A magic shell recipe for a snappy ice cream coating in three flavors - chocolate, peanut butter and vanilla. View step-by-step VIDEO below.
Magic Shell in Three Flavors
This magic shell in three flavors is a delicious sauce that pours like a liquid but hardens fast on any cold surface including ice cream, popsicles and even chilled cupcakes. Tap with a spoon, and it gently cracks. Take a bite and it melts like a cool fudge in your mouth.
I made mine in several flavors, chocolate of course, but also peanut butter and a white version which is a bit different. But with the additions of extracts, flavor variations are endless. Add peppermint extract for mint, add lavender for calming lavender, add almond for a marzipan flavor. And how about a pinch of cayenne for a double snappy Mayan chocolate flavor.
Table of Contents For this Post
What Is Magic Shell?
This recipe is a copycat yet healthier version of the famed chocolate shell ice cream topping sold in a bottle at the supermarket. You might know of it, the sauce that when poured on your ice cream it hardens before your eyes.
Well, you might not like the ingredients - a long list of hard-to-pronounce and probably bad for your gut ingredients.
Wouldn't it be nice to serve a chocolate sauce that actually makes you feel good after eating? Enter a healthier version of homemade magic shell.
Ingredients for Chocolate Magic Shell
For the Chocolate Magic Shell, you'll need:
Chocolate - Use quality chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, at least 70% cacao
Oil - Use coconut oil (liquid), or olive oil.
For the Chocolate Peanut Butter Magic Shell, you'll need:
Chocolate - Use quality chocolate chips or chopped chocolate, at least 70% cacao
Peanut Butter - Use a runny quality brand that has only nuts as ingredients.
Oil - Use coconut oil (liquid), or olive oil.
For the White Magic Shell, you'll need:
Shredded Coconut - Be sure to buy a quality brand, and fresh blends better. You'll be using my homemade coconut butter recipe to blend this single ingredient into a delicious white shell.
Steps to Make Homemade Magic Shell
My complete recipe for all three flavors is in the recipe card below along with a step by step video. Here are the basic steps fora chocolate magic shell. The recipe card details how to make the other flavors.
1. Melt the chocolate in a microwavable container. I love using a glass pyrex measuring cup. Zap for 60 seconds. Stir until all are melted.
2. Add in the oil, and stir until all is melted into a gloriously shiny wonder. Let is cool a bit if it is too hot. You don't want to melt the frozen thing you are going to pour it on or dip it in.
3. Now pour or dip! Add sprinkles if you'd like before it turns solid, and then watch it turn solid. Once the shiny wet areas disappear (within seconds) you now have a magic shell on your treat.
How Does Magic Shell Work?
Scientifically, magic shell hardens because of the oil. Coconut oil especially is solid at room temperature but turns liquid when heated. However, once it is cooled again, it turns solid. That's why magic shell recipes are often made with coconut oil.
However, other oils work too. That's because even though oils such as avocado oil and olive oil and vegetable oils aren't solid at room temperature, they DO turn solid when heated and cooled. Just look at your stir fry pan when you throw it in the sink and run cold water on it.
Oils are also a wonderful nutritional addition to this treat, especially coconut oil which contains lauric acid known for heart health and weight support, and olive oil known for heart health and longevity benefits. And avocado oil? Well, it carries the benefits known of avocados which are vast - avocados are known to benefit nearly every body process that exists.
About Three Magic Shell Flavors
Here are more details regarding the three flavors.
1. Chocolate Magic Shell is exactly like the commercial flavor however healthier.
2. Peanut Butter Chocolate Magic Shell is a peanut butter flavored chocolate magic shell.
3. White Magic Shell tastes like vanilla coconut, because it is homemade coconut butter. It is easy to make by simply blending shredded coconut into coconut butter. Takes a few minutes in a high speed blender. And since it is naturally sweet, no sweetener is needed. It will however lend a coconut flavor so beware if coconut is not your thing. However, if you do like coconut, you'll love this and that it is so healthy, rich in potassium, magnesium, and fiber.
Tips To Make Magic Shell Correctly
It's pretty easy to make this shell, but there are few areas to watch out for:
1. Be sure the container that you use to melt the chocolate is dry. If there is a single drop of water, that will make the chocolate seize as it melts and turn crumbly and you'll cry. Actually if that happens, there is a way to fix seized chocolate - set the container into a pot of boiling water and keep stirring until the nasty crumbliness goes away. If it doesn't really, add a tsp of coconut oil and see if that helps. If it does, then add the coconut oil to that cup and you have your magic shell, done on the stove instead of microwave.
2. Regarding the peanut butter chocolate magic shell, be sure to use a natural peanut butter that don't have added sugar and merely contain just peanuts and oil such as Barney Butter, Justins or 365 brand. Don't use Jif or other brands that are full of sugar.
3. Regarding the white magic shell flavor, be sure to use shredded coconut, not flakes. It must be unsweetened and have only coconut in the ingredients. And it should be fresh.
How Long Does Magic Shell Last?
Homemade magic shell lasts for two weeks refrigerated, and indefinitely in the freezer. With each use however, you'll need to warm it up, microwave is fine, to a liquid state in order to give it back it's magic shell qualities.
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Recipes to Put Magic Shell On
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Magic Shell in Three Flavors
Ingredients
Chocolate Magic Shell
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp oil (coconut, avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil, or vegetable oil)
Peanut Butter Chocolate Magic Shell
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tbsp oil (coconut, avocado oil, extra virgin olive oil, or vegetable oil)
- 2 tbsp peanut butter (Use a quality butter such as Barney's or Justins or 365 brand. Or use Sunbutter, sunflower butter, for nut free)
White Magic Shell
- 1 cup shredded coconut (Should be unsweetened, fairly fresh, quality brand such as Bob's Red Mill) (Not coconut flakes)
Instructions
To Make Chocolate Magic Shell
- Melt the chips in a glass pyrex measuring cup at 60 seconds in the microwave. Add in the oil and stir until all is melted.
- Pour onto your ice cream, or dip your popsicle or chilled cupcake.
To Make Peanut Butter Magic Shell
- Melt the chips in a glass pyrex measuring cup at 60 seconds in the microwave. Add in the oil and peanut butter and stir until all is melted. Return to microwave for 15 second increments if the peanut butter is not quite melted.
To Make White Magic Shell aka Vanilla Coconut
- Blend the shredded coconut (not coconut flakes) in a high speed blender until it turns to liquid coconut butter.
- Drizzle the liquid coconut butter onto ice cream, or dip a popsicle or chilled cupcake.
Storage
- All three flavors can be stored in the refrigerator for about a month, covered. They will need to be warm in 15 second increments to be turned back to liquid before drizzling on desserts to form a shell.None of them are freezer friendly.
JonS
The peanut butter flavor is incredible!
Dee Dine
Thank you!