Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins

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My Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins take their inspiration from Neapolitan ice cream, and are flavored with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Not only do these easy bake muffins taste great, they are fun to bake too!

Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins

I took inspiration from my kids favorite ice cream flavor when making my Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins. They love all 3 flavors and they are really easy to recreate in this simple muffin recipe.

Breakfast Muffins are a big favorite in our house. The guys all love them because they’re delicious and I like them because the muffin batter can be easily made up ahead of time, perfect for busy mornings!

However, they are also a great fun bake with kids who want to help out in the kitchen.

These Easy Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins are an excellent treat now that we live in Texas, because it gets very hot here.

An added bonus is that local grocery stores have been offering great sale prices on ice cream, so I’ve been stocking the freezer. With three teenage boys, who are all athletes, they have very hearty appetites, so stocking up on sale items is essential to keep the budget on track.

I’ve been working on a few different items, looking at innovative ways to use up the ice cream. In additional to the more traditional scoops, sundaes and milkshakes, I am excited to share today this recipe for Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins.

How to make Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins:

• Look out all your ingredients ready to start.

Feel free to swap out the jam and use Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream instead!

• Preheat the oven to 350F degrees and line or grease a muffin tin.

• Place the oats into a food processor or blender and blend to a smooth consistency to make an oat flour.
• In a large bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, oat flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

• In a large mixing bowl, add the ice cream, butter and egg and mix together. 
• Add the flour mixture to the ice cream mixture and mix until just combined.
• Divide the batter equally between 3 separate bowls. 
• In one of the bowls mix in the cocoa powder, in the second mix in the jam, and in the third mix in the vanilla extract.
• Add each of the batter colors into a piping bag or sandwich bag.

• Pipe the muffin batter into the muffin tins simultaneously (see photo above).

• Place the muffin tin into the hot oven and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Remove the tray from the oven and remove the muffins from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.

Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffin ingredients:

• FLOUR: I use all purpose flour for these muffins.
• OATS: rolled oats are placed in the blender and blitzed to form an oat flour which is then combined with the regular all purpose flour.
• SUGAR: I use granulated sugar to make these muffins.
• BAKING POWDER & BAKING SODA: are both used in this recipe to help the muffins rise.
• BUTTER: you can use either salted or unsalted butter, either will work.
• VANILLA ICE CREAM: ice cream is melted and added to the cake batter, but take care not to heat it up.
• EGG: I use 1 large egg in this cake batter.
• COCOA POWDER: unsweetened cocoa powder gives the chocolate flavor to the batter.
• STRAWBERRY JAM: strawberry jam is added to the muffin batter.
• VANILLA EXTRACT: I like to use vanilla extract as it has the best flavor, you could also use vanilla essence but it’s not so flavourful.

You could also use your favorite vanilla, chocolate, or homemade strawberry ice cream if you prefer!

Can Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins be made ahead?

Make the muffin batter up to a day ahead, place into sandwich or piping bags and store in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake the muffins.

How long can you store Ice Cream Muffins?

Once baked, these delicious muffins can be stored in an airtight container on the counter top for 3-4 days, assuming they last that long (they never do in my kitchen).

Can I freeze Muffins?

These muffins, can be baked and once cool, placed into an airtight container and stored in the freezer for up to 3 months. When ready to eat, remove the muffins from the freezer and defrost thoroughly before enjoying.

Recipe tips:

• Take care when melting the ice cream, you only want it to melt, not to heat up otherwise you risk splitting the muffin batter.
• This muffin batter is really easy to work with so if there is a flavor that you don’t like then leave it out and only make a double flavored muffin instead.
• You can easily grease the muffin tray with butter, but I prefer to use paper muffin liners. This makes getting the muffins out of the tray a whole lot easier.
• To make Gluten Free Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins swap the all purpose flour for gluten free all purpose flour and ensure the rolled oats and baking powder you are using are also gluten free.

Don’t miss these additional great bakes here at When is Dinner:

• Butter Pecan Ice Cream Muffins
• Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Healthy Apple Oatmeal Muffins
• Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
• Chunky Monkey Muffins
• Strawberry Muffins
• Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Muffins
• Double Chocolate Chip Muffins
• Peanut Butter Banana Oat Muffins

These are a few items I find helpful when preparing these Neapolitan Ice Cream Muffins in my own kitchen:

Wilton Recipe Right Muffin Pan, 12-Cup Non-Stick Muffin PanNinja Food Chopper Express Chop with 200-Watt, 16-Ounce Bowl for Mincing, Chopping, Grinding, Blending and Meal Prep (NJ110GR)Pyrex 4-Piece Glass Measuring Cup Set with Large 8 Cup Measuring CupOXO Good Grips Mixing Bowl Set with Black Handles, 3-PiecePastry Bag -50 Pack-16-Inch Extra Thick Large Cake/Cupcake Decorating Bags-Disposable Icing Piping Bags SetOXO Good Grips Cake Tester – Non-Slip Handle – Simplify BakingPam Baking No-stick Cooking Spray 3pcsAmazonBasics Reusable Silicone Baking Cups, Pack of 12Tovolo Cupcake Scoop