Paleo Ice Cream Bars

Oh yes I did. 

These are ice cream bars.  They are for all your spring/summer picnics.  They are for when your kids’ friends come over hungry.  They are for those times when your family is begging you for crud food.  They are for those nights when all  you  want to do is eat ice cream under the bed (take a napkin).

I have lots of fond, sugar-filled memories of ice cream.  Eating gigantic ice cream bars or ice cream sandwiches on the deck with my friends during the 3 weeks that it is actually warm here in the Midwest, slurping ice cream floats at A&W or while watching Finding Nemo, and of course topping my ice cream sundaes with tons of candied cherries (and enduring the disastrous sugar drop that inevitably followed).   One of my most memorable memories (yes, I know that’s redundant) is when Mom got me my first Dairy Queen Dilly bar.  The thing seemed bigger than my head.  I recently saw a Dilly Bar and it seems they’ve shrunk considerably since I last ate one.

Anyway, these ice cream bars are creamy and vanilla-y (that is totally a word) with a crispy dark chocolate coating.  They are paleo, primal, dairy-free, nut-free, and egg-free.  But above all, they are kid-and-dad approved.

Recipe Notes:

• Regarding coconut cream: Coconut cream is the super-creamy stuff that rises to the top of a can of coconut milk when it separates.  To ensure adequate separation, place your cans of coconut milk in the fridge overnight before making this recipe.  Also, choose a brand of coconut milk that has a lot of fat in it, because it will yield the highest amount of cream.  My favorite for this recipe is Golden Star, and my second is Thai Kitchen.  Depending on the cream content of your coconut milk (which varies even within brand), you may need up to 3 cans of coconut milk to yield the correct amount of coconut cream for this recipe, so buy accordingly.
• Also, a note on melting chocolate: I learned the hard way while developing this recipe (as well as several others) that chocolate seizes if it gets overheated.  So only heat the chocolate very slightly, preferably in the microwave or a double boiler.  This will also prevent the warm chocolate from melting the ice cream pops.
• Make sure your ice cream pops are completely frozen before you try to coat the with chocolate.  Leave them in your freezer overnight before coating them, if possible.  Again, I speak from experience here.
• You’ll notice that the ice cream pop recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon salt; do not omit it! It does not make the finished product salty, it simply slightly lowers the freezing point of the mixture so that the ice cream bars and creamier.  It’s all chemistry!
• The yield of this recipe will obviously vary depending on the size of your popsicle molds.  I got 6 ice cream pops; my molds are 1/4 cup volume.
• If your coconut cream is super-solid from being in the fridge, let it soften up before trying to blend it.

Shared at Fat Tuesday and Fight Back Friday.

Now let’s make ice cream bars!