The Idea
I'm obsessed with soft serve, and the unlimited meal plan plus the soft serve machine in the dining hall is probably the best (worst) thing that's ever happened to me. It's perfectly creamy and sweet, which makes for the ultimate treat after a long day of classes and studying. My go-to combo is chocolate ice cream with rainbow sprinkles... delicious, but a little boring.
One day, when the dining hall was out of chocolate ice cream, I knew I had to improvise. Vanilla ice cream isn't really my thing, so I decided to upgrade it with a scoop of peanut butter.
That's when I realized just how many options I had to make my ice cream that much better. I got to work on making my own version of a blizzard, right in the comfort of my own dining hall.
Mix-Ins
The trick to making the perfect blizzard is creativity. Sometimes the dining halls are lacking basically anything that seems edible, but there's always something you can use for your ice cream concoction.
Some mix-in suggestions are: peanut butter, brownies, cupcakes, cookies, almonds, pretzels, marshmallows, Oreos, chocolate syrup, bananas, chocolate chips, shredded coconut, sprinkles, M&M's, Cocoa Puffs, and Froot Loops. Between the cereal bar, the dessert section, the toppings bar, and the trail-mix station, there are literally endless options for making a blizzard.
How To Make It
The first step to making your blizzard is the soft-serve. Fill up a cup with your favorite flavor, or twist if decisions are too hard for you, then choose your mix-ins, as many as you want, and add them to the ice cream.
The trick here is to make everything small, so it will mix into the ice cream well. For brownies, crumple them up a little before pouring them in. For cookies, break them into small pieces first. For bananas, make sure they're cut into bite-size pieces before adding them to the mix.
Once all the toppings are in your ice cream, take a spoon and mix the toppings into the ice cream as much as you can. If you added peanut butter or chocolate syrup, make sure they're evenly distributed. Keep mixing until the final product looks more like a blizzard than just ice cream with toppings.
Flavor Suggestions
If you've never made a blizzard before and you're not sure what to add so that it tastes like ice cream store perfection, don't worry. I've got you covered.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana
This trio is the ultimate blizzard combo, plus the banana and peanut butter provide some protein to your sweet treat (so it's basically healthy)
Ingredients: Chocolate ice cream, a scoop of peanut butter, half a banana.
Optional: Chocolate syrup (for the chocolate lovers!)
The classic flavor for anyone with a sweet tooth, and definitely one of my personal favorites
Ingredients: Vanilla ice cream, vanilla cupcake or cake, rainbow sprinkles
Who said cereal was just for breakfast? Cereal is the most underrated ice cream topping, and one of the best too! Plus, it gives you an excuse to eat ice cream for breakfast, because soft serve and milk are practically the same thing, right?
Ingredients: Vanilla ice cream, any two cereals (Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes recommended!), rainbow sprinkles, shredded coconut
Cookies are a great dessert by themselves, but 100% better when you mix them into ice cream. Start with the basic cookies, then add any others that sound good. No such thing as too many cookies.
Ingredients: Twist ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, chocolate sprinkles.
Optional: Other cookie flavors (if available!)
Spice up this hearty snack with chocolate ice cream to satisfy your chocolate craving and fill you up.
Ingredients: Chocolate ice cream, pretzels, m and ms, shredded coconut, almonds
These are just a few suggestions to get you started, but, as you can see, the options are unlimited. If you need more ideas, check out this article to get some inspiration from the Blizzard King, Dairy Queen. Or just add your personal favorite mix-ins to any ice cream, and your treat is guaranteed to satisfy your cravings.
Happy mixing!