When the summer heat settles in, everybody needs a sweet, frozen dessert stashed away in the freezer. These homemade strawberry shortcake ice cream bars are a refreshing bite of nostalgia that elevate the beloved ice cream truck pop. Cleverly using only five store-bought ingredients, this fruit dessert is made with creamy, jam-swirled strawberry ice cream and smooth vanilla ice cream and coated in crunchy sugar cookies and freeze-dried strawberries.
Ingredients
1 pt. strawberry ice cream
1/4 c. strawberry preserves
1 pt. vanilla ice cream
1 5.25-ounce package crispy sugar cookies
1 0.8-ounce package freeze-dried strawberries
Directions
- Scoop the strawberry ice cream into a large bowl. Stir until spreadable. Fold in the strawberry preserves until just streaked through, 3 or 4 folds.
- Scoop the vanilla ice cream into another large bowl. Stir until spreadable.
- Spoon 1 ½ tablespoons of the strawberry mixture into the bottom of 8 (⅓-cup) popsicle molds. Spoon 1 ½ tablespoons of the vanilla mixture into each mold. To create a marbled effect, alternate adding the strawberry mixture and the vanilla mixture until the molds are full. Use a butter knife or a popsicle stick to swirl the mixture more, if you like.
- Place the sticks into the popsicles and freeze until solid, 4 to 6 hours.
- In a large zip-top bag, place the sugar cookies. Using a rolling pin, crush the cookies until rice-sized (some big crumbs are nice, do not turn to powder). Transfer the crushed cookies to a shallow dish. Place the freeze-dried strawberries into the same bag and crush until rice-sized (a few bigger pieces are okay). Transfer to the same shallow dish with the cookie crumbs and stir to combine.
- Run the ice cream molds under warm water to loosen. Gently wiggle the popsicle out of the mold. Press the bars into the cookie and strawberry mixture to coat all over.
- Eat immediately or place on a cookie sheet and freeze until solid, 30 minutes. Wrap the bars in plastic wrap or aluminum foil and store in the freezer for up to 1 month. You can also use paper cups and wooden sticks if you don’t have popsicle molds!