As much as we enjoy a bowl of velvety ice cream, slowly melting on our spoon — we don't always have time to enjoy such luxuries. That doesn't mean our sweet tooth magically goes away, so instead we make up our own ice cream bites, easy to pop in your mouth the next time you swing past the freezer!

What You Need

Materials
Ice cream of your choosing
Magic Shell Ice Cream Sauce

Tools
Bench scraper
Pan to hold ice cream (sheet pan or cake pan)
Sheet pan
Parchment paper
Plastic wrap

Instructions

1. Freeze Pan: Place a sheet pan in your freezer, chest freezer if you have it.

2. Line and Press: Line the bottom of your "ice cream pan" with plastic wrap (which will allow the ice cream to release easily) and press ice cream into pan. We find using a bench scraper to smooth things out works nicely, as does pressing the top with our hands, covered with a piece of plastic wrap.

3. Freeze: Toss the covered ice cream in the coldest part of your freezer. If you have a deep freeze, use that instead. Allow to freeze for 1 hour.

4. Slice: Remove ice cream from freezer via the plastic wrap, it should simply lift out. Flip ice cream off of plastic wrap and then lay it back down on top. You want it to have released from the wrap, but still sit on top to not make your counters yucky. Using your bench scraper, cut vertically and horizontally to make lots of little squares. If you were able to do this while keeping all the "bites" together, return to freezer. If not, place on new tray and re-freeze.

5. Ready To Dip: Place Magic Shell Sauce in a small bowl (the smaller the better, making the sauce deeper for dipping). Remove ice cream and additional cookie sheet from the freezer. Place parchment paper on top of your cookie sheet and set to work (you can sandwich two cookie sheets together with ice between them for an extra cold surface). Dip each bite of ice cream one at a time into the Magic Shell sauce. Roll it around with a fork and let drain through the tines. Scrape the back of the fork on the side of the bowl and roll off onto the parchment paper (an additional fork is helpful here).

You will need to work quickly, you'll find out soon enough if your sheet pan is too warm (the magic shell will melt away on the back and not seal 100% around the cube of ice cream... though it's still tasty) or your ice cream starts to melt (it will be hard to pick up without getting fingerprints in it). If things get warm, just toss it back in the freezer for a bit and go back to it in a few minutes.

6. Repeat Until Finished: We usually make 30 or so bites at a time (about what you get out of a pint) and then store them in an airtight container. We'd like to tell you how long they'll last, but they usually only make it a few days in our house :)

7. Storage: As the bites harden, we toss them into an airtight container in the freezer. Then your nibbles are ready any time you want!

Additional Notes:
This method can be used with as little or as much ice cream as you'd like. Just make sure to use a pan that fits the amount used. You're welcome to use homemade ice cream, but in the name of saving time, we usually opt for store bought for this procedure. Half gallons are easy to slice and cube up (instead of pressing into a pan), but they do make hundreds of ice cream bites. Perfect for a party, not so perfect if you have a weakness for ice cream and will be the only one eating them!

Related: Raspberry Kulfi: Extra-Easy 3-Ingredient Ice Cream

(Images: Sarah Rae Trover)