This unique dessert tastes a little like fried ice cream bars, without any frying! It’s a delicious mixture of rice krispies, toasted coconut and pecans and brown sugar that’s toasted in the oven with butter and then used to sandwich vanilla ice cream in the center. It’s perfect for potlucks and family get-togethers, or simply a fun treat at home. This recipe comes from our good family friend, Linda Pope. BYU basketball fans might recognize that last name- she’s the mom of now head coach Mark Pope. Our families grew up together and my Mom got this recipe from her over 20 years ago and we’ve been making it ever since!
Ice Cream Crunch Bars
Description
Vanilla ice cream is sandwiched between a crispy buttery layer reminiscent of fried ice cream!
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups Rice Krispie Cereal
1 cups chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
3/4 cups brown sugar
optional: a few shakes of cinnamon
8 tablespoons real butter (1 stick), melted
1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream (or one ‘carton’ since they keep shrinking), softened to the consistency of soft serve (see note)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a 9×13 inch pan with foil or a parchment sling, extending a little over the edges of pan.
Place Rice Krispies, pecans, coconut, and brown sugar in a 9×13 inch pan. Drizzle butter over mixture and combine well (a fork, or clean hands work well.) If desired, sprinkle in a few shakes of ground cinnamon and mix in. Bake for about 30 minutes, stirring once or twice during cooking time. Remove from oven when toasted and golden brown and let mixture cool completely.
Remove half of crispy mixture and spread remaining half in an even layer on the bottom of pan. Gently spoon softened ice cream on top of mixture. Use a spoon and very gently spread mixture, being careful to not lift up crisp from bottom of pan. (see notes for a tip). Spread ice cream out evenly and then top with remaining crisp mixture. Gently press top crisp into ice cream with hands. Cover pan with plastic or foil and chill until firm (preferably overnight.) When ready to serve, use foil/parchment to completely remove ice cream from pan. Slice into squares and serve.
Notes
Softening the Ice Cream: I’ve found it helps to tear off ice cream container and place the whole frozen block into a large bowl. Use a sharp knife to cut it into several large chunks. At this point you can leave it at room temperature for a while, or very carefully microwave at a low heat to gently soften, stirring in between. The consistency you’re going for is soft serve ice cream. It helps to stir it vigorously as it softens until it’s nice and smooth.
Spreading the Ice Cream: If you’re not careful, you will mix up your bottom layer of crisp. With your ice cream very soft and smooth, just spoon large spoonfuls as evenly as possible in your 9×13 pan. Avoid dumping the whole thing in there at once. Stand next to your sink with hot water running and use a large metal spoon dipped in the hot water to spread ice cream. The eat will help it glide over the ice cream smoothly and make the process much easier! Continue dipping and spreading until it’s smooth. See blog post for photos of this process.
How to Make the Topping
This doesn’t seem like much, but this is where the magic is. Mix rice krispies, coconut, brown sugar, pecans, and melted butter and slowly toast them in the oven. If you have a nut allergy, just leave out the nuts and make it up with extra krispies and coconut.
Together, you get sweet, crunchy, chewy, and crispy with so many great natural flavors and textures. It might seem like a weird, or simple combination, but stick with me. Half of this mixture gets spread on the bottom of a 9×13 pan.
Spread on your Ice Cream
It’s important that your ice cream is very soft. Not melted, but soft. Think soft serve that comes out of a machine; that’s the perfect texture.
Softening the Ice Cream: I’ve found it helps to tear off ice cream container and place the whole frozen block into a large bowl. Use a sharp knife to cut it into several large chunks. At this point you can leave it at room temperature for a while, or very carefully microwave at a low heat to gently soften, stirring in between. The consistency you’re going for is soft serve ice cream. It helps to stir it vigorously as it softens until it’s nice and smooth. As you place your ice cream on your crisp mixture, try to plop it on as evenly as you can.
Spreading the Ice Cream
If you’re not careful, you will mix up your bottom layer of crisp. With your ice cream very soft and smooth, just spoon large spoonfuls as evenly as possible in your 9×13 pan. Avoid dumping the whole thing in there at once. Stand next to your sink with hot water running and use a large metal spoon dipped in the hot water to spread ice cream. The eat will help it glide over the ice cream smoothly and make the process much easier! Continue dipping and spreading until it’s smooth.
Top your ice cream with the remaining crisp mixture.
Once it’s frozen back up again, use your parchment or foil to lift the whole thing out of the pan and slice into squares.
I like these in small bowls with a spoon or fork. They are AMAZING! Especially after it’s softened just a little bit, like 5 minutes, and the ice cream just sort of melts in your mouth and the flavors from the caramelized, toasted coconut and nuts come through with an added crisp from the cereal.
Questions & Reviews
I have some toasted coconut leftover from your strawberry-lime shortcake recipe (delish!), and I’m wondering if you think it would work here. Do you think it would burn? Or should I just stir it in after the crust has baked?
Honestly, not sure 🙂 Sorry!
I’m in such a baby-and-I-want-chocolate-right-now mode that I think these would be AWESOME with chocolate ice cream and almonds instead of pecans (omit cinnamon) = Crispy Almond Joy Ice Cream Bars!!
Imagine drizzled with chocolate??
Can you give any tips on how to get the ice cream soft without being melted? is it just a time thing? or if you cute the gallon in half would that help? Or will it inevitably have some melted and you just don’t use that part? I remember that was my problem before that it was all melted on the outside and a big piece in the middle too frozen to spread easily.
I’d probably stir the ice cream occasionally so it’s all the same consistency.
Check out the tips in this post. Basically, you want to stir it every few minutes as it melts, because it will get super soft around the edges and stay firm in the middle. You want to be able to stir the entire thing evenly.
I thought I was following the tips on how to soften the ice cream but apparently I failed because the volume of my ice cream pretty much decreased by half and when my bars were all finished, the ice cream had melted down into the bottom layer. They were still delicious though & maybe next time I’ll get the ice cream softening part right. Great recipe! Thanks for sharing!
It sounds like you may have melted your ice cream instead of softening it! But it does decrease in volume quite a bit.
After letting the ice cream sit at room temp until it starts to soften take a large butcher knife run it under hot water and slice the ice cream about 1″ thick. Place the partially softened slices on the bottom layer of toasted mix pressing them together gently. Slices may need to be pared to fill the pan and use the knife to seal them to the edges.
I bet the non-coconut-eaters could use oats instead. It won’t taste quite the same, but the oats would have a similar chewiness. I make a granola with oats, rice krispies, pecans, brown sugar, and a few other ingredients and my husband loves it on ice cream. I love the idea of making it into ice cream sandwiches. I think this will be our next family night treat. Thanks for another great recipe!
I LOVE this dessert, my sil’s mother made it once years ago and I lost the recipe so I’m so happy to see it! we had it with a raspberry sauce too, so delicious thanks!
Rice Chex works as well as the Rice Krispies; my mom made it in the 60’s
OMG!!! As a young girl growing up in the 1050’s, my mom this all the time for special occasions, IT’S THE BEST!! We always look forward to this, yummy!
Ops, 1950’s.
Yummy! looks like you are having fun.
Had a similar recipe from BH&G to make homemade Toasted Almond ice cream bars. Sooooo good.
I served this at a wedding dinner last summer for dessert and we topped it with a raspberry sauce (Kind of like the one you made for the little heart shaped popovers), so-o-o-o-o-o delicious! Love your blog and your food! You girls are hilarious and make me smile all the time!
I’ve been wanting to make some ice cream sandwiches, but haven’t worked up the motivation to make the “sandwich” part. These look much easier, and I’ll have to give them a try!
Haven’t made them yet, but they look wonderful! I think they would go well with homemade ice cream, because it would be the perfect consistency when it comes out of the ice cream machine. I always have trouble making ice cream desserts because I don’t wait long enough for the ice cream to soften, and then I end up with a big mess!
I had these at a shower once (bridal or baby, can’t remember) in the summer and they were so super yummy!! They served them top with pie filling on a plate. Super scrumptious. When I asked for the recipe, they told me to do it in a 9×13 pan and I’ve always thought that there’s not enough of the crumb mixture for both the top and bottom for a 9×13. Now I know why! LOL Definitely making it in an 8×8 from now on!! Love your billboard. I totally would have done something lame like put “woo hoo, NYC!!” if it had been me. lol
You have become larger than life, what with that huge picture of you and your sil in Times Square! Congratulations! I will try these right away because I always wanted to be popular 🙂
I serve something similar to this with a fruit topping. Make up a batch of strawberry or raspberry Danish Dessert with the matching fruit and serve the ice cream squares on a plate with the yummy fruit sauce on top. Delicious and a little more fancy!
These look wonderful. I have been following your blog for a little over a year now and I love it! Thanks for sharing all your delicious recipes. Both of you have such witty humor and I love reading your blog as well as trying your food. Thanks again for all the great recipes! Can’t wait to try these 🙂
So…these look heavenly however have you ever experimented with the choice of nut? My husband is highly allergic to: Pecans, Walnuts, Macadamia Nuts, Hazelnuts and I think that’s it.
I’m thinking maybe an almond might work but I don’t know…..thoughts?
we use almonds in our version. Yum!
My daughter is allergic to all nuts and peanuts, so I’m going to try it with crushed pretzels. I’ve had great success using crushed pretzels in place of pecans in a crust recipe before. I’ll report back ;).
Amelia, I love the preztel idea since my kids can’t do nuts either.
Those look so good! I’m not usually one for much ice cream but I think I need to try these, maybe with some chocolate thrown in too.
I used to love getting fried ice cream at a restaurant called Chi-Chi’s when I was around ten years old. Here’s hoping this tasted similar! One question though – my husband is allergic to coconut…is there anything you suggest to substitute? Thanks!
These look fabulous and I totally want to make them and drizzle your hot fudge sauce on them. Or strawberry… But I totally hate coconut. Can I just omit? Do I need to replace it with something for volume’s sake? Maybe mini chocolate chips? Can you tell I am so ready to make these?
These look wonderful. One question–if you don’t press the “crust” mixture down, doesn’t most of it just fall of when you lift them out of the pan or tip them while eating? No all of it is touching the ice cream that acts as the glue.
These look delicious! I’m thinking you could make them, then cut into individual servings and flash freeze them again, then store for individual enjoyment!
Okay, seriously…..those look amazing! Quick question, when you say real butter do you mean salted or unsalted or doesn’t it matter? Thanks so much!! I LOVE NYC! I hope you get to see a show while you are there!
Rebecca, we’ll always specify unsalted if that’s what we’re talking about, so you can always assume salted unless noted otherwise. For this recipe it probably doesn’t really matter, but I like salted because it helps bring out the sweetness!
Great! Thanks so much for clarifying that for me! 🙂 I cannot wait to make these for my family!
I can’t wait to make these as soon as my recently wisdom teeth-less mouth recovers!
Yum! Loooove this idea!
Just to be sure I’ve got it right, is it a half gallon of ice cream or a whole gallon? I think I might have to make these tonight!
Half gallon. Sorry about the typo- nice catch!
OMG. These look so good…. I must try them!!!
Holy moly! These look unbelievable!
We have made a variation of this a lot, we called it fried ice cream, probably because of the cinnamon and brown sugar. It is so naughty to have around, especially a whole 9X13 of it! You have to make sure you serve all of it at a party or something, otherwise you might find yourself getting up in the night to sneak a treat!