The Important Prep Tip For Making Rolled Ice Cream At Home
Rolled ice cream may look fancy, but this specialty frozen dessert doesn't need to be left to the pros. With a bit of finesse, you can be on your way to rolling up sheets of this cold delicacy, but you'll need to put in some prep work before you begin.
First, set your freezer to the coldest setting possible, then focus on making the ice cream base. Though this pretty rolled dessert is called ice cream, the name is misleading. You'll be scraping up and rolling frozen custard made with heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, and a touch of salt. After mixing the ingredients, spread the base onto a baking pan to freeze.
The overall process is simple, but one prep step is vital: As you move the cream across the surface of your baking pan, aim to keep it even, smooth, and about 1/8” thick. If you spread the custard too thin, the frozen treat you try to roll later can become a brittle, crumbly mess. Conversely, too thick of a layer will be difficult to form into anything close to the rolled dessert of your dreams.
Rolled ice cream takes some practice to master
Making ice cream rolls is not a recipe you can put together on a whim. Prepare to wait a minimum of 5 hours until your ice cream base is frozen enough to roll. However, once the custard has sufficiently hardened, you'll be ready to start scraping and shaping.
After your sweet mixture is frozen solid on the pan, steady the tray against a fixed surface and use two spatulas to help you manipulate the frozen custard into layered rolls. You'll need to work quickly, as the ice cream will begin to melt as soon as it is removed from the freezer.
Experiment with different rolling styles and work through a few trial efforts until you master the aesthetically pleasing desserts you've seen served in restaurants and various social media platforms. After you learn to perfect the rolled ice cream shape, the fruits of your labor will taste that much sweeter.