Missing that discontinued drive-thru favorite? My homemade Copycat Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry is creamy, sweet, and loaded with cookies and cereal, perfect for cooling down on a hot New England summer day!
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When I heard the news a few years back that McDonald's was releasing a new McFlurry flavor, and that the flavor would be something called Peanut Butter Crunch, I was immediately intrigued! One of the best pairings ever has got to be peanut butter and ice cream.
Sadly, that new flavor was only available for a brief time, then disappeared—and I haven't seen it back since!
I figured it was my responsibility to salvage that delectable treat and create a homemade Copycat Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry recipe. It features vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and chocolate cereal and cookies, too. Now, you and I and all our friends can get our peanut butter ice cream treat fix any time of the year we need it!
In a nutshell... 🐿️
- What this is: A homemade version of a discontinued McDonald's drive-thru favorite dessert.
- You'll love this part: A blend of ice cream, cereal, and cookies, this is a simple treat to make at home, especially with kids!
- How it's made: Mix cookie chunks, chocolate, and cereal into ice cream, then serve.
Jump to:
What is a Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry?
Why McDonald's discontinued their fan-favorite peanut butter-flavored McFlurries, I'll never understand. First, it was the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup McFlurry, and then the more recent Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry.
In a July 2023 press release, McDonald's revealed the debut of a new McFlurry flavor, one with "a crispy cereal mix and chocolatey peanut butter cookie pieces" blended into its soft serve vanilla ice cream. How dang good does that sound?? Those mix-ins were swirled into the ice cream in the classic flurry style.
In my copycat take on the Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry, I turned to the best peanut butter cereal ever: Reese's Puffs! This cereal is lightly crispy and LOADED with chocolate and peanut butter flavor. Perfect! And better yet, I discovered that there's a Reese's Puffs Minis cereal that's ideal for these Flurries. (But the larger Puffs will also work if that's all that's available.)
As for the cookies, I use classic Nutter Butter sandwich cookies for some crunch and extra peanut butter flavor.
More peanut butter goodness!
Peanut Butter Balls
A homemade candy with a rich coating of chocolate.
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Why you'll love this Copycat Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry
Here are three reasons that you should make this copycat Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry recipe:
- It's really easy.
- The Flurries are ready fast.
- The peanut butter treats are so delicious.
- You can have them whenever you want!
Since soft serve isn't easy to churn up at home, this recipe uses regular, rich vanilla ice cream. Use a stand mixer or even just a spoon to blend in the peanut butter-chocolate cookies and cereal.
It's a fun and oh-so-satisfying frosty treat to make for the family or for your friends. And even though McDonald's made their peanut butter McFlurry disappear, with this recipe it doesn't matter—you can make a Peanut Butter Crunch Flurry at home whenever you want.
Since hard vanilla ice cream is more dense than airy soft serve, these homemade Flurries are very filling! The recipe makes three large servings, or you can divvy them into six smaller servings.
And for the best crunch, eat these Flurries right away.
For the kids!
Kid-Friendly Summer Recipes
Get this kids in the kitchen this summer to make some tasty treats together, like frosty milkshakes and cool fruit desserts.
🔪 How to make a Copycat Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry at home
Ingredients:
- Vanilla Ice Cream: Choose a good quality brand of vanilla bean hard ice cream, such as Edys, Friendly's, or Breyer's.
- Reese's Puffs Cereal: Look for the "Mini" version of this cereal. If it's not available at your store, regular-sized Reese's Puffs cereal work well, too.
- Nutter Butter Cookies: These are the classic cookies we used to have in our lunch boxes! Peanut-shaped sandwich cookies filled with a smooth peanut butter cream. You'll find them stocked in the cookie aisle. You can also use other peanut butter sandwich cookies, such as peanut butter Oreos.
- Mini Chocolate Chips: These mini chocolate chips are just the right size to add bits of chocolate to the Flurry.
- Milk: You'll need just a splash of milk in the Flurry mixture, to help everything get blended.
Put everything in a bowl
Put the ice cream, cookies, cereal, chocolate chips, and milk into a big bowl.
Blend
Gently mix it all together with a stand mixer or a spoon.
Devour
That's it! Your homemade Peanut Butter Crunch Copycat McFlurries are ready to eat.
Copycat Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry FAQs
McDonald's adds the toppings—whether Oreos, M&M's, or peanut butter crunch ingredients, to their famous vanilla soft serve, and then blends the sweets into the ice cream. At one time all locations had a big machine to do this, with a square, plastic spoon that served as both the mixing paddle and the thing you ate them with. However, many locations ditched the space-taking machine and now just mix them by hand.
McDonalds uses soft serve ice cream in their ice cream desserts, including ice cream cones, sundaes, milkshakes, and McFlurries. The soft serve is a blend of cream, sugar, stabilizers, and lots of air. Soft serve is a delicious variety of real ice cream; how good or well made it is depends on where you get it and the quality of the ingredients used.
In Vermont, the best soft serve ice cream is the creemee. It's made with a more dense and higher fat cream base, sourced from local dairies like Kingdom Creamery of Vermont. That base makes it especially rich and velvety.
Since soft serve ice cream is usually made at home, my Peanut Butter Flurry recipe uses softened, real vanilla hard ice cream instead.
The homemade Peanut Butter Crunch Flurry is best served immediately because the cereal and cookies get very soft if they're made too far ahead of time.
Tips:
- If your vanilla ice cream is rock-hard, let it sit out for a few minutes to soften, so that it's just soft enough to be able to mix in the ingredients.
- Since they're made with hard vanilla ice cream instead of airier soft serve, these homemade Flurries are very filling! The recipe makes three large servings, or you can divvy them into six smaller servings.
The recipe for a homemade Copycat McDonald's Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry is below! And here are more sweet and peanut buttery treats to try:
💬 Did you make and devour this recipe? Leave a comment below.
📖 Recipe
Copycat Peanut Butter Crunch McFlurry
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Ingredients
- 3 cups vanilla bean ice cream, softened slightly (Use half of a 1.5 quart container)
- 1 cup Reese's Puffs peanut butter cereal (Or about 1½ cups of mini Reese's Puffs cereal)
- 6 Nutter Butter peanut butter sandwich cookies, broken into small pieces
- 2 tablespoons mini semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Get everything into the bowl:
- The 3 cups vanilla bean ice cream, softened slightly should be just soft enough to be able to mix the ingredients in. If it's too hard, let it sit on the counter for several minutes to soften.
- Add the softened ice cream, 1 cup Reese's Puffs peanut butter cereal, 6 Nutter Butter peanut butter sandwich cookies, broken into small pieces, 2 tablespoons mini semisweet chocolate chips, and 2 tablespoons milk into the bowl of a stand mixer. (Or in a large mixing bowl if using a hand mixer or stirring by hand.)
Blend:
- Pulse the mixer several times to gently mix the ingredients into the ice cream. Break up any large chunks of ice cream with a wooden spoon to help them blend.
- You want the ingredients to be just mixed in: don't overmix, or the ice cream will start to get melted and soupy.
Serve!
- Spoon the mixture into serving dishes. For the best crunch, serve them immediately.
Notes
- If your vanilla ice cream is rock-hard, let it sit out for a few minutes to soften, so that it's just soft enough to be able to mix in the ingredients.
- Since they're made with hard vanilla ice cream instead of airier soft serve, these homemade Flurries are very filling! The recipe makes three large servings, or you can divvy them into six smaller servings.
Nutrition
Anonymous says
Mmmmmm! Such a delight!
Nancy Mock says
And by making a homemade version, we don't have to wait for McDonald's to bring it back!
Christian says
My favorite part of this is the ability to change the chocolate chip level to suit one’s taste!
Nicely done!
Nancy Mock says
So glad you like it!!!