homemade dilly bars

We made the perfect summer treat today: homemade dilly bars


When I was a kid I loved going to Dairy Queen and watching them make the dilly bar by hand… I was fascinated with how fast the shell would harden.  They were soooo good!


Today dilly bars come pre-packaged 🙁
Lame!

Anyway I recently spied some cherry chips at the supermarket and snagged them up, dreaming of the DQ worker plunging my vanilla ice cream into the cherry topping and thought I could replicate it.  Since I already had chocolate chips at home, I snagged a bag of butterscotch chips and skipped away… dilly bars come in 3 flavors you know: cherry, butterscotch & the classic chocolate.  
Since they’re a trio we had to make ALL the flavors 😉


To make your own dilly bars, 
you’ll simply need vanilla ice cream, a pie pan, chips & a few tongue depressors.


Be prepared to have patience and lots of it!


1. Spoon ice cream into pie pan and let harden.
Wait 1 hour or until ice cream is firm.
2. Once ice cream is hard, use round cutter* and insert tongue depressor.
*Or something similar; thank you Pampered Chef measuring cup!
More waiting… about 30 mins.
3. Separate chips into bowls.
4. Melt chips, {I put in microwave for 30 seconds, stir, repeat until it’s smooth.}

Dash those dreams of dipping like the old pro’s because I have NO idea how DQ does it {my ice cream melted & the shell wouldn’t stay put. Boo.} 


You’ll have to settle for the Lolly Jane way:
5. Insert tongue depressor into ice cream & spread a thin layer of melted chips on wax paper and put the ice cream bar on top.  
6. Work fast and simply pour the melted chips on the bar until it’s covered and rush frantically place the bars back into the fre
ezer.  If you want to add the classic dilly bar swirl, now’s the time to do it- just take a spoonful of the melted chips and pour into a swirl shape. Easy peasy!




Those puppies get hot so wait at least 2 hours until the ice cream re-freezes inside the bars.

Note: We cut off the excess hardened shell to make it look more like a dilly bar vs. a melted pile of delicious flavored chips.  To do this we used a warm knife and it worked like magic!



Last step, give to happy kids 🙂

Gotta love Delaney’s lipstick stained face 😉

If you have any tips for ice cream dipping, we’d love to hear it!

Linking up {here & here} this week!

Similar Posts

27 Comments

  1. I just found out the best dilly bar recipe is using coconute oil 80 gr virgin olive oil 20 gr to each 150 gr white chocolate with 1/6 a teaspon of concentrated cherry PG. A little goes a long way.

    Then do your thing with the pan and stuff. This mix microwaves for 20 seconds and stirs to liquid which stays that way at room temperature. In the winter it will harden on the counter though.

    1. Right Brandy. I worked at DQ starting at 13 years old until I graduated HS. I probably made thousands of these and buster bars. I agree, the magic shell topping does not need to be heated in a crockpot. It should be stored at room temperature. It needs to be very thin. The coldness of the ice cream hardens it.
      Coconut oil mixed with the chips makes it the right consistency.
      You can also form the dilly bar using a silicone mold that is intended for cooking eggs. Put a stick in before you freeze it and put each one on wax paper to freeze. Then pull them out and dip them. Better to make them individually.
      I just made buster bars for my family last night for a fun summer treat.

  2. I work at a Dairy Queen in Sissonville, WV and we still make everyone of ours buy hand, except for our sugar free. Maybe if any of your readers are out that way they would love to stop in our place and have them the old fashioned way.

  3. If you add coconut oil to melted chips, the ice cream would freeze the chocolate when you dip it. I’ve also heard some people use paraffin wax in the chocolate for people allergic to coconut.

  4. So I just made these for my daughter over Christmas break. I went to the thrift store and purchased one of those tiny crock pots, put the chips and butter inside. I put my ice cream into a rubber cupcake mold and froze until stiff, put the stick in and dipped away. The ice cream did get a little melty but they turned out great!

  5. I have never heard of a dilly bar before. I will have to try these. If you get a chance I would love you to link your dilly bars up to More the Merrier Monday. It starts tonight and lasts through Wednesday. See you there. http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/

  6. How fun and perfect. They look so good and the children are precious. What a fun treat. Thanks so much for joining TTT. Hugs, Marty

  7. oh my goodness! it's a good thing that i did not see this post earlier in the day. it would have made my weight watchers point tracking to right out.the.window. because i would have had to make them. they look soooo yummy!!

    oh and my new blog design was inspired by your pretty blog. 🙂 hope it's not too copy-cattish. lol

    xoxo

  8. Those look seriously delish! I think I should have invited ourselves over to eat them with you guys! 😀

  9. I'm a former DQ employee too 🙂 I was also going to suggest trying to heat the chips in a crock pot and thin them out with some butter or cream or something. If you want more of the classic DQ look, I'd also suggest melting or softening your ice cream more and putting it in a zip top (or pastry) bag and squeeze it out onto a cookie sheet or something. Your idea works great too though. To dip you have to be quick. We were taught to dip it once, give it a second to harden a little bit and dip again.

    What a fun summer treat! 🙂

  10. When I worked at DQ 10 years ago, we would hand dip them, let them freeze in the big freezer and then package them. I don't know what they're doing now, since I worked there for 2 years.. I'm about burnt out on DQ.

    The best way I can tell you to dip ice cream it a crockpot. Your dipping sauce needs to be really thin and hot. You need to add some butter to your chips. Good luck hun!! These look super yummy!

  11. Thank you for the suggestions, ladies! Who knew there was homemade magic shell?! Whoo hoo!

    PS: Rachel, I left a comment on your blog but for anyone else wondering…. we found the cherry chips @ Walmart by the other flavors. Happy baking 🙂

    xo- Kristi @ LollyJane

  12. I live in AZ and I need to know what store you found the cherry chips in so I can pick some up!

  13. My first job was at a Dairy Queen and I recall making many-o-Dilly Bars. They were so good! I loved the butterscotch. Thanks for this great tip to make them myself.

  14. MAGIC SHELL RECIPE
    1 stick butter
    1/2 cup milk choc. chips
    1/2 cup semi-sweet choc. chips
    Melt and put over ice cream.

    I suppose this recipe would work for your dilly bars, too. Good Luck.

  15. YUMMY! I love dilly bars:) i remember when i was a kid they seemed so BIG and now they are so small:/ Our dairy queen still makes them by hand tho (yay!) i love them! Im going to feature these on my blog i MUST make these:)
    Mary
    http://maryberryboutique.blogspot.com/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *