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Ice Cream Nachos

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5 from 14 votes

Ice Cream Nachos are a fun and easy dessert to make with family and friends! Loaded with waffle chips and piled high with mounds of ice cream and toppings. Perfect for all occasions and can be easily customized!

PIN these Ice Cream Dessert Nachos to make later!

Ice cream nachos on a large platter.Pin

ice cream nachos

Ice Cream Nachos will be your new favorite dessert to make! This is one of the easiest desserts to whip up because it only takes minutes and you can use any of your favorite ice cream flavors and toppings- the possibilities are endless.

These nachos are similar to ice cream sundaes except we use waffle cone chips on a large platter and pile on our favorite toppings. Perfect for sharing at a party, family movie night, gatherings, holidays, the next time you’re craving ice cream, or serve them in individual bowls. 

You can make these Ice Cream Nachos all year round, it doesn’t just have to be a summer treat. Make them any time by using different flavor combinations and nacho toppings. Although these are delicious in a hot summer day, but we do love them even when it’s cold out.

If you want to make your own ice cream from scratch try some of my easy no-churn ice cream recipes: Butterfinger Ice CreamStrawberry Ice Cream, and Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream.

Close up of ice cream with sprinkles.Pin

Why You’ll Love ice cream nachos

Fun dessert:  These nachos are fun for the whole family! Kids would love to help assemble these nachos and they can get as creative as they want.

Quick dessert: These nachos come together in minutes and couldn’t be easier to make.

Perfect dessert: Enjoy this dessert all year round, add themed sprinkles to the nachos for different holidays and occasions.

Totally customizable: You can make these nachos exactly how you want by using your favorite ice cream, toppings, and flavor combinations.

Can by made into a large or small size: Serve these on a platter or make them in individual bowls.

Bowl of ice cream nachos with waffle chips.Pin

key ingredients

  • Ice cream: I love using 2-3 different varieties of ice cream for these nachos. I used vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry but you could use any of your favorites. Pistachio, Cookies n’ Cream, Cookie Dough, Mocha, Mint Chocolate Chip, Butter Pecan, etc. Use what you love!
  • Waffle cones: I like to use sugar cones as opposed to the regular ice cream cones because they break up into large chunks and hold up like tortilla chips better. Stroopwafel Cookies work really well if you wanted to use cones.
  • Toppings: I used the basic ice cream sundae toppings..chocolate sauce or chocolate syrup, whipped cream, maraschino cherries, colorful sprinkles, and nuts. You can get creative and use any toppings you want, see below for a list of more ideas.
How to make Ice cream Nachos.Pin

how to make ice cream nachos

Make waffle chips: Carefully break apart the waffle cones into large pieces. They should be the size of a tortilla chip. Some of the waffle pieces will crumble and be smaller, that’s ok! Spread them evenly over a large serving platter or large plate.

Assemble nachos: Top the waffle pieces with scooped ice cream. Then add all the toppings, serve immediately and enjoy!

Plate with ice cream nachos.Pin

additional add-ins

You can truly add any of your favorite toppings to these Ice Cream Nachos. The possibilities are endless! Some other great ideas are:

  • Cookie dough bits: You can find these at most grocery stores near the candy isle or make your own cookie dough from scratch.
  • Brownie pieces: Make your own brownies or use store-bought. Brownie brittle also makes a great option!
  • Sauces: Strawberry sauce, caramel sauce, and butterscotch sauce.
  • Mini marshmallows
  • Crushed graham crackers
  • Melted peanut butter
  • Gummy bears
  • Toffee pieces
  • Crushed up candy bars: Snickers, Butterfinger, colorful M&M’s, Reese’s pieces, mini peanut butter cups, and Kit-Kats.
  • Cookies: Use your favorite chopped, crushed up cookies such as chocolate chip cookies, Nilla Wafer cookies, Oreo cookies, sugar cookies, and Circus animal cookies.
  • Cereal: Kids will love this idea! Some favorites to add are Fruit Loops, Capn Crunch, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs, Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Pebbles, Reese’s Puffs, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
  • Chocolate: Load these nachos with a combination of milk and white chocolate chips, shaved chocolate, extra chocolate sauce, melted chocolate on top, and chocolate sprinkles.
  • Fresh fruit: Sliced bananas, raspberries, blueberries, mangos, oranges, and apples make great options.
Ice cream desert with cherry on top.Pin

recipe tips

Soften ice cream: Make sure to leave the tub of ice cream out on the counter for a few minutes to soften. This will make it easier to scoop onto the nachos. You don’t want your ice cream to be like soft serve, but soft enough to scoop.

Serve immediately: You want to serve these immediately after you assemble because they will melt quickly. Serve them with a bunch of spoons on the side or with individual bowls.

Swap the sprinkles for different occasions: Make these for a Christmas dessert by using red and green sprinkles or for Halloween by using orange and black sprinkles.

Non dairy alternative: Use sorbets, sherbets, any type of non-dairy ice creams, and omit the whipped cream.

flavor combinations

  • Fruity flavor: Rainbow sherbet, raspberry sorbet, and lemon or lime sorbet.
  • Neapolitan: This is my favorite 🙂 Chocolate ice cream, vanilla ice cream, and strawberry ice cream.
  • Cookie monster: Cookie dough ice cream, Cookies n’ Cream ice cream, and top with 1-3 different types of crushed cookies or cookie crumbles.
  • Banana Split: Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream with sliced bananas, hot fudge sauce, crushed pineapple, whipped cream, nuts, and cherries on top.
  • Chocolate peanut butter: Peanut butter cup ice cream, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate ice cream with mini peanut butter cups, chocolate chips, and melted chocolate on top.
  • Holiday: Peppermint ice cream, chocolate ice cream, and mint chip icee cream topped with crushed candy canes and melted chocolate. Crumbled gingerbread cookies or ginger snaps would also be yummy on top too.
Close up of ice cream sundae in a bowl.Pin

leftovers & storage

These Ice Cream Nachos will start to melt shortly after you serve them just like any other ice cream dessert. If you really wanted to save it, you could scoop the ice cream off the top of the waffle chunks and place it in large freezer friendly ziplock bag and freeze.

Waffle chip with ice cream. Pin
Ice cream and waffle chips in a small bowl.Pin

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Ice Cream Nachos

Ice Cream Nachos are a fun and easy dessert to make with family and friends! Loaded with waffle chips and piled high with mounds of ice cream and toppings. Perfect for all occasions and can be easily customized!
5 from 14 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: ice cream nachos
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

  • 3 ice cream flavors (12 scoops total) we used vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry
  • 12 waffle cones broken into large chunks

Toppings

  • whipped cream
  • sprinkles
  • maraschino cherries
  • chocolate or hot fudge sauce
  • chopped nuts we used almonds

Instructions

  • Carefully break apart the waffle cones into large pieces. They should be the size of a tortilla chip. Some of the waffle pieces will crumble and be smaller, that's ok! Spread them evenly over a large serving platter or large plate
  • Top the waffle pieces with scooped ice cream. Then add all the toppings, serve immediately and enjoy!
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5 from 14 votes

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Recipe Rating




14 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    This is such a fun idea. It would be great for a birthday party, especially if the person does not want cake. I know my grandkids would love this on Friday dinner nights.

  2. 5 stars
    What?!? This is such a creative and fun dessert idea! 🙂 I just might have to make this for my daughter’s next sleepover- the girls would love it.

  3. 5 stars
    Genius! This is such an awesome party idea for adults or kids. Cannot wait to break this out for my next birthday party.

  4. 5 stars
    This is such a playful recipe and it was a lot of fun putting it together with my boys for the Halloween party. Kids loved adding different toppings and it was a super hit.

  5. 5 stars
    This recipe seems like such a tasty treat that everyone will enjoy. I like that it can be customized and personalized as well.

  6. 5 stars
    You managed to make ice cream even more fun! My kids went bananas over these ice cream nachos, we had a mini kid’s party and invited a few kids from the neighborhood to watch movies and play in the garden and they had so much fun eating ice cream nachos! What an original idea. I love that you can play around with flavors and toppings!