Deep Fried Ice Cream
Happy Chanukah!
No, for real, happyyyyyyyyyyy Chanukah, because boy have I got a good one for you today. It's DEEP. FRIED. ICE CREAM, people. Deep fried. Ice cream.
As in cold, creamy, rich vanilla ice cream that's rolled in a thick coating of vanilla cookie crumbs, crushed cornflakes, a lil bit of sugar, and a lil bit of cinnamon. And then deep fried in hottttttt oil. To crispy, crunchy perfection.
COLD ice cream. HOT fried coating. This deep fried ice cream is the ULTIMATE hot and cold dessert. Well actually, just in general, even disregarding the hot + cold combo, it's the ultimate dessert.
It's actually too good. Hence my need for capitalizing so many words these past few sentences.
Chanukah is a holiday where oily foods abound - potato pancakes (i.e. latkes), donuts, fries - the whole works. The reason oil is used in abundance is to commemorate the miracle of Chanukah, where a teeny tiny amount of oil that was used to light the Temple's menorah miraculously burned for eight whole days.
And I think eating all the fried foods is a wonderful way to commemorate the miracle. Really, truly wonderful.
Especially after trying deep fried ice cream for the first time and deciding to make it every year for Chanukah henceforth.
This is the first Chanukah of my lifetime that I've had fried ice cream. In fact, I'd never even heard of fried ice cream until a few years ago. And for some odd reason, I only considered attempting to make it for the first time a few weeks ago.
WHY??? I ask myself. Why have I waited so long? It's not even like fried ice cream is a difficult thing to make. There are seven ingredients in the entire recipe (and that's including the oil for frying)!
And the actual amount of time you'll be working on this recipe is only like twenty minutes. But here's the kicker: there's a decent amount of waiting time required to allow for the ice cream to completely harden and freeze between each step. So you can't just decide to make this fried ice cream on the spot and expect to be able to consume it within the same hour.
I'll explain below how I like to deal with the wait time.
Let me first explain how this deep fried ice cream works:
1-scoop out the ice cream into very large balls and freeze them until hardened. Approximate freezer time: 1+ hours
2-while the ice cream is in the freezer, crush the cornflakes and cookies (a food processor gets the job done in under 30 seconds) and mix the crumbs with the sugar and cinnamon. Approximate work time: 1 minute
3-beat the eggs in a small bowl. Approximate work time: 30 seconds
4-roll the frozen ice cream balls in the eggs and crumbs and back to the freezer they go.
Here's the part I wanted to tell you about: if you plan on using this dessert the same day you make it, you'll have to wait at least three hours for the ice cream to harden again before frying.
So what I like to do once I coat the ice cream balls is freeze them till hardened, then transfer them to an airtight container to use whenever the need for deep fried ice cream arises, be it two days or two weeks later.
And since this recipe yields approximately 12 balls and you can fry as many at a time as you'd like, you could totally just take one out whenever a craving hits and just fry that single one, leaving the rest in the freezer for another time.
Rich, creamy, freezing cold vanilla ice cream. Cocooned in a coating of sweet cookie crumbs and crunchy cornflake crumbs. Deep fried for 15 seconds, yielding ice cream that's still frozen and cold along with a coating that's hot and crunchy and crispy.
Hasta la vista, donuts. Hola, deep fried ice cream.
Deep Fried Ice Cream
Yield: about 12
56 oz. tub of vanilla ice cream
2 1/4 cups vanilla cookie crumbs
3 cups cornflakes, coarsely crushed (a little over 1 cup crushed)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs
Oil, for frying
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a very large ice cream scoop, scoop ice cream into large balls and space out onto baking sheet. Cover sheet and freeze at least one hour, until ice cream is firm.
Meanwhile, crush the cookies in a food processor or in a plastic bag by hand and measure out 2 1/4 cups. Add crumbs to a shallow dish (I like using an 8" baking dish). Next, crush the cornflakes but leave them coarse for a more crunchy texture. Add to the dish. Add sugar and cinnamon to dish and stir everything together.
In a smallish bowl, beat the eggs.
Remove ice cream from freezer. If necessary, re-roll ice cream for more perfect rounds. Roll each ball first into the crumbs, then into the eggs, then back into the crumbs, coating each ball fully and thickly, leaving no surface of ice cream visible.
Place coated balls back onto sheet, cover, and freeze at least 3 hours. (Alternatively, freeze ice cream till hardened, then transfer to an airtight container and freeze up to a few weeks.)
Heat a few inches of oil in a medium saucepan to 400 F. Fry the balls, one at a time, for about 15 seconds, or until golden. Don't fry too long.
Drain on paper towel and serve immediately, with a drizzling of melted chocolate, chocolate syrup, whipped cream, or confectioner's sugar if desired.
