Homemade cones

I guess you could say that I’m a little late with my recipe for ice cream cones straddling the month of October, but that would be a big mistake: ice cream is in season all year round!

Materials for making homemade cones

This recipe is not really one of those that we make initially without equipment.
During the sales, at Casa (where you can find very pretty containers and crockery really not very expensive for the photos!), I had found a machine to make cones for a few euros.
Several times I had passed in the shop and I had thought that it would be nice, at this price I did not think long and I embarked the small machine.
In fact, it’s the same principle as the waffle iron: two plates that heat up, round format, and squared like the traditional cones found at the ice cream parlor.
With is sold a plastic cone, but honestly and frankly, I find that it is super mediocre and not at all practical so I did not even use it (at the same time at this price I did not expect it necessarily a lot).
It helps, however, to make roughly conical cones, but you can do without it.

You can obviously make cones by spreading the cone mixture in a very hot frying pan very thinly, until it is golden brown (it is also this color that gives a specific flavor!). But I can not validate this option: I did not buy a machine to make my cones in the pan.

Finally, making cones, it burns. Truly. As much as I have fingers that can withstand the heat quite a bit and my skin doesn’t even bother to blister or mark when I burn myself (I imagine that’s called evolution? haha), but even there I suffered.
It is certainly possible to buy gloves to isolate a little!

Making homemade cones

The ingredients for making cones are extremely simple and it’s pretty much a pancake machine: margarine, sugar, flour, vegetable milk and a little salt.
The real difficulty lies not in the dough, which is a stupid mixture, but in the cooking and modeling.

You have to cook the cone well so that it is golden, so that it develops a pleasant flavor but also, because otherwise it will be soggy (and nobody likes semi-soft cones!).
It’s a bit complex with this fairly low-end machine (but enough for what we do with it once a year, huh!), because it tends to heat up quite irregularly.
it is, I find, a little complicated at first to find the right moment to open the machine; give the wafer plenty of time to color before opening it, otherwise you will split it and tear it off.
At the same time, don’t let it color too much otherwise it will break into 1000 pieces when you want to roll it.

Then, arm yourself with your 10 fingers to which you will have briefed on the misfortune to come, and proceed quickly: take off the cone and roll instantly. You won’t have 300 years to act, once it gets cold it becomes brittle.
To hold it while it cooled I put it in a glass so it wouldn’t unfold (obviously a narrow glass).

Wafers, cigars and other shapes with cone dough

After missing a few, you’ll notice by eating the pieces while the following are cooking, that these things are really good!
We can finally make a little all the shapes we want, here are some ideas:

• Cigarettes: we often saw them in restaurants in 1890, roll a small cone around a wooden spoon handle for example!
• Presentation bowl / ice cream cup: it comes from the same era as cigarettes, it serves as a container for putting ice cream AND then eating it. Pure zero waste. To do this, take a very small bowl or upturned ramekin, place the cone on it, centering it, and gently lower the edges. Let cool and take a trip down memory lane.
• Small flat wafers: Because really, the cone is essential especially when you are outside, but at home, you can also put completely flat wafers without any problem in your scoops of ice cream.

Conservation of cones

I tell you: cones tend to go soft if kept at room temperature.
To keep them alive, store them in an iron box.
If ever they have softened, you can put them back in the oven, but don’t forget to restore their shape precisely by taking them out.
Otherwise it’s a bit like Salvador Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory” (the one with the watches all melted there).

I think we’ve talked enough about cones, I don’t want to be scolded for being too talkative (no, I’m kidding, if you want recipes without text, Marmiton is fine).