Easy Ice Cream Dessert Ideas From Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream

Jeni Britton Bauer, the founder of Columbus, Ohio-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, has a new cookbook out called, of course, Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Desserts ($24).

She stopped by our Test Kitchen this week to demonstrate some great stuff from the book (stay tuned). But since the busy long weekend is approaching we asked her for some tips on making no-fuss, no-recipe frozen treats and ice cream hacks.

① Skip the hot fudge. Make a cherry sauce from scratch instead: "It's the perfect time of year for cherries," says Britton Bauer. No recipe required: Simmer some stemmed, pitted cherries with sugar and a little brandy until a boozy, sweet-tart sauce develops. Drizzle a bit on a big old bowl of vanilla. Eat. Repeat.

② Go nuts. Britton Bauer's scoop shops serve a killer hazelnut-chocolate ice cream sandwich–but it involves piping and baking macarons from scratch. (Not today, thanks.) To replicate the flavors, Britton Bauer suggests roasting peeled, chopped hazelnuts in the oven until they get very, very browned. Then, take a cold scoop of dark-chocolate ice cream and roll it in the roasted nuts. Boom: chocolate-hazelnut bliss–and a more sophisticated take on a Snowball.

③ Fake it. The new book has more than 100 recipes for ice cream desserts. But you can hack your own ice cream pie by making a simple graham-cracker crust in a pie dish (or buying one pre-made–Britton Bauer isn't opposed), filling it with your favorite flavor of ice cream and topping it with loads of fresh whipped cream (aim for too much, she recommends). "For some reason, ice cream just needs whipped cream. It's a temperature and texture thing," Britton Bauer says.