Can You Put Ice Cream In The Oven?

Last updated on October 5th, 2022 at 10:07 am

Ice cream is a favorite dessert for many. This frozen treat is stored in the freezer where it is kept cold and solid. It has to stay frozen or it will melt which obviously creates an issue when cooking with it. 

Now, let’s say you grab a tub of delicious ice cream from the freezer to use in your next dessert. Can you actually bake using ice cream or can it only be used on top of a dessert? 

You can put ice cream in the oven but it can only be for a short period of time otherwise the ice cream will start to melt. Any ice cream that is baked must be enclosed in some other ingredient to prevent it from melting all over. 

Of course you can use an oven to melt ice cream as well but if you are melting  ice cream, you don’t want to use an oven. It can take too long to heat up and using a microwave is much faster. If your ice cream is just a little too frozen, then you can pop it into the microwave for a few seconds at a time until it reaches the desired consistency.

Keep in mind though that once heated, the ice cream’s texture will change permanently. The best way to thaw ice cream a little bit is to just leave it at room temperature. Since ice cream needs to stay in frozen conditions it will naturally melt to how you want it. 

Cooking with ice cream in the oven is difficult to get exactly right and most people just prefer to cook a dessert and then put the frozen treat on top. However, cooking with ice cream can be done under the right circumstances. 

What Happens When You Heat Ice Cream?

Ice cream is so yummy. It comes in all different flavors. It has a soft and creamy texture and can be paired with many other desserts. Like I said before, if ice cream is too frozen and hardened, you can melt it slightly in a microwave oven if you choose. What happens when you heat ice cream?

Heated ice cream will begin to melt. Ice cream should be stored at a frigid temperature of 0 degrees Farhenthiet. When the temperature rises, the ice cream will melt so when cooking with ice cream it must be inside of something or added after the dessert is baked. 

You cannot refreeze ice cream that has thawed either because once heated and melting, bateria will start to grow making the ice cream unsafe to eat after refrozen.  Bacteria can grow in the ice cream and if you eat it when it is contaminated it will most likely make you sick. 

One way to prevent this is to scoop it out using a clean utensil and don’t double-dip. Also, never lick the scoop and put it back into the ice cream tub. 

When you touch the ice cream with a dirty utensil or something that has touched something else, it could have bacteria on it and contaminate the ice cream. Then when you eat it, you get sick. 

Now as far as heating ice cream, well, when you heat ice cream it, of course, melts. And melting ice cream forms what? Bacteria. This is why you should eat the ice cream right away if you have heated or melted it. Keep your ice cream frozen and if it ends up melting, you should throw it away and replace it with a new tub. 

We all like ice cream to be soft and creamy but heating ice cream can cause some problems such as bacteria growth and change in texture. Heated ice cream doesn’t taste as good as frozen ice cream because it’s meant to be cold and not hot.

How Do You Bake Ice Cream Without Melting It?

Love all things ice cream? What if I told you that there is a dessert that has ice cream in it and this dessert is baked. This can also be a great science experiment. So, how do you bake ice cream without melting it?

You can bake ice cream without it melting if it is well insulted by other ingredients to trap the heat. When this happens, the ice cream can’t melt because the heat can’t reach it. Meringue and sponge cake are used in baking ice cream without it melting.

Now, ice cream shouldn’t go in the oven unless you are making this dessert or doing a science experiment. Baking just ice cream isn’t something that is done and won’t turn out to be a yummy dessert. Plus you probably don’t want to bake your ice cream just because it is meant to be frozen and cold. 

Ice cream should be cold and is good like that. However, there is a way to bake ice cream that is both scientifically fun and delicious.

But, if you want a delightful dessert and also a fun science experiment, check out Can You Bake Your Ice Cream? By Scientific American. This uses meringue and sponge cake around ice cream to form an insulated barrier so that when you bake it all, the ice cream doesn’t melt. 

These protect the ice cream from heat so that the heat never reaches it resulting in baking ice cream without melting it.

Final Thoughts

You can’t put ice cream in the oven by itself and expect it to turn out to be something edible that tastes good. Heat melts ice cream and also can grow bacteria. 

Now, if you are making a dessert or doing a science experiment by putting ice cream inside a meringue and sponge cake, you can put the ice cream in the oven and it won’t melt it. So, for these reasons you can put ice cream in the oven. 

If you just want to heat your ice cream up just a tad so that it isn’t as frozen, don’t use an oven and opt for a few seconds in the microwave instead or let it sit out for a couple of minutes.