Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

I love ice cream, and I think I may just love Strawberry Shortcake even more! Now I don't have to choose between them for dessert because I can make these lovely Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars! Yummy! Just looking at the photo makes me smile. I can't wait to sink my teeth into one and have it take me back to my childhood when I used to eat them in the sunshine at Lake Stevens during the summers. Forget buying any dessert pre-packaged and frozen at the grocery store. With the purchase of just a few ingredients and devoting just a little bit of time in the kitchen, you can have a dessert that your family will begging you to make again. Make them to eat now, or pop them in the freezer to consume later.

As a child, my favorite ice cream to eat was a strawberry shortcake bar that came in a single wrapper at gas stations. I still buy them from time to time. I used to beg my mom to stop at Lake Conner store so I could run inside and use the change from piggy bank to buy one and take to the lake. These Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bars are way better! The fruit is more flavorful, and each bite melts in your mouth like no bar I have ever had. To make the strawberry powder, pulverize the freeze dried strawberries using a food processor, mortar and pestle, or plastic bag and rolling pin. We want the powder to be fine. Around 1 ounce of freeze dried strawberries will yield 3 tablespoons of powder.

To begin line an 8 by 8 inch square baking dish with parchment or wax paper leaving an overhang for easier removal of the bars. Set aside. Next make the cookie crust. In a medium sized bowl or a food processor, add the entire Oreo cookies (no need to remove the cream filling) and pulse into fine crumbs.

If you have children and you thinking of something to make them as a surprise snack, these are great! They are small, and are easy to hold onto for young children. Bring them to a party, or freeze them and use them once in a while as a late-night snack. It is okay to forget about your diet sometimes and splurge. Besides, these are just too good to say no to.

The first garden strawberry was grown in Brittany, France during the late 18th century. Prior to this, wild strawberries and cultivated strawberry varieties from wild strawberry species were the common source of the fruit. The strawberry fruit was mentioned in ancient Roman literature in reference to its medicinal use. The French began taking the strawberry from the forest to their gardens for harvest in the 1300s. Charles V, France's king from 1364 to 1380, had 1,200 strawberry plants in his royal garden. In the early 1400s western European monks were using the wild strawberry in their illuminated manuscripts. The strawberry is found in Italian, Flemish, German art, and English miniatures. The entire strawberry plant was used to treat depressive illnesses.