© David Loftus
smush ins
method
Smush ins are one of the coolest things to make (see pages 62–3). I remember when I was a kid, me and my sister would always try to defrost our hard ice cream in our dessert bowls into almost a thick milkshakey consistency before scoffing the lot. Then as we matured we realized that many flavors could be mushed in to improve the flavor of the rubbishy ice cream that our parents always used to give us.
So, from the word “mush” and the phrase “mushing it in” they became “smush ins.” It was great going round the supermarkets as a kid secretly slipping possible smush ins into the cart. Anything could be a contender—from maple syrup to bashed up chocolate chips, meringue, fruit—you name it, we would smush it! Gummy candies aren’t so good though. But melted chocolate caramel bars are choooooooice.
All you need to do is get a big pot of vanilla ice cream and a selection of pos- sible smush ins (see the picture on the next page for inspiration). Take 2 large scoops of ice cream per person, blob these onto a clean chopping board, sprinkle or dribble over your flavors and then, with a spatula or fork, mush and smush them together. Scoop up and lob into a bowl or cone.
Give these a bash and make an event of them when you’ve got all the kids round. They’re really good fun and great to use as bribes to get the kids to help you with the proper cooking! Smush away.