My kids and I love a fun themed movie night and last night the movie of choice was The Sandlot. Our menu for the evening consisted of hamburgers and fries with s’mores Nutella ice cream for dessert.

For those who don’t know the movie, it follows the story of a group of baseball loving boys in the summer of 1962. They find themselves in a big pickle when they accidentally use a signed Babe Ruth baseball that lands over the fence squarely into the home of a huge dog known as “The Beast”.

This funny story, told through the eyes the kids, is just an innocent, feel good movie that the whole family can watch.

The ice cream recipe gave us some leftover egg whites, so we also made some Nutella meringue cookies (recipe below).

We chose s’mores ice cream because of the famous scene when the boys are having a sleepover that goes something like this:

Would you like a s’more?

Some more of what?

You’re killing me, Smalls!

So, we decided to make our own version of an ice cream s’more. My husband and I had recently gone out to a nice restaurant that served this amazing Nutella ice cream, so I have been dying to try making it at home.

We followed this recipe from Entertaining with Beth and made it using our ice cream machine. I then made a marshmallow sauce using some leftover marshmallow fluff we had and sprinkled some crushed graham crackers on top.

INGREDIENTS

Nutella Ice Cream

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 6 egg yoks
• 1/2 cup Nutella
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Marshmallow Sauce

• 1 cup marshmallow fluff
• 2-3 Tbsp. water

Toppings: Crushed graham crackers & Hershey bars

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Prepare your ice cream machine by freezing the insert overnight.
2. Place 6 egg yolks in a heat-safe mixing bowl and set aside.
3. Heat cream, milk, sugar, and salt on low heat.
4. Pour a small amount of the cream mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly to temper the eggs.
5. Add the eggs back into the saucepan and continue to whisk.
6. Using a candy thermometer, bring the mixture up to 180F.
7. Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in the Nutella and vanilla.
8. Strain the mixture through a sieve into another bowl and place in the refrigerator to cool for 2 hours.
9. Add the mixture to your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add in chocolate chips once mixture has started to thicken.
10. For Marshmallow sauce: Heat marshmallow fluff and add water until it is the desired consistency. If it gets too thin, just add some extra marshmallows to thicken it up. Top ice cream with crushed graham crackers.
11. Enjoy!

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This ice cream is extremely rich but very tasty. Honestly, one scoop was more than enough for me. Even my son, who is a chocoholic, said that he couldn’t eat anymore sweets for the day.

What I did love about this ice cream was how creamy it was. I loved the marshmallow sauce and the added chocolate chips in the ice cream definitely helped give it a crunch.

When making this ice cream, I would just be sure to give yourself plenty of time to make it. Making the custard doesn’t take long, but then it needs to chill for two hours, takes maybe 30 minutes in the ice cream machine, and then we had to freeze ours overnight to get solid.

It was worth the wait if you are looking for a very decadent dessert.

Ease to Make: 8/10

Taste: 7/10

Clean-Up: 8/10

Overall: 8/10

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Nutella Swirled Meringue Cookies

After we made this Nutella ice cream, I had six leftover egg whites and about half a jar of Nutella. So, with the help of Tablespoon, we found a recipe to make Nutella Swirled Meringue Cookies. Because we had six egg whites from the ice cream, we doubled the recipe as listed below.

INGREDIENTS

• 6 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 Tbsp powered sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp white distilled vinegar
• 1/2 – 1 cup Nutella

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat oven to 275F. Prepare cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
2. In large bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
3. Gradually beat in granulated sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla, and vinegar until mixture looks fluffy and glossy.
4. In a small bowl, microwave Nutella 20-30 seconds until melted. Drizzle Nutella on top of egg and sugar mixture.
5. Drop by heaping spoonfuls or use a piping bag and place mixture on prepared cookie sheet 1-inch apart.
6. Bake 40-50 minutes until cookies sound hollow when the bottoms are tapped. Turn the oven off and leave cookies in with the door closed for 1 hour.

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I have never made meringue cookies, but they could not have been easier. Not only that, but they are super delicious and addicting! My son enjoyed making these with me because there wasn’t anything overly complicated with them. It is essentially mix everything in a bowl and plop it on a cookie sheet.

The only thing to note is that doubling the recipe does make really large cookies. Because of this, I had some extra batter that I put in the fridge while the first batch cooked. In hindsight, the Nutella started to seize up again and the egg whites deflated some.

If trying this recipe again, I would first try to use a piping bag to make taller cookies and only do one batch. If I still had leftover batter, then I would try beating the eggs mixture again before cooking the second batch. Either way, the second batch of cookies came out tasting fine, but they are a little flat. Plus, it was a pain to double the 1 hour 40 minute baking time.

Ease to Make: 10/10

Taste: 9/10

Clean-Up: 10/10

Overall: 10/10

Overall, our Nutella desserts and themed movie night was a success! We will definitely be making these recipes again in the future.