Buckle your seat belts because this ice cream hack has the potential to change lives. There is nothing in this world worse than cracking open a tub of ice cream after a rough day and realizing that it is too frozen to properly scoop. You scrape and scrape but nothing more than a few sad flakes of ice cream come off on your scoop.
You might try microwaving it next, but that only softens the outside and leaves the inside frozen solid. Or maybe you’ll just leave it out on the counter, but that requires inhuman amounts of patience.
So what’s an ice cream-aholic to do? I’m about to let you in on the most foolproof ice cream hack known to man. You’ll never have to worry about flat scoops or pulling an arm muscle again.
I first learned about this hack from this America’s Test Kitchen video and since watching it I haven’t gone back to regular old scooping again.
1. Run a knife under hot water
2. Cut vertical lines into your ice cream
3. Cut horizontal lines into your ice cream (creating these small squares)
4. Run your scooper under more hot water
5. Scoop out the squares
6. Enjoy!
If you don’t feel like going through all of this trouble, there are other tricks you can do to keep your ice cream soft and to prevent freezer burn.
Other tricks
1. Keep it in a freezer bag
Keeping your ice cream in a freezer bag will prevent it from getting too hard and icy.
2. Store it upside down
According to Ben and Jerry’s, storing an already opened pint upside down causes the melted part of the ice cream to stay at the bottom which gives it less of a chance to ruin your still frozen ice cream.
Don’t let anything come between you and your ice cream. With this hack, you’ll be an ice cream scooping pro.