“Strawberry Shortcake” Ice Cream Bars
Last week I set out to make my favorite childhood frozen treat, the good humor “strawberry shortcake” ice cream bars. I LOVED these things as a kid. They even had them at my middle school and high school, and I ate one about 50% of the days that I was in school those 7 years. I wanted to recreate them not only for the challenge of it, but also because it’s strawberry season and I thought they would taste really nice with homemade ingredients and fresh local berries.
These bars proved to be a bit harder than I initially expected. First of all, I haven’t made ice cream since I left my gelato production job in February, and even then, I was used to making it in a professional environment with all the best equipment. I failed the first try. I also winged a cookie recipe with some of the strawberry puree in the dough in an attempt to make some of the crust red. That cookie was NOT good. After all this work, I couldn’t even find popsicle sticks, so I had to buy the cheap 1 dollar HFCS specials at the store and melt them down to harvest my own sticks!
Artsy.
Some tasty strawberries from the farmers market.
Making the puree. I hate seeds in my fruit. They get stuck in my teeth all day.
The secret to this ice cream is using milk powder to literally turn strawberry puree into milk. That way, the watery strawberry puree wont make the final texture of the ice cream taste icy. After you mix the milk powder into warm milk and let the base cool down, it has a nice thick texture.
My terrible ice cream maker took like 2+ hours to freeze these. Yet another fail, but the end result tasted great regardless.
I put the vanilla ice cream down first, placed all the sticks, and topped it with the strawberry.
After hardening overnight.
Yuuppp.
These are those attempted red cookies I mentioned earlier. They tasted like rocks.
Moving along! The hardened ice cream bar getting it’s cookie coating. This was even a pain because the cookies weren’t sticking right at first and the bars threatened to melt and break off the stick.
But in the end, all was well. Some of the strawberry puree on top just to make them look a little more like the real thing.
One bite and I realized that it was totally worth all the trials and tribulations this crazy recipe caused me.
They tasted like the Good Humor version, with the crunchy cookie bits and the strawberry-vanilla combo, but everything just tasted much fresher and more delicious.
They were also a little bigger than their original counterparts, but that was no problem for the roommates and me.
“Strawberry Shortcake” Ice Cream Bars
Ingredients
- 1 Pint Whole Milk
- 1 Pint Heavy Cream
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 45 Grams Milk Powder
- 1/8 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- Pinch Salt
- 1 Pound Strawberries
- 1 Pint Heavy Cream
- 1 Pint Whole Milk
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 90 Grams Milk Powder
- 1/8 Teaspoon Xanthan Gum
- Pinch Salt
- 3 Sticks Butter
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
- 3.5 Cups Flour
- Pinch Salt
Instructions
- For the vanilla ice cream, mix a quart of cream with a quart of milk and 2 cups sugar. Heat to steaming but not simmering. Remove from heat and whisk in 90 grams of milk powder (a 1 quart packet). Let cool fully and freeze in your ice cream maker.
- For the strawberry ice cream, puree 2 lbs of strawberries and strain to remove seeds and any chunks. Heat 1 quart cream, 1 cup milk, and 2 cups sugar to steaming but not simmering. Remove from heat and whisk in 180 grams of milk powder (two 1 quart packets.) Allow to cool for about 5 minutes and whisk in the strawberry puree. Cool fully and freeze in your ice cream maker.
- For the cookies, mix 3 sticks of butter with 1 cup of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. Mix in 3 and a half cups of flour and some salt. Form a log and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Cut rounds off the log and bake at 350 for about a half hour until hardened but not really browned.
- Then it’s just a matter of making the things. Spread out the vanilla on a plate, put down your sticks, and top with the strawberry. Allow to harden, cut, and roll in the crushed cookies. I dabbed on additional strawberry puree to make them look more like the packaged kind.
WHAT!?!? How come I was not offered one of these?
These look great! I am always impressed with your resilience when it comes to making a new recipe. I think crushed, dehydrated strawberries (like the ones that come in berry themed cereals, not the chewy kind) would be a great addition to the crumbled cookies and add the right flecks of red!
YUM! Next I would like you to recreate Jello Pudding Pops since they are no longer sold and I will miss their strange texture for the rest of my life!
You know, I was watching Masterchef a couple days ago and I was like, “You know who should be on this show? TFIMB!”. Seriously dude.
I think you can get popsicle sticks at craft stores…not sure if you looked there.
I would want a giant block of ice cream right about now… I like the melting popsicles gif
These were the one thing that I would ALWAYS get from the ice cream truck as a kid! I loved them! Those and the chocolate version. Might have to whip these up on an off day coming up =)
i wanna know the answers! you cant leave us hanging.
what happened to the cat who ate a ball of yarn?
what has teeth but cannot bite?
your perseverance is always impressive:)
What happened to the cat who ate a ball of yarn? She had mittens!
What has teeth but cannot bite? A comb.
Dan, I want one. Why do you hold out on me like this.
ERMAHGERD!!!
These look amazing. I would have eaten all those popsicles for you instead of letting them melt.
yeah, popsicle sticks are always in the craft section now. Walmart has a bunch of different sizes.
My kids do love ice cream. So, this will be new idea for their recipe…
So I’m reading through the recipe and I was wondering if it would be less a hassle to do a layer of the crumbled cookie on the bottom of your pan, then ice cream, stick, ice cream, and cookie on top? Or would the cookie get soggy (that is my biggest fear). I’m glad I found this recipe. thank you for sharing 🙂
This is awesome!
Hey, looks delicious! Maybe you could go over how to make their chocolate counterparts; Chocolate Eclair? 🙂