This post is brought to you by Honey Bunches of Oats. All opinions are my own.

I have always wanted to try making fried ice cream, but the idea of frying something that melts at room temperature? Scary! I’m just not talented enough to pull that off! I mean, what kind of magic is that? Frying ice cream? If you can do it, I bow down to you. If you’ve always wanted to try it but, like me, don’t think you’re masterful enough to actually fry frozen milk, I have the perfect recipe for you! It’s courtesy of Honey Bunches of Oats and gives you the taste of fried ice cream without the magic skills required!

“Fried” Ice Cream with Cinnamon-Chocolate Sauce

This is the original recipe. Anything in parenthesis is my comments.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 4, 1 ice cream ball each 

Ingredients

“Fried” Ice cream:

• 1 cup Honey Bunches of Oats Almond cereal (I actually used the Honey Roasted variety, it came out fine, so you can really use whatever kind you want here)
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 cups vanilla ice cream (I used Neapolitan because I like more variety)

Cinnamon-Chocolate Sauce: 

• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3 Tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

(or you can use a jar of chocolate sauce and mix in some cinnamon if you don’t have the other ingredients on hand and want to make this anyway)

Directions

Place cereal in a medium bowl and lightly crush with your hands or the back of a wooden spoon.  Add the coconut and chili powder & combine.

In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil.  Add the cereal and coconut mixture. Fry until it is golden brown and toasted, for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

Using a 1/2 cup measure, scoop ice cream and quickly form balls with your hands.  Place on a small tray and immediately return to the freezer for at least 30 minutes or until the balls are firm. (Tip: use a really good ice-cream scooper that makes half balls, so the work is half done. Then REALLY fast, make the ball. My hands were super cold after this step!)

Remove ice cream balls from freezer and quickly roll each ball in the cereal and coconut mixture.  Return to freezer for at least another 30 minutes or until the balls are firm again. (Tip: you may need to grab a bit of mixture in your hand and sort of mush it into the ball as you reform it, to get it to stick in there).

When ready to serve, combine the chocolate chips, cream and cinnamon in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds.  If the chips are not completely melted, stir and microwave for an additional 30 seconds.

Serve each fried ice cream ball with a drizzle of cinnamon-chocolate.

The result is a delicious sort-of-fried ice cream treat that is just so much fun to make!  I absolutely loved the combination of sweet and salty, creamy and crunchy. I saved the left-over crunchy mix to use as a regular ice-cream topping too.

Who said cereal was meant to spend it’s whole life in a bowl? This recipe proves that you can do so much more with Honey Bunches of Oats than just smother it in milk and eat it with a spoon! It’s also great as a chicken coating, in your meatball recipes and as a topping for baked apples. Want to see even more ways to bring cereal out of the bowl and into your recipes? Head over to Honey Bunches of Oats website! Check out all their delicious varieties, then visit their recipe section for this recipe and so many more. I think I am going to try the Crispy Baked Bananas next!

What clever ways do you use your Honey Bunches of Oats? Tell me another great recipe using cereal that you love!