From The Kitchen: Waffle Bowls

I know I have said this before but I will say it again. My husband loves sweets. And because he loves them so much I like to make him treats so he keeps loving me :) The fun part for me is I like to try new things. With sites like Pinterest and Food Gawker around, I never run out of options for yummy looking new recipes to try for my sugar-loving spouse.

This past week we made some homemade ice cream and shared it with some friends on Monday. Since we had some left over, I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try a new recipe: waffle cones. Jason loves waffle cones. They aren’t my favorite thing but I do love the smell of them and I couldn’t wait for the scent to fill up the kitchen. Sometimes these are my favorite kind of treats to make for him, the ones I’m not tempted by. Only one problem… we didn’t have a waffle cone press or a waffle cone shaper. Which means I had to improvise. No problem!

This was sort of a spur of the moment thing and so I decided I would just work with what I had. I found a recipe here that only called for ingredients in my cupboards. The recipe is simple and the only change I made was I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla because I figured it would only make it better, right?!

I mixed up my batch and the batter really tastes like a sugar loaded sugar cookie. It’s yummy. I might have had a taste or two :)

Now for the fix to my problem. I had no waffle cone press. Or waffle cone shaper. What did I have? A waffle maker and a bowl. That should work, right?

The recipe said to use 2 tablespoons of batter for each cone but since the ridges on a waffle maker are a lot deeper than a waffle cone press, I used more like 3 or 4 tablespoons and poured them in a spiral pattern and closed the lid.

Yep, I used my fingers. It helped :) And then, I had an excuse to taste the batter because it was on my fingers. See what a genius I am?!

After leaving them in the waffle maker for a couple of minutes, I pressed the hot waffle into a small bowl and let it sit while the next one was cooking.

I didn’t have to leave them in the bowl for very long and they had already started to harden. Just like a waffle cone. It was so cool :)

I definitely had to leave them on the press longer than the recipe called for though. Possibly because it doesn’t get as hot as an actual waffle cone press and probably because mine are thicker. Regardless, a bit longer worked wonderfully.

The recipe ended up making 6 of the little bowls. There are only 5 of them pictured because one of them may have gotten nibbled on by my photographer. He couldn’t help himself :)

We were both pleased with the taste and texture of them. They were nice and crispy and tasted just like we thought they should. And even better, the kitchen smelled amazing!

The homemade ice cream wasn’t too bad either. Mmmm… I love homemade ice cream. In fact, I finished off the rest of the ice cream today at lunch :)

The best part? A happy husband. And that my friends, was the goal!

As a little side note… now that it has been a few days we can report that they are best when they are fresh. If you put them in a sealed container they get soft. We were thinking that maybe if we stuck them in the oven for a bit they would harden up again but we have yet to try it. Otherwise, they are completely wonderful. And easy. A great combination and a great way to start the summer!