10 Brilliant Recipes You Should Make in an Ice Cube Tray—Including Pancake Bites, Yogurt Cubes and Sushi Rolls
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Move over H2O, we’re about to pull double duty with this kitchen accessory.
Chances are, you’ve got a few ice cube trays in the back of your container cabinet gathering dust. Or if you’re anything like us, you buy the latest and greatest shapes (diamonds, skulls or flowers anyone?) with the best intentions for creating cool cubes but the drinks never materialize. What if we told you that ice cube trays are no longer just for plain old water? You could be creating all your delicious dinners and pretty party snacks in those tired old trays. We went straight to the source to get some tips for success on this tasty trend and spoke with Deimante Dabravolskis of @dliciously.inspired who has caused a buzz on the internet recently for her popular ice cube tray recipes.
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Where did you get the idea to start making recipes in ice cube trays?
“It all started with freezing pancake batter to make my mornings less stressful,” Dabravolskis says. “With little kids at home, I find myself running around all morning. My kids love pancakes, so I figured I will start freezing pancake batter and just pop them on the stove every morning and avoid the extra dishes and steps in preparing the batter.”
What do you do with the extra dough that you cut off the edge of the trays?
“With the extra dough, I make mini pizzas, and pastries, or simply freeze it for later use,” she says.
Are there any foods/recipes that don’t work well in the ice cube trays?
“I had this idea of making freezer potato pancakes, but shredded fresh potatoes simply can not go into the freezer,” Dabravolskis says. “They will turn dark, grainy, and mushy. I quickly threw that idea out of the window."
Are you using regular pizza dough for most of the recipes?
“I am using pizza dough for the pizza bite recipe,” she says. “For all other ones, I am using basic pastry dough. Homemade dough would work great here too!”
Related: 80 Best Pizza Recipes
What’s the easiest way to clean the ice cube trays after using them?
“I let my trays soak in water and some dish soap for a bit. Then I’ll just rinse it clean. The silicone trays are very easy to clean and often don’t require to be soaked,” Dabravolskis says.
Aside from recipes, can you use ice cube trays for meal prep or other kitchen/cooking hacks?
“A great way to use an ice cube tray for meal prep is by freezing soup in large ice cube trays. Then when ready to cook, just place a large frozen soup cube into a pot and bring it to a simmer. Also, make ice cubes with water and different berries, lemon, or fruit to add to [the] water. Lastly, freezing leftover coffee into cubes and using them in iced coffees will help coffee not get watered down when the ice starts melting,” Dabravolskis says.
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Pro tip: Dabravolskis says she typically goes for silicone ice cube trays for her recipes since removal is easier than your typical hard plastic trays. She also aims to keep a lot of her recipes bite-sized by using smaller trays, but if you choose to use bigger trays, adjust the recipe accordingly.
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10 Best Ice Cube Tray Recipes
1. Spinach Ricotta Pockets
This is Dabravolskis’ favorite of all her ice cube tray recipes. She takes a sheet of pastry dough, lays it in the ice cube tray, then adds a dollop of her spinach ricotta mixture before topping it with another layer of dough and trimming the edges. Once frozen, she pops them out, cuts along the lines and bakes.
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Related: 16 Recipes That Are Instantly More Delicious When Ricotta Cheese Is Added
2. Freezer Pancakes
A fan favorite on Dabravolskis’ Instagram and TikTok pages, she has many versions of this super simple recipe, where she whips up a pancake batter such as almond flour funfetti, chocolate chip brownie, or banana chocolate chip protein pancakes, pours it into the cubes and freezes. When she’s ready to cook, she pops one out and lets it melt on a hot skillet where it magically transforms into a fluffy breakfast treat.
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3. Pizza Pockets
A close runner-up to the fan-favorite pancakes is Dabravolskis’ pizza bites ice cube tray recipe. After laying down a sheet of pizza dough, Dabravolskis fills the cubes with sauce, cheese and her favorite fillings before freezing, cutting them apart, and storing them in a freezer bag for whenever snack time strikes.
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Related: No Matter How You Slice It, the History of Pizza Will Surprise You
4. Sushi
Perhaps one of the coolest ice cube tray recipe hacks is Dabravolskis’ ice cube tray sushi. The trick here, Dabravolskis says, is to press plastic wrap into the mold before building. Fillings go in first, then sushi rice, then a carefully-timed flip onto a cutting board before drizzling with Kewpie. Peeling away the plastic reveals tiny sushi gems that are a cinch to make, no sushi mat or cutting is required.
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5. S’Mores Bites
You should never forget dessert, and Nicole Modic, blogger, and author of the book Love to Eat, has a genius idea for your next get-together: frozen s’mores bites. Taking cute little bunny graham crackers, she lays a couple down in each cavity, tops with marshmallows and drizzles with chocolate and sea salt before freezing. What comes out of the freezer are chocolatey, pillowy, poppable bites that will wow guests at your next party.
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6. Herb Cubes
Dabravolskis says that before fresh herbs go bad, you can chop them, add a little olive oil and freeze them in the ice cube trays. That way, when you need to add a little zing to your next recipe, you can easily pop one into your pot.
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7. Personal Pies
Beau Coffron, of @lunchboxdad, makes the most delicious (and easiest) personal pie bites from only two ingredients (OK, three if you count the egg wash). If you’ve got fruit filling and frozen dough, you can create these bites and store them in the freezer for any time you have a pining for pie.
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Related: Everything You Need to Know About Pie Weights and How to Blind Bake the Perfect Crust
8. Buffalo Chicken Bites
Another one of Dabravolskis’ winning recipes, this one combines shredded chicken, rice, green onion, buffalo sauce and Ranch into tiny pockets for the perfect game day (or any day) bite.
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9. Chocolate-Covered Berries
Filling her ice cube tray with melted chocolate, content creator and recipe developer Britt Williams of @itsbrittwilliams simply adds in whole strawberries and blueberries and freezes to make the perfect juicy berry bite that requires pretty much zero effort but looks incredible once done.
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10. High Protein Strawberry Yogurt Cubes
Modic has a few noteworthy recipes on her social media accounts but this easy hack for a healthy breakfast on the go is one of the best. Combining Greek yogurt, collagen, maple syrup, vanilla, and fruit, Modic freezes the combo and says they’re perfect for snacking or throwing into your smoothies.
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