Easy Neapolitan Ice Cream Recipe
Easy Neapolitan Ice Cream Recipe! Neapolitan Ice Cream combines the top three best ice cream flavors into an easy layered ice cream recipe that has something for everyone to love!
Ingredients
- 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries powdered
- red food coloring if desired
Instructions
- Combine sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Mix together and set aside.
- Add the heavy whipping cream to a large bowl. Use a hand mixer or stand mixer to whip the cream until stiff peaks form. This should only take a few minutes.
- Add the whipped cream to the sweetened condensed milk mixture. Carefully fold the whipped cream into the sweetened condensed milk mixture. Try to keep the mixture light and fluffy.
- Divide the mixture into three separate bowls.
- Leave one bowl as is. In the second bowl, stir in the cocoa powder.
- In the last bowl, add the powdered freeze-dried strawberries and a few drops of red food coloring until you get a light pink ice cream.
- Layer the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice creams side by side in a loaf pan using cake cardboard or parchment as dividers. Remove the parchment paper after filling the pan.
- Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 5 hours or overnight until firm. Scoop and serve.
Notes
- Avoid overwhipping the cream. You want the whipped cream to stand up straight when you pull the beater out of it. If the peaks of the whipped cream fold over, then you need to keep going a little while longer.
- The amount of red food coloring you need will depend on what type of food coloring you are using. If you use gel food coloring, you will need much less food coloring to get your desired colors. Water-based coloring will require more food coloring.
- If you are having trouble splitting the ice cream base into three equal parts, use a food scale. I got about 9 oz of ice cream base in each bowl.
- Freeze-dried strawberries are slices of strawberries that have been dried until thin and crispy. They pack a ton of strawberry flavor. These are not dehydrated strawberries that are gummy - those will not work. You need the crispy kind.
- To powder the freeze-dried strawberries, place them in a food processor and pulse until finely ground. You don’t need to have it all processed into a powder. In fact, some of the larger pieces become pretty flecks in the strawberry ice cream. If you don’t have a food processor, you can place the freeze-dried strawberries in a plastic bag and roll over them with a rolling pin until finely ground.
- Layering the three flavors of ice cream side by side is the most complicated way to do it. See more details on how to accomplish this in the blog post. The easiest way to layer Neapolitan Ice Cream is to do it horizontally. First, add the chocolate ice cream to the pan, then the vanilla, and finally the strawberry.
- You can also dollop the flavors into the pan, alternating as you go to create a tie-dye pattern. You'll have some of each flavor in every scoop this way!