Barbra Streisand's Instant Coffee Ice Cream Has An Unexpected Ingredient

Barbra Streisand is the beautiful voice behind the classic holiday song, "My Favorite Things," which got us thinking: What are Barbra Streisand's favorite things, specifically, her favorite foods?  She once shared with W Magazine that her tastes range from elegant dishes like a mushroom soufflé to good ol' comfort foods like hot dogs and fries. And it turns out the singer also has a thing for coffee ice cream.

In an interview with Billboard Magazine, Streisand said that she once recorded a podcast with Alec Baldwin where she talked about how much she craved the Brazilian Coffee Ice Cream made by McConnell's, and was stunned when Baldwin had several pints of the ice cream shipped to her house. More proof of this coffee ice cream obsession is a curious retro cookbook from the '60s called "Singers & Swingers In The Kitchen," a collection of "turned on" and "grooviest" recipes. In the book is Streisand's recipe for "Barbra's Instant Coffee Ice Cream." 

The easy, no-churn ice cream is made with just four ingredients, one of which is instant coffee, of course. But one of the ingredients that really stands out? Marshmallows. Here's how marshmallows make this ice cream both delicious and possible. 

The simple recipe for Barbra's Instant Coffee Ice Cream (shared by Lifehacker) uses marshmallows to achieve two things. First, they give the ice cream a wonderful, marshmallowy sweetness. There's no other sugar in the recipe, just marshmallows. They're melted into a mixture of cream, milk, and instant coffee granules. Then, the mixture goes into a tray and is placed in the freezer. Marshmallows are made with gelatin, the stabilizing ingredient used in all kinds of desserts, like panna cotta, jellies, and mousse. In this ice cream, it helps the mixture set into a soft and scoopable texture. The sweet coffee ice cream is ready to eat in just a couple of hours, with no machine or churn necessary. 

In the "Singers & Swingers In The Kitchen" cookbook, the coffee ice cream recipe states, "Barbra likes this with pretzels, believe it or not." The idea of pairing sweets with salty treats like pretzels may have seemed a little out there in the '60s, but today, everyone knows that this combination is to die for. So do what Barbra does: Grab a bag of pretzels! Fold them into the ice cream or just use them to dip into the sweet, frozen treat.