A strawberry shortcake ice cream bar made with fresh ingredients and coated in crumbled shortcake cookies - a Good Humor Popsicle inspired treat. These popsicles are simple to make and perfect to enjoy on a hot summer day.
Wash and remove the strawberry stems. Chop up the strawberries into very small pieces. Once the strawberries are finely chopped, they should measure to be 1 and 1/2 cups. If you have too many or too few, adjust but chopping a few strawberries (or eating a small handful!) In a medium sized bowl, toss the strawberries with the lemon juice and sugar. Allow to sit while preparing the "ice cream."
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth, about 3-4 minutes. Slowly add in the sweetened condensed milk while continuing to beat the ingredients together. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Once the mixture is completely smooth and creamy, fold in the whipped topping using a spatula until completely combined.
Remove two cups of the mixture into another bowl.
Drain any liquid in the strawberry mixture and gently fold the chopped strawberries and strawberry jell-o mix into the removed two cups.
Pour the strawberry mixture and the white mixture into popsicle molds alternating colors.
Allow to freeze overnight or at least 10 hours.
When the popsicles are almost done freezing, you can prepare the shortcake cookies.
Shortcake Cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and white sugar until just combined. Stir in the vanilla extract. In another bowl, combine the cornstarch, flour, and salt. Stir to combine.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients. The mixture should appear crumbly. Knead the mixture together with your hands until a large ball of dough forms.
On a floured surface, dump out the mixture and knead the dough into a large ball.
Pinch off small pieces of the dough to form cookies. The cookies should be small (about a 1/4 inch thick) and pretty flat. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar.
Cook for 9-11 minutes or until lightly golden on the sides. Remove and transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Once the cookies are cooled, crumble them into small pieces and place on a large plate.
Roll the frozen popsicles (that have been thawed 2-3 minutes) onto the shortcake cookie crumbs.
Enjoy immediately.
Notes
*If desired, you can substitute heavy whipping cream that has been whipped to form soft peaks and then measured to 3 cups.