How to Make Ice Cream Bread

From the moment I heard about ice cream bread, I had to try it. The recipe is about as complicated as boiling water. Easy recipes for decadent things are try-worthy. The novelty of baking ice cream would blow the kids’ minds and I figured it would be fun thing to do on an otherwise listless day. That day was yesterday.

I chose strawberry ice cream because I thought it would give the bread a nice color and the strawberry pieces would lend it a lot of flavor. I used this blog post as my inspiration, but it did not go smoothly and I learned some lessons along the way.

The cake that is bread

First, I had to make my own self-rising flour, which was simple to do. You can buy it, but why?

Self-Rising Flour:

1 cup flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

MIX

I let the ice cream soften on the counter for 10-15 minutes. I began adding the ice cream to the flour in the stand mixer by big spoonfuls. Think of the spoon you use to serve mashed potatoes. That spoon. The ice cream was still cold, but pliable.

Unfortunately, I had the paddle mixer on the machine and as I added ice cream, it began to make this noise:

GGGRAaaaaargggggggneeeeeeeehweeeeeeRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGaaaaaaHELPuuuuuuurrrr as it lurched and then I pictured myself throwing $300 into the Diaper Champ. Oops. I switched to the dough hook, and therein lies the mystery of ice cream bread. It is bread, not cake. I was expecting a batter-like consistency when it was truly a dough.

Ice Cream Bread Dough

I sprinkled little butterflies in the bottom of the bundt pan and plopped glops of dough on top. I smashed it down and spread it evenly with the back of my big spoon and popped it in the oven for 35 minutes. I checked it when the timer went off. It was visibly doughy, so I set the timer for another five minutes. Then another five minutes. And another.

Mariposa

It took 50 minutes for it to fully bake. Not 35 minutes (but if you make it, check it at 35 minutes because maybe our home is located in a portal to another dimension or something)

After an hour of cooling, I turned the pan upside down and it vacated the bundt pan with ease and looked very pretty. Mouths were watering. I sliced it for the kids, who were screaming “CAKE” to each other. I told them no, it’s bread, but everyone persisted in calling it cake. It looks like cake.

But it doesn’t taste like cake.

There’s something disconcerting about putting what looks like cake in your mouth only to taste a slightly sweet bread. Does not compute.

Soon, we were dusting powdered sugar on slices and many of us added jams. Recommended: Lingonberry or Apricot. I stuck with strawberry.

Anyway, I’m not sure I get the point of ice cream bread. It’s fun to make, but it’s bread and not that special when you stop to think about it. It’s not like you’d hand out slices of Wonderbread for dessert. It wasn’t disgusting or inedible. Quite the contrary. With toppings, it was yummy. I think a nice homemade poundcake would be a better choice.

If you want to plow ahead with making ice cream bread, here’s how to do it:

1.5 Quarts of softened ice cream, whatever flavor strikes you as good in something called ice cream bread
3 cups of self-rising flour

Mix well, until it’s a well-blended dough.

Grease a bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, or 50 minutes if you are me.

Cool completely. Top it with something delicious.