Ice Cream Bread with Lemon Ginger Frosting

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Have you ever eaten ice cream bread?  

Yes?  Then you know why ice cream bread makes me so happy.  I mean, just look at it!  It's not the most beautiful or the most perfect-looking of that 'Baked Goods' sector of my recipe box, but I think it's pretty life changing that 3 or 4 simple ingredients you likely have in your kitchen have the power to come together and morph into this rather versatile, not-too-sweet treat.  

It's a dense, bready concoction made better by the sprinkles and the handful of chocolate chips, but those are certainly an option.  I like to make mine to coordinate with the holiday or the season.  And, I'm a big proponent for using what I've got on hand, or in my beautiful (and tall!) cabinets, so I chose to use leftover Christmassy-red and green sprinkles and about a 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips.  Of course, you can use whatever colors you feel like.  It is a free country, and I am SO thankful to live here.  

Anyway.

Because it isn't overly sweet on its own, this bread is made sweeter by the frosting you choose to slather across the top, the sides, the bottom of this slab of caked-up ice cream.  This time, I chose to whip up a lemon ginger variety because, well, those are the flavors I had on hand that I thought would be a great way to end a rich meal of veggie lasagna and buttered green beans.  BUT...but!  This morning I sliced off a hunk and then proceeded to dip it into my cup of hot, black coffee.  The lemon ginger flavors and the chocolate chips in a spoonful of coffee taste like a dessert all over again!  

Ice Cream Bread

• 1-1/2 c self-rising flour (if you don't have self-rising on hand, see recipe for THAT below)
• 1 pint ice cream (I used vanilla bean this time, but a life goal is to use Cherry Garcia at least once before I die)
• chocolate chips (...or butterscotch chips?  ...or mutilated Andes mints?  Like I said -- it's a free country)
• sprinkles

Are you ready to make Ice Cream Bread for your very own loved ones? Or maybe just keep a loaf of it all to yourself?  It's okay, it really is, and I understand.  Just gather your ingredients already!  

Now, here's perhaps one of the BEST things about this recipe:  YOU DON'T DIRTY A LOT OF DISHES IN THE PROCESS.  

Yes, you read that correctly.  Just dump your flour into your baking dish.  By the way, if your baking dish is vintage, it adds to the flavor.  If it's glass, you get imaginary bonus points.

Add your ice cream, which should be slightly softened.  

Mix and mix and mix and mix and mix and mix and mix.  Whew. All that exercise, I'm working up an appetite!

Now, pay attention, 'cuz this is where it gets ugly.

You have to continue to stir, then spread it out as best you can, and THEN put it into the oven.  

In retrospect, I should've smoothed over the top a little better, but I was exhausted from all that mixing from earlier in the recipe, so I got lazy.  Sue me.  But, yes, a nice flat top on the loaf is the desired "look", if a dessert has permission to have a "look".

Bake that bad boy for 35 to 45 minutes in a 350* preheated oven...okay???

Now, this picture mimics fruit cake a little, but trust me when I say this recipe is NOTHING like a fruitcake.  I mean, you're not gonna wanna put THIS in the trash.  Okay???   :) 

Alrighty, Aphrodite.

Time to frost that bread!  Not everybody frosts a loaf of ice cream bread.  I'm not even that in love with frosting, and I still frost mine.  At least for me, the bread NEEDS a little shot of 'sweet' on the tippy-top, and the flavor combination (basic lemon that flirts with exotic ginger) is over the top...especially when you're old like I am and like to dunk spoons of it into your pipin' hawt, straight black cuppa Joe.

Dreamed-Up Lemon Ginger Frosting

• Toss maybe a 3/4 cup powdered sugar into a bowl.
• Melt maybe 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter on 30 seconds.
• Add a capful (CAP full -- oh, Lort, not a CUP full) of lemon extract or real-life lemon juice, if you indeed have a lemon to spare.
• Add, like, maybe a half-inch ribbon of ground ginger paste.  If you've got the real-deal root in your well-traveled and worldly 'fridgerator, then do whatever you need to do to that beautiful, fresh spice to get about a teaspoon of the most authentic form of aforementioned spice.... :-P 

​Whisk everything together.  It's not fancy, and maybe it's a little gross, but drag your finger through it and give it a whirl.  See how it tastes!  Too spicy?  Well, then, add more sugar, dang it.  Too lemony for your liking?  Simply add more butter.  Butter balances, dontcha know.   

Oooh, it's almost time. 

And it's about time to be almost time!!!!  :-)

Using the cutest little offset spatula you can find (or a big 'ol spoon, or even a scoop!) just dump on the frosting according to how well you like it.  I find the amounts I use for my dreamed-up version turns out to be the perfect amount for what I like -- not too incredibly sweet, but sweet enough that you don't for a minute think you're noshing on a colorful biscuit with some sugar thrown in.  I mean, what a disappointing impostor!   I like a nice balance, and I think that's what most people prefer.  Like crazy, but crazy in a good way...Sweet, but not TOO sweet.  You are what you eat, after all.