These ice cream sandwiches are inspired by the ones from Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I saw a couple videos about them and they sounded amazing! Since I can’t just go to Animal Kingdom to try them, I decided to make a version at home. I haven’t tried the original one and am not sure of its exact flavor, so it’d be hard to call these a copycat. However, I watched and read a lot of what has been said about them and feel like I am at least very close. If nothing else, it’s a fun version to try at home. And if you’ve never heard of them, just make them because they are awesome!

Testing, Testing!

I spent a good bit of time testing the brownie and cookie dough layers. I wanted the ice cream sandwich to have a good bite and not have one layer significantly firmer than the other. The trickiest layer was the cookie dough. Cookie dough is dense and made with butter, and both factors make for a very firm layer when frozen. So, I started with reducing the butter and replacing it with oil. The butter/oil combination gives both the flavor from butter and a softer texture when frozen from the oil.

Another thing I added was some corn syrup, similar to adding corn syrup to the fudge layer of my Copycat Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake. Corn syrup doesn’t fully freeze, so it helps things stay soft in the freezer. That was the final secret to nailing the texture, I think, because the cookie dough came out perfectly!

As for the brownie layer, I tested out my classic easy brownie recipe (oil-based) and my newest fudgy brownie recipe (butter-based), but without the chocolate chips. The brownie layer was naturally softer when frozen than the cookie dough with both versions. I ultimately decided to go withe the fudgy brownie recipe. It’s still soft when frozen, but also holds up a little better to the ice cream and cookie dough layers to meet their firmness. I’m so in love with the final version of these – firm enough to slice and hold the ice cream, soft enough to bite into straight from the freezer.

This cherry chocolate chip cake is an old recipe that I decided to update with even more cherry flavor. The chopped cherries really add so much, plus the cake itself is different. It’s now more closely based on my moist vanilla cake, with changes that help keep the chocolate chips and chopped cherries afloat. It was good before but those few changes make it even better now.

There are cherries and chocolate chips in literally every bite of this cake, without there being too much of one or the other. When it comes to the cherries, you need maraschino cherries. And not just any maraschino cherries, but the bright red classic ones. The ones they put in drinks at restaurants. With the corn syrup and all. I tested this recipe with a few brands to be sure it would work with them all and it did. However, the more natural maraschino cherries didn’t give the cake nearly as much flavor. So, if you want to be sure you taste the cherry, stick with the bright red, unnatural ones. Ha!

I’m totally loving this coconut custard pie recipe. Various versions of this classic pie have been around for a while, but when testing them, I was a little disappointed. The textures were funky, they were over the top on the shredded coconut, or the eggs scrambled. There was rarely much “custard” to be found and they weren’t something I’d bake again. They definitely didn’t meet the idea I had in my head.

I decided to take a page from my honey pie recipe and partially cook the custard on the stove, before finishing it in the oven. So this recipe actually begins with that honey pie recipe, with some changes, of course. If you’ve ever made that pie – and you should, it’s one of my absolute favorites – then you know that the texture of this pie is amazing. This is a true custard-based pie with coconut flavor that’s not too much, and shredded coconut that complements the custard, rather than taking it over. It’s so good and is the new way you should make coconut custard pie.

There is SO much variation between brownie recipes, it’s crazy. I have various brownies on my site that all work well in their own ways for their specific recipes. As far as a plain (but not at all boring) brownie, I’ve always loved my Like-A-Box-Mix Brownies above all else. It’s a little cakier and lighter and truly delicious.

However, I’ve been working on the perfect fudgy brownie for some time. I love my blondie recipe so very much, that I actually started there. What I love about the final brownie recipe is that they are super easy to make, have that signature crackly top and fudgy center, are made with just cocoa powder and chocolate chips (no melted chocolate in the brownie batter). Plus they aren’t too sweet, or too bitter. Getting just the right flavor and texture is tough, but these brownies totally achieve it. They are rich and fudgy and stay nice for several days.

While I already have a delicious, classic banana pudding recipe, I’ve always loved banana pudding made with sweetened condensed milk, too. I incorporated that into my banana pudding pie because I love it so much. So when I saw that the copycat versions of Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding used sweetened condensed milk, I thought it sounded pretty good. Then I wondered if it could be just as good from scratch. And the answer is no…it’s even better!

This version is still made with sweetened condensed milk, like the other copycats, because that’s part of what gives the dessert its great flavor. It just skips the instant pudding mix, which I was surprised to see Magnolia Bakery using in theirs. It’s kind of crazy when you consider just how simple it is to make from scratch. And, you can make a whole trifle dish of this version for less than the cost of a pint at the bakery!