I remember going to Chi-Chi’s Mexican restaurant when I was a kid. Every once in a while my parents would treat us to a dessert and we would each get a spoon to dig in to the shared order of fried ice cream. The novelty factor was certainly part of the enjoyment. Ice cream that is fried in hot oil?! But it was the perfect mix of crunchy and creamy, hot and cold, spicy and sweet that was the real homerun.
Most homemade fried ice cream recipes involve rolling individually frozen balls of vanilla ice cream into crushed cornflakes. Some of the more authentic ones actually fry the balls in hot oil. I’ll bet they are delicious, albeit time consuming.
I didn’t set out to develop a recipe for fried ice cream, it was a child of necessity. (Well, not necessity…want). You might call it “the lazy person’s fried ice cream.” I call it