These chocolate caramel ice cream bars have creamy chocolate ice cream, chewy caramel sauce, and a crisp chocolate shell.

Making fancy ice cream bars is my new favourite hobby! This chocolate and caramel ice cream bar is a classic flavour combo.

The ice cream base is a no-churn version with whipped cream and condensed milk. The condensed milk stops the ice cream from becoming icy.

It’s topped with a homemade caramel sauce, (or use store-bought if you wish) and dipped in a chocolate shell.

Jump to:

• The ingredients
• Equipment
• The caramel sauce
• The ice cream bars
• Storing
• Other flavour ideas
• Full Recipe

The ingredients

For the chocolate caramel ice cream bars, you will need –

Ice cream

• Condensed milk
• Heavy cream
• Cocoa powder
• Vanilla paste or extract

Toppings

• Caramel sauce. I love using my thick homemade caramel sauce. It stiffens after it has been kept in the fridge, so I gently warm it up before drizzling it over the ice cream bars.
• Semi-sweet dark chocolate – I use Whittaker’s 50% dark chocolate.
• Coconut oil – This keeps the chocolate a little runnier for easy dipping, and once it sets on the cold ice cream it becomes nice and crisp.

Equipment

You will need ice cream bar moulds. I use silicone ice cream moulds because they’re easy to remove the ice cream bars from. This recipe makes 6-8 ice creams, depending on the size of the moulds.

If you only have a set of 4 ice cream moulds, the leftover ice cream mixture can be stored in the fridge until the first ice cream bars have frozen. Remove them from the moulds and then fill the next lot.

The caramel sauce

I love using this homemade buttery caramel sauce recipe. It’s really quick to make and uses only 4 ingredients. Sugar, butter, heavy cream and salt. Once it settles on the ice cream it becomes chewy and thick.

If you don’t want to make your own, you can use a store-bought caramel sauce instead.

The ice cream bars

No-churn chocolate ice-cream

Firstly whip the cream with the cocoa powder and vanilla until stiff peaks form, but take care not to overmix.

Fold through the condensed milk.

Spoon the mixture into ice cream moulds, add in the popsicle sticks and freeze the ice creams for at least 8 hours until fully frozen.

Caramel

Once the ice creams are frozen solid, remove them from their moulds.

Place a wire rack or similar, over a bowl.

If your caramel is very stiff, gently warm it until it’s more pourable. Grab an ice cream bar and drizzle the caramel sauce over the rounded side of the ice cream until it is coated. Place it on the rack and let any excess caramel drip off for a minute. Then, place the caramel-coated ice creams on parchment paper and in the freezer while you continue with the rest.

The magic shell

In a microwave, melt together the chocolate and oil, in 20-second increments, stirring after each time. Once it’s nearly all melted, remove it from the microwave and keep stirring to further melt and combine it.

Pour the chocolate mixture into a tall glass or jar, wide enough to fit the ice cream bars. One a time, dip the ice cream into the chocolate and let the chocolate mixture coat it completely.

Remove the ice cream bars and let the excess chocolate drip off. The chocolate should stiffen within about a minute. Place the finished ice creams back in the freezer.

Let the ice creams freeze again for another hour before serving.

Storing

The ice cream bars can be wrapped up or stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to a month.

Other flavour ideas

The world is your oyster when it comes to ice cream bar flavours!

• Try these strawberry and white chocolate ice cream bars
• Switch up the dark chocolate for milk chocolate
• Change the chocolate ice cream to coffee, or vanilla
• Stir cookie or brownie pieces through the chocolate ice cream before freezing.