problem is, I didn't really want to wait ten minutes for my ice cream. I wanted it when I wanted it. But alas, this wait was a small price to pay for the ice cream we were able to savor

As you see, I garnished the ice cream with little star cookies. These cookies -- actually, graham crackers -- are the reason I am short two tablespoons of pumpkin from the can. I wanted to make graham crackers for Violet. I came across Stef from Cupcake Project's recipe for Pumpkin Graham Crackers. Yum! (To be honest though, I couldn't really taste the pumpkin and they really tasted like gingerbread cookies to me, but either way, I really like them!) Problem was, what to do with one can minus two tablespoons of pumpkin. I could have put it in the fridge for another day, but last time I did that, I forgot about it and it got to old to use -- and with the price I paid for a can of pumpkin (I am not sure why it was so high at my grocery store, seeing as there wasn't a shortage this year), I didn't want to waste it. Soooooo, I used it for the recipe that I have been dying to experiment -- pumpkin ice cream made with the simple combo of sweetened condensed milk.

And what a successful experiment it was!