Strawberry Crunch Ice Cream Cake

The most perfect, refreshing, 4-ingredient strawberry ice cream dessert.

My first attempt to duplicate the flavors of the Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars I remembered enjoying as a kid came when writing Kids Cooking Made Easy.

In that cookbook, I made a vanilla streusel and a strawberry streusel made using strawberry jel powder, and combined them to top an ice cream cake. The recipe was great–but was very dependant on using a good quality strawberry powder. It was also dependant on streusel not getting overcooked. And, in short, I was ready for something simpler and more fool-proof.

Perhaps I’ve gotten lazier at this stage of my life. Or perhaps, I’ve realized that we don’t need recipes that are more unique. We need recipes that are simply–simpler.

Strawberry Streusel 2.0 uses simply two ingredients–vanilla sandwich cookies (like in our Raspberry Crumb Bar Ice Cream) and dried strawberries. It was not my brainstorm, yet with the appearance of freeze-dried strawberries on the market a number of years ago, it simply made sense. Why in the world would I use jello powder if I could use a powder of actual strawberries?

Putting vanilla sandwich cookies into a Ziploc bag

If you can’t find freeze-dried strawberries in your local supermarket, there are plenty of brands available online with the O-U hechsher or OK hechsher. If you’re going to make this dessert often, you’ll want strawberries in bulk.

crushed vanilla sandwich cookies in a Ziploc bag

Sure, you can chop your sandwich cookies in a mini chopper. It might even be less work. But you can also just do it in a Ziploc. It’s totally fine if it’s part crumb-like and part chunky cookie pieces.

dried strawberries and vanilla sandwich cookies smashed in Ziploc bags

The strawberries are easy to smash in a Ziploc too. The streusel is set. Just combine the two.

half gallon of vanilla and a pint of strawberry sorbet

Now for the ice cream. You’ll need a whole half gallon of vanilla (dairy or pareve) and a pint of strawberry sorbet. I actually used Strawberry Lemonade one time and it was another level up–the bit of lemon added was such a perfect taste of summer.

If there’s a catch to this recipe, this is it. You see a Kitchen Aid in the photo. Sure, you can simply thaw your ice cream until it’s soft enough to spread into a pan. I’m actually not a fan of thawing ice cream for “making into another type of dessert” purposes. I find that some of the ice cream ends up melted, and some of it ends up too hard to spread. And ice cream that is totally melted and then refrozen isn’t ideal.

And perhaps, sometimes I’m impatient too. I find that dumping hard ice cream into a Kitchen Aid results in creamy, smoothable, perfect ice cream. So, dump it in and mix! Add half of the ice cream to a round aluminum cake pan. I like to choose one that has straight sides. You can also make two smaller cakes instead. You’ll find that it’s so much easier to smooth it out neatly! See?

adding crunch to half of the ice cream in a round aluminum cake pan

Add a generous thick layer of crumbs.

Strawberry sorbet in a Kitchen Aid mixer

Now add your strawberry sorbet to the mixer. What you get is better than sorbet and better than strawberry ice cream. It’s the best of both refreshing worlds. Sort of like a Rita’s Misto Shake if you go for that, but everyone will go for this. Add the strawberry mixture to your cake pan and place the cake in the freezer until hard, or until ready to serve.

When you’re ready to serve this,

you’re going to pop the cake out of the aluminum pan

onto a cake plate and top it with the rest of the crumbs.

Strawberry Crunch Ice Cream on a cake plate, topped with the rest of the crumbs.

And, then you’re going to hurry and save yourself a slice because the rest will be gone before you know it. But that’s ok, because it’s easy to whip one up again.