Ice Cream Bread

ice cream bread sliced on a white plate.

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4 from 1 vote

Making 2 ingredient Ice Cream Bread is magical! One taste and you may never bake traditional bread again!

Prep Time5

Cook Time35

Total Time40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: (approximately 1 inch) slices

Calories: 203kcal

Author: Jennifer Fishkind

Ingredients

14 ounce container (approximately 1 ⅔ cups) Vanilla flavored ice cream thawed to a pourable consistency (Haagen-Dazs brand)
1½ cups self-rising flour
3 tablespoons rainbow colored jimmie sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350* F. Lightly spray an 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf pan with baker’s spray and line the pan with a piece of parchment paper. Be sure to allow enough of the parchment paper to overhang the sides to easily lift the baked bread out of the pan to cool and slice.
To a large mixing bowl add the thawed vanilla ice cream and self-rising flour.
14 ounce container (approximately 1 ⅔ cups) Vanilla flavored ice cream, 1½ cups self-rising flour
Using a large rubber spatula, or wooden spoon, gently stir together the ingredients just until combined and no large lumps remain. Be sure to not overmix this batter or the baked ice cream bread will be dense.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and spread the top into an even layer. Sprinkle the top of the ice cream bread with the rainbow colored sprinkles.
3 tablespoons rainbow colored jimmie sprinkles
Bake the ice cream bread for 35 - 40 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 8-10 minutes before lifting out of the pan, removing the parchment paper, and placing the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Notes

Storage:

To Store: This ice cream bread is best stored in an airtight container, in the refrigerator, for 3-4 days.
To Freeze: You can freeze this bread, tightly wrapped in a layer of plastic wrap followed by a layer of aluminum foil, for up to 2 months. Be sure to thaw in the refrigerator before serving.
To Reheat: You can re-warm individual slices of this bread for 20-30 seconds in a microwave, or lightly toasted in a toaster oven.

Tips:

Be sure that you use full-fat, good quality, vanilla ice cream for this recipe. Haagen-Dazs brand was used to develop this recipe. Low-fat, or milk alternative, ice creams will not work well for this bread.

This is not an overly sweet bread. You can add an additional 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract to enhance the “vanilla” flavor in your baked bread. The final flavor of your baked bread will depend entirely on the flavor of the brand of ice cream used. For example, if you use a french vanilla ice cream, your baked bread will be a little more yellow in color and have a slightly richer vanilla flavor.
Be sure that you are using Self-Rising flour for this simple recipe. It already has a leavening agent (baking soda) and salt added to the flour. For this reason you will need to make sure that you are using fresh (non-expired) flour for best results. I like to add a sticker to my storage container of the flour’s expiration date since it is a type of flour I may not use as often.
Be mindful that while the Haagen-Dazs brand calls their smaller cartons of ice cream “pints” they actually only contain 14 ounces (or approximately 1 ⅔ cups when thawed). Other brands of ice creams may have a 16 ounce size “pint”. This is an actual true measurement for the pint and measures 2 cups when thawed. If using a 16 ounce container, just reduce the amount of thawed vanilla ice cream by ⅓ cup before adding to the self-rising flour and baking.
When stirring this batter, gently push out any big clumps of flour with the spoon, or rubber spatula, to smooth out the batter. You do not want to vigorously stir, or mix, out the lumps or it can yield a very dense baked bread. And don’t overmix the batter! Use a spatula or mixing spoon instead of a hand or stand mixer.
The trick to making quick breads with a tender crumb and moist texture is to ensure that sure your ice cream is thawed to a pourable consistency before mixing it with the self-rising flour.
You can add chocolate chips, fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate jimmies, or colorful sprinkles to your ice cream loaf cake batter. Mix them in before baking and/or add them on top for an extra special treat.
This recipe is so easy because the thawed vanilla ice cream already contains the full-fat dairy, eggs, sugar and vanilla needed to add to the self rising flour (contains flour, baking soda and salt) to give you all the ingredients needed for a simple and delicious quick bread.

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