Quick Bread from Freezer Emergencies (Ice Cream Quick Bread)

 

 

 

A while back, I took a stab at this sort of quick bread using some old, not particularly good leftover ice cream.  Today, I had a better excuse for giving it a test: our freezer door was left slightly ajar for several hours, causing a meltdown of our excellent Tillamook ice cream. Rather than let it all go to waste – or worse, to my waist – I looked up a few recipes for ice cream bread. Almost all of them are labeled "2-ingredient bread" and call for self-rising flour.


Well, kiddies, this house doesn't keep a lot of self-rising flour around. Instead, we adjust those recipes to serve at need. Therefore, my adaptation in today's post means that, if you are like us and don't have a bin of self-rising flour, you don't have to go rushing out to the store for some. You'll only need your regular stuff and some good ice cream you're willing to sacrifice to the heat.

Ice Cream Quick Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups melted regular vanilla ice cream
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans*
2 cups dried blueberries*

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Line a 4-inch by 8-inch loaf pan with parchment, allowing an inch or so of  overhang on the long sides.

In a small bowl, cover dried blueberries with warm water, allow to "plump" for about 15 – 20 minutes, drain and pat dry.

Meanwhile, allow ice cream to completely liquefy and come to room temperature.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, pecans, and blueberries. Add ice cream and stir only until completely mixed – DO NOT OVERMIX!

Pour into loaf pan, bake at 350º F for 35 – 40 minutes.

Remove from oven, allow to cool about 5 minutes, then remove from pan. Cool completely before serving.



*optional. May substitute your own favorite nuts & fruits, or omit them entirely.

Serve with softened butter or cream cheese.

While this isn't quite as decadent as turning our ice cream into a milk shake, it turns out a quick bread can be a very nice alternative, during a freezer crisis.

Also, for the record, the flavor and texture of this bread is somewhere in the range of a traditional muffin. It isn't particularly sweet and dessert-like. I recommend it as a breakfast food, so you can tell everyone you have ice cream for breakfast.