Ice Cream Cone Macarons

 

My Grandfather at every family reunion would tell us the same phrase, and no matter how many times he told it, myself along with my dozens of cousins loved it.  He would say, “You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream,” and then he would take us to McDonald’s where all of us young cousins got a Happy Meal and an ice cream cone. My grandfather, Sterling Sessions, is 95 years old now and memories like these keep him young in my mind.

So to bring back those carefree days of summer nights and Happy Meals, let’s make some macarons with the same crunch and fun and candy and wow-I-get-to-do-nothing-tomorrow flavors. Ice Cream Cone Macarons bring the essence of lazy days and warm summer nights to your dessert bar.

Ingredient List for Decorating:

• Sugar waffle cones, crushed
• White chocolate for dipping shells
• Sprinkles! We used this Sweetapolita mix
• Coldstone Ice Cream coffee creamer YES! this is a thing.
• Macaron shells, obviously
• Ice Cream-flavored Buttercream (recipe below)
• Any ice cream toppings you prefer: caramel, nuts, fudge — the sky is the limit

Friendly disclaimer: I try to use decorettes that are not so hard and crunchy, so people don’t break their teeth on the sprinkles. Trust me, the waffle cones are crunchy enough.

One fun thing to make these special is to dip the top shells in white chocolate.  That’s what all the decorative toppings will stick to, so I thought I’d give you some tips on that process.

Three tips for dipping your macaron shells:

1. Use a small, shallow bowl. Seems like a simple tip but it is easier to dip in a shallow bowl,  and you don’t need to use as much chocolate to get a good puddle for dipping.
2. If you will dip your macs in chocolate, make sure you use a compound chocolate and not a coveture chocolate. Compound chocolate can melt easily in the microwave, will harden when it cools, and doesn’t require tempering like coveture chocolate does. (Want to know more about this? Read it on Orson Gygi’s blog.)
3. Let the chocolate cool down a bit. It will cut down on the runniness and cut down on the drying time. In addition, make sure to add your crushed waffle pieces and sprinkles immediately after dipping. Once that chocolate cools, nothing will stick. Trust me.

Now let’s talk filling.  This is where it gets good. Shown in the photo above are three filling ideas for the perfect Ice Cream Macs.

Fillings, beginning at the top:

1. We first piped around the outer edge of our macs, using the Ice Cream Buttercream recipe (below).  Then we used a squirt of caramel and sprinkled some chopped peanuts over the caramel.  The salty with the sweet is a winning combination.
2. Fudge and sprinkles were up next. We took a basic jar of fudge found in the ice cream section of the grocery store, and spooned a little bit in the well created by the piping.  Then we topped that fudge-y goodness with some colorful sprinkles.
3. The third variation is kept simple. We piped our Ice Cream Buttercream all over the bottom shell, then sprinkled it with Nerds candy sprinkles. It is a little bit of sweet, a little bit of tangy, and a large bit of good!

Once you make the Ice Cream Buttercream, it will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

For the Tara Teaspoon collab:

I used the Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream recipe from her website. Here is how I adapted my Ice Cream Buttercream to match her delicious ice cream flavor.

1 cup ice cream buttercream (recipe below)
2 Tbsp. Hershey’s chocolate syrup
1 Tbsp. toasted shredded coconut
1 Tbsp. mini chocolate chips

Throw these in the buttercream mix until blended.  Cut a hole a bit bigger on a tipless piping bag.  Add the above mixture to the bag, and pipe as usual. Delicious!