In this instructable I am going to show you, how to grill ice cream. With its crisp crust and soft, ice cold inside, it will provide the perfect ending to your BBQ.

When I had the idea to grill ice cream I did a little bit of research and found this recipe, which uses an egg and coconut crust to prevent the ice cream from melting. While I like the idea it definitely requires a lot of practice and perfect timing, since solids aren't very good thermal insulators.
If you take a closer look at insulation materials, you will notice, that most of the time they are made out of a foamy material and consist of lot of air. That's because gases have a lower thermal conductivity and therefore a higher insulating capability.
So all I needed to do was to find a tasty, foamy material to apply around the ice cream to prevent it from melting. The decision was easy, because what could be better than meringue?

As some people pointed out in the comments, the idea to bake ice cream is not new and was invented back in 1876. It is commonly known as Baked Alaska.

Step 1: Stuff You Need

Ingredients:

Ice cream
2 1/2 cups of flour
2/3 cup of butter
1/4 cup of water
1 TBS sugar
1/2 TSP salt
6 egg whites
2 cups of powdered sugar

Tools:

Mixer
Grill with a lid
Muffin pan
Plastic wrap
Rolling pin

Optional: For the Snickers ice cream:

5 Snickers
1 cup of Mascarpone
1/2 cup of cream
Ice cream maker
Pots to melt the Snickers

Step 2: Snickers Ice Cream

This recipe will work with any type of ice cream, if you don't have an ice cream maker, just skip this step and use your favourite flavour (or borrow one, like I did).

If you do have an ice cream maker I urge you to try this recipe, since it is extremely good.

Prepare a water bath, to melt the Snickers. Add one cup of Mascarpone cheese and 1/2 cup of cream until you get a smooth mixture. Depending on your ice cream maker you might have to cool the mixture in the fridge before using it. So make sure to follow the instructions. If you have to cool it down in the fridge remember to stir from time to time.

After the ice cream maker is done, freeze the mixture for 12 more hours, else it melts to quickly.

Step 3: Preparing the Dough

To prepare the pie dough, use your fingers to mix 2 1/2 cups of flour with 2/3 cup of butter, a table spoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt. Then add a quarter cup of cold water and knead until you have an even dough.

Wrap it in plastic wrap, as shown in the picture and leave it in the fridge for about an hour.

Roll the out the dough, until it has a thickness of about 5 mm. Don't make it too thin or it will break later. Place it in the muffin pan and use a fork to pinch it, as shown in the picture, to prevent air bubbles.

Bake it for about 40 minutes at 200°C (392°F).

Step 4: Meringue

Separate the egg whites from the yolks and mix them with the powdered sugar. Make sure to stir the mixture very well, until you have a nice foam, that stays in shape.

Fill the small pies with the foam, as shown in the pictures and add a scoop of ice cream on top of it. Cover the ice cream with an about one cm thick layer of foam.
If you can't use them right away, place them in the freezer.

Step 5:

An even heat distribution is important for the recipe to successfully work. Once you are done grilling push all the coal to one side of the grill and place your covered ice cream scoops on the other side. Close the lid and grill them for about 4 minutes.

We had the best success when the grill had about 200°C (392°F). Have fun amazing your friends and enjoy the ice cream.