I’ve always really liked Mexican food. I’m not even talking about authentic Mexican food, which I also like, but the kind they serve at Mexican restaurants all over the country, with piping hot plates of cheesy enchiladas and crunchy tacos and the prefect combination of rice and refried beans. I might even have to go as far as proclaiming it to be my favorite kind of food. I love Italian food, and I think Chinese food is A-OK. I love ramen noodles and gyros and pho and quiche, but no matter what mood I’m in, I always think Mexican food sounds good.
I created a cute, fiesta-themed inspiration board for Julep last week, and I wanted to come up with a fun, fiesta-appropriate dessert to go with it. I instantly thought of fried ice cream, which is served at pretty much every Mexican restaurant ever, but it sounded like so much work, with the very real possibilities of disaster and epic messiness. So I came up with the next best thing: Not Quite Fried Ice Cream. Creamy vanilla ice cream rolled in a buttery, crispy, sweet, sauteed coating chock-full of pecans and coconut and brown sugar and the required crushed corn flakes, then topped with caramel and hot fudge sauce, and finished with a hefty dollop of whipped cream. It is really amazing, tastes “even better than fried ice cream” (to quote my husband and brother in-law), and is easy enough to be made for a crowd. You can find the recipe on my latest Design to Dish post on Julep.
