If you’re entertaining friends and family this summer, how about making an ice cream terrine? It requires no cooking skills, and the payoff is enormous for such a simple project. Everybody will want to gather around and watch you slice up your ice cream masterpiece!
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This is the ultimate summer frozen dessert and one you’ll be so glad you mastered. Wow your friends and family with your own customized ice cream cake ~ if you can open a pint of ice cream, you can make a terrine!
What is an ice cream terrine?
An ice cream terrine is a beautiful frozen dessert made with layers of ice cream, molded in a bowl or a pan. When sliced for serving it shows off all the pretty layers. No two pieces will be alike.
What kind of mold to use
I like to use a loaf pan because it makes a nice cake-like shape that’s easy to portion into equal slices. Any loaf pan will work, just be sure you line it with plastic or parchment paper with long ends so you can lift it out after it has been frozen. You can also use a small to medium sized bowl lined with plastic to make a round ice cream ‘bomb’ shape.
Choosing the flavors for a layered ice cream dessert
That’s the fun part! Nowadays the market has exploded with gourmet ice cream flavors, both in stores and ice cream shops. Take a tour of the freezer aisle, or make your own creative flavors. There aren’t any hard and fast rules, which is nice, and there are a number of ways you can go:
- Choose contrasting colors ~ this helps achieve that ‘wow factor’ when the terrine is sliced.
- Choose by type: use all fruit sorbets, or all chocolate ice cream variations to keep a consistent flavor palate.
- Choose compatible flavors like chocolate and coffee, or fruit and vanilla. Use common sense and don’t mix mint chip with mango (unless you like that sort of thing!)
- Arrange a rainbow of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
- Focus on just two flavors and alternate for a simple palette.
- Go with a red white and blue ice cream terrine for the patriotic holidays.
Using non dairy ice creams, frozen yogurts, sorbets, etc.
You can use just about anything scoop-able from the frozen dessert aisle. Think frozen yogurt, sherbet, sorbet, gelato, or semifreddo ~ you can make your ice cream terrine low fat, sugar free, egg free, vegan, or non dairy.
What kind of extras to add
You can layer lots of yummy extras into your terrine. You can stir them into your softened ice cream and then spread into the mold, or add them between the ice cream layers.
- chocolate chips
- fruit like blueberries, raspberries, etc.
- sprinkles
- nuts
Do you have to layer?
No, you can do it any way you like, I like to add my flavors in big blobs, and then take a chopstick and swirl them together for a marbleized effect. Get creative and add see what you come up with.
And of course you can just use one ice cream flavor for your terrine if you prefer. The benefit is that your dessert can be neatly sliced instead of having to scoop it out, and you can decorate it beautifully. No one needs to know how easy it was 😉
Time to slice!
An ice cream terrine is super easy to serve to guests because it can be made ahead of time and hangs out in the freezer until you’re ready for it. Simply remove it from the pan, and slice it up with a large knife…it slices like buttah!
Serve it topped with fresh fruit if you like, or chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, fruit sauce, or anything else you would normally serve with ice cream.
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Ice Cream Terrine
Ingredients
- 6 varied flavors of ice cream, about 1 1/2 cups each
- In mine I used:
- strawberry coconut ice cream
- chocolate
- vanilla ice cream with fresh blueberries
- raspberry sorbet
- chocolate chip ice cream
- mango sorbet
Instructions
- Line a standard loaf pan with plastic wrap or parchment paper. Make sure to leave long ends extending so you can lift the frozen cake out for cutting.
- Starting with your first layer, take out the ice cream from the freezer and put it int a small bowl. Mash it with a spoon until it becomes a spreadable consistency. If your ice cream is super hard you can let it sit for a few minutes, first. Spread the softened ice cream out into an even layer across the bottom of the loaf pan. Put in the freezer to harden up, 30-40 minutes or so, depending on your freezer and the thickness of your layers.
- Do the same with each layer, freezing solid in between each one, until you have filled the loaf pan to the very top. Cover with plastic and put in the freezer for at least 2 hours, or until serving.
- To serve, lift the terrine out of the pan using the ends of the plastic wrap. Flip it upside down on a platter and carefully peel away the plastic. It’s ready to slice and serve!
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