Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins

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My Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins are a family favorite and are super simple to make. Make the batter the day before and bake fresh the next morning for the perfect breakfast muffin.

What are Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins?

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins are simply muffins that have been made with melted vanilla bean ice cream added to the muffin batter before baking. Vanilla bean ice cream is used to flavor the muffin batter.

My family love muffins for breakfast or brunch. So, I always have some easy breakfast muffin recipes to hand. I like to make the batter up the day before, then store it overnight in the refrigerator, ready to bake the following morning.

Warm muffins, straight from the oven in the time it takes to make a fresh pot of coffee. Breakfast does not get any simpler. These Easy Ice Cream Muffins can be prepared baked and on the table in less than 30 minutes.

We enjoy ice cream in our home and our local grocer (HEB) has been running phenomenal sales on ice cream as the weather heats up here in Texas. I thought this would be an ideal time to experiment with some recipes that include ice cream.

How to make Vanilla Ice Cream Muffins:

• Prepare the Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins ingredients, ready to start.
• Preheat the oven to 375F degrees.
• Prepare a muffin tin with paper or silicone liners, or grease with butter.

• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, oat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

• Then in a separate bowl, mix together the vanilla bean seeds and ice cream.
• In a large mixing bowl, add the melted ice cream, butter and egg and mix together.
• Now add the flour bowl to the ice cream mixture and stir until combined.

• Divide the muffin batter equally into each section of the muffin tin.

• Place the muffin tin into the hot oven and bake the muffins for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Remove the tin from oven and remove the muffins from the tin and set aside to cool on a wire rack.

Recipe ingredients:

• ALL PURPOSE FLOUR: is mixed with the oat flour to form the base of the muffin batter.
• OAT FLOUR: you can buy oat flour at the store, alternatively do what I’ve done here and blitz rolled oats in the food processor to form an oat flour.
• GRANULATED SUGAR: I use white granulated sugar to add sweetness to the muffin batter.
• BAKING POWDER & BAKING SODA: are added to the muffin batter to help the cakes to rise.
• VANILLA BEAN: I split 1 vanilla bean and remove all the seeds to add to the muffin batter. This adds great flavor to the cake batter. A vanilla bean has a lot more vanilla flavor than either extract or essence, although you could substitute with 1 teaspoon of extract if you don’t have a whole vanilla bean.
• BUTTER: you can use salted or unsalted butter to make these muffins.
• ICE CREAM: butter pecan ice cream provides the flavor for the batter. The ice cream should be melted but not hot.
• EGG: 1 large egg is added to the muffin batter.

Flavor variations:

This recipe is super versatile and using the muffin batter as a base you can swap and add in other flavors to suit your own tastes. Here are some ideas:

• Swap the vanilla bean ice cream for any flavor of ice cream you enjoy eating, like strawberry, blueberry, chocolate or caramel.
• Stir some chopped nuts through the muffin batter. Crushed hazelnut, almond, walnut and pecan would all work with the vanilla.
• Add some dried fruits to the muffin batter, for example dried blueberries; raisins, cherries or figs.

Can Vanilla Ice Cream Muffins be made ahead:

These make the perfect easy breakfast muffins as the batter can be made the day before and stored in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake them. Simply warm the oven and bake the muffins for deliciously hot muffins, ready in minutes, any time of the day.

How long can you store ice cream muffins?

Once baked, cool the muffins and store in an airtight container on the counter top for 3-4 days.

Can I freeze muffins?

These delicious ice cream muffins are easily frozen. Once cooled, place the muffins into an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to enjoy, remove from the freezer and defrost at room temperature before enjoying.

Recipe tips:

• When heating up the ice cream, take care to just melt it and not over heat it. If the ice cream gets too hot you risk it splitting the muffin batter or scrambling the eggs.
• I like to use paper or silicone muffin tin liners as this makes getting the muffins out of the tin a whole lot easier. However, you can also grease the muffin tray with butter if you prefer, to stop the muffin batter from sticking.
• To make Gluten Free Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins ensure that the flour, rolled oats and baking powder you are using are all gluten free.

Don’t miss these other tasty muffin recipes here at When is Dinner:

• Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins
• Butter Pecan Ice Cream Muffins
• Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Healthy Apple Oatmeal Muffins
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
• Chunky Monkey Muffins
• Strawberry Muffins
• Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Peanut Butter Banana Oat Muffins

These are a few items I find helpful when preparing these Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins in my own kitchen:

Wilton Recipe Right Muffin Pan, 12-Cup Non-Stick Muffin PanNinja Food Chopper Express Chop with 200-Watt, 16-Ounce Bowl for Mincing, Chopping, Grinding, Blending and Meal Prep (NJ110GR)Pyrex 4-Piece Glass Measuring Cup Set with Large 8 Cup Measuring CupOXO Good Grips Mixing Bowl Set with Black Handles, 3-PieceOXO Good Grips Cake Tester – Non-Slip Handle – Simplify BakingPam Baking No-stick Cooking Spray 3pcsAmazonBasics Reusable Silicone Baking Cups, Pack of 12Tovolo Cupcake Scoop