On Tuesday, my fabulous purple bangs were dyed back to brown and also had lowlights put in while I was at it. As much as I am unhappy about this transition (and feel like an imposter when I look in the mirror), I decided to make myself feel better by coming up with the theory that the brown hair will send good vibes into the world, making my experiments work better and therefore help me graduate sooner and get a job (hence the need for normal looking hair). Sure enough, the experiment that has been an extra pain lately finally worked! I call it my brown hair magic, and you cannot make fun of me because it’s working. It’s also my birthday tomorrow, so I can do what I want.

I’m going to go ahead and tell you that this ice cream might be one of my favorite homemade versions ever. That should mean a lot since I have made ice cream flavors consisting of peanut butter cup s’mores, double cake batter truffle, and Reese’s peanut butter cup. The ice cream base is malted vanilla which is heavenly enough on its own, but then chopped up homemade cosmic brownies are thrown in along with some extra sprinkle action. The best part about making the cosmic brownies from scratch, is that I under baked them for extra fudgy gloriousness.

P.S. Tonight is the start of Beale Street Music Fest – I like to pretend it’s a weekend-long party dedicated to my birthday every year.

One year ago: Sausage, Red Bell Pepper and Spinach Pesto Pizza

MALTED VANILLA COSMIC BROWNIE CHUNK ICE CREAM

Makes about 1-1/2 quarts

Ingredients:

1 cup milk (I used2%)

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup vanilla malted milk powder

5 egg yolks

2 cups chopped cosmic brownies (store bought or homemade)

Rainbow chips or sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

1. Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat, and infuse for one hour. Remove the bean pod.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the heavy cream and malt powder. Set aside.
3. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour some of the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Whisk it into the malted milk mixture. Allow to cool, then cover and chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, overnight.
5. Freeze ice cream in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. As you remove the ice cream from the machine, fold in the chopped brownies and sprinkles if using. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Source: Adapted from The Perfect Scoop and Nutmeg Nanny.