As soon as the warmer weather arrives, ice cream takes centre stage and becomes everyone’s favourite dessert at home. The recipe I’m sharing today is the perfect way to enjoy it, because these homemade cookie cups or Cookie Cups with ice cream are the perfect alternative to glass dessert bowls or ceramic ramekins. And they come with one huge advantage: there’s nothing to wash up afterwards. They’re simply brilliant!
To make these cookie cups, all we need is our favourite cookie recipe and a muffin tin, such as the Lodge Cast Iron Muffin Pan for 6 Muffins. You’ll see that not only is it very easy to shape the cookies into bowls, but they also bake perfectly and evenly, thanks to the excellent heat retention and distribution of cast iron. That’s exactly what we’re looking for when baking cookie dough; there mustn’t be any underbaked spots, so that our cookie cup can successfully fulfil its heroic mission of holding the ice cream.
For the cookies, I recommend the New York Cookies recipe that we have on the blog. This dough is absolutely delicious and, when topped with a scoop of vanilla, chocolate or cream ice cream, makes an ideal dessert or the perfect afternoon treat. If you’d like to know how to make Cookie Cups with ice cream or homemade cookie cups, here’s everything you need to know!
Ingredients
- 230 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 150 g light brown sugar
- 100 g white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 420 g plain flour
- 360 g chocolate chips
- 180 g chopped walnuts (optional)
Method
- Place the butter and both sugars in the bowl of your KitchenAid stand mixer. Beat for one minute at high speed using the whisk attachment to cream the butter and fully incorporate the sugar.
- Reduce the speed and add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Turn off the mixer and replace the whisk with the flat beater. Add the sifted flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix at medium speed until fully combined. You should obtain a smooth, soft dough.
- Add the chocolate chips and, if using, the chopped walnuts. If you prefer not to use walnuts, you can add a little more chocolate chips or slightly increase the amount of flour.
- Divide the dough into equal portions and place them on a tray. Chill in the refrigerator until slightly firm.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 175°C and grease the cavities of your Lodge cast iron muffin pan.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and begin shaping the cookie cups.
- Place one portion of dough into each cavity and press it down to form a bowl shape.
- Bake for approximately 15–17 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and gently press the centre of each cookie to create a deeper bowl shape. You can use a spoon to help.
- Return the cookies to the oven and bake for a further 5–8 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a cooling rack for a few minutes to allow the cookies to cool slightly.
- Once they have cooled a little, carefully remove them from the pan, running a knife around the edges if necessary.
- Place the cookie cups on the cooling rack and leave them to cool completely. Your cookie cups are now ready!
- Add a scoop of your favourite ice cream to each Cookie Cup and decorate as desired before serving. Enjoy!
Suggestions
- Any ice cream served in these cookie cups is guaranteed to be delicious. If you’d like to try some of the recipes from our blog, my favourites include S'More ice cream, vanilla ice cream and stracciatella ice cream.
- The amount of dough placed in each cavity should be enough to cover it fully without making the walls too thin (approximately 50–70 g). If you find that the portion isn’t sufficient, simply add a little more dough so that the cookie cup is thick enough to bake properly without burning and strong enough to hold the ice cream. The video shows roughly what the result should look like.
