Fruit Roll Ice Cream Is a Textured Delight
I love it when food trends give new life to old foods, like making a Pop-Tart ice cream sandwich or baking gummy candies . Packing ice cream into fruit rolls is a TikTok trend currently reviving the 80s lunch box snack , and while it’s sure to boost my sugar levels, it’s a surprisingly entertaining eating experience.
The star power of this super sugary snack lies not only in the taste, but also in the unexpected change in texture. You immediately feel how the temperature of the ice cream begins to turn the once flexible sticky wrapper into a hard crispy shell. When you take a bite, the ice cream melts on your tongue and the fruit roll shatters on your teeth. As you chew, another exciting texture change occurs and the hardened gummies return to their original, more chewy and stretchy form. It seems simple enough, unwrap the roll, scoop up the ice cream and roll, but there are a few ways to make this fancy snack even better.
Roll it up the easy way
If there’s one thing I know about ice cream, it’s that it melts faster than you’d expect. Unwrap and prepare the fruit roll before grabbing the ice cream. Once you’ve scooped a couple of spoonfuls along a line perpendicular to one edge, it’s time to roll out. The inclination might be to pick up one end and start twisting it over the top of the ice cream, pushing it, hoping it flips over, similar to making a jelly roll or rolling cinnamon rolls. However, the rapidly melting ice cream makes this quite difficult, as there is no grip on the smooth surface of the Roll-Up, so it just slides off. Instead, after you put the ice cream on the wrapper, lift both edges on opposite sides of the ice cream and let gravity do half the work. Make a small cradle, then tuck one end over the top. Everything else is folded over.
Add Other Ingredients
You can make some very interesting pairings with ice cream and fruit rolls, such as the classic strawberry-vanilla combo, the sour black cherry roll, or the tropical fruit roll with raspberry cheesecake that I made together. To take your ice cream tube to the next level, play with texture and flavor. Add fruit, such as a slice of spicy mango or a few blueberries. Sprinkle even more texture with a few pieces of chocolate, chopped nuts, crispy cooked bacon, or real topping, or try adding some peanut butter, chocolate sauce, or jam.
Bulk preparation and freezing
Once you’ve successfully rolled a popsicle tube, the Roll-Up solidifies quickly and you can (technically) immediately enjoy the textured delight that’s a crunchy fruit shell paired with soft ice cream. However, consider yourself forewarned, as the softened ice cream will try to spill out the other end. If you’re not in emergency dessert-despair mode, place the wrapper over a piece of foil and place it in the freezer for 20 minutes to firm up. In the event that you fall in love with these sweet snacks, it is worth preparing them in bulk. Unwrap four (or more) fruit rolls, place them on a small baking sheet and fill with them. Once they are rolled up and ready, place the entire tray in the freezer for 30 minutes until the ice cream is set, then place them all in a zippered freezer bag. Keep them in an old ice box so they’re always ready when the mood strikes.