Fried Ice Cream w/ Fat Toad Cinnamon Cajeta

Now, I was first introduced to cajeta by Mexi...it's something he grew up spreading on bread, or just eating from a spoon as a treat....or sandwiched between to wafers.  Oh man, it's good stuff. 

 Fat Toad Farm is a small family-run goat dairy located in the hills of Central Vermont that produces both goat's milk caramel and goat cheese...ahhhh, that must be a little slice of heaven, doncha think!?  They make "small-scale artisanal batches...spend hours hand stirring our caramel and labeling and packaging" it.  The ONLY bad part was having to choose only 2 of their 4 varieties of cajeta.  Since I'd only ever had original before, I went with the cinnamon and vanilla bean varieties...they also have coffee bean.  Guess I'll have to actually order some of that on my own.  Which I will, cuz the others rocked my world!  A word of warning- you may want to hide a jar in a cupboard that only you know about.  Otherwise you'll have to share.

awesome box of  Fat Toad Farm Cajeta

Okay, in order stop myself from just eating both jars just like this which is far easier to do than you might think...

...I decided that I should eat it with ice cream.  Oh ho-lee mother, it is the perfect ice cream accompaniment.  I even sautéed up some chunked apples in butter and then mixed some cinnamon cajeta in...too good to even stop to photograph.  Seriously.  But what I was really craving was some Fried Ice Cream.  I haven't had it in ages!  I used to order it from a local Mexican restaurant for dessert all the time...only drizzled with honey, which I totally love drizzled on ice cream, btw.  As I started thinking about it, I knew I HAD to have it! I asked Mexi if he had ever heard of fried ice cream...and just as I expected, he had not.  I figured it wasn't actually a Mexican dessert...just something our restaurant likes to pass off as one.  No matter, though...that cold delicious ball of ice cream surrounded by a hot, crunchy layer is good no matter its origins.  It was something you could order drizzled with honey, chocolate, or caramel sauce.  As I said, I always ordered honey. Always.  But if they had served it with actual CAJETA, I may have had a whole different ordering scheme!



Now, on to the actual making of the fried ice cream.  I'd never actually made it at home, but how hard could it be?  Turns out, not that hard. 

Fried Ice Cream w/ Fat Toad Farm's Cinnamon Cajeta

from the kitchen of girlichef

Vanilla Ice Cream

Corn Flakes

Cinnamon

Sugar

egg, beaten

oil, for frying

Fat Toad Farm Cinnamon Cajeta

Make a big ball of ice cream...as big as you want.  Wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours, until very hard.  

Pour enough oil into a deep pot, enough to deep-fry the ball of ice cream that you made.  Heat it until it's very hot...maybe 350°-375° F.  

While the oil is heating, pour a bunch of corn flakes into a gallon-sized baggy...enough to fill it ~1/3 of the way.  Pour in some cinnamon and some sugar.  Zip it closed and crush it up finely with a rolling pin (roll it back and forth until it is a pretty fine crumb).

Drop the hard ice cream ball into the baggy and press the mixture onto the outside.  Transfer it to the beaten egg and roll around to coat.  Place it back into the baggy, packing the corn flake crumbs onto the outside of the ball until VERY well coated.

Drop immediately (and carefully) into the hot oil and move it around a bit with a large, slotted spoon/skimmer.  This all happens very, very quickly.  Pull it back and serve immediately...drizzled with a lot of Cinnamon Cajeta!  Fry up a flour tortilla in advance to use as an edible bowl if you so desire...which I did.  So desire.

Not to sound all school yard bullyish...but, TRY THIS OR ELSE!  I mean honestly, if you've never eaten fried ice cream...you're totally missing out.  You should totally also join the Foodie Blogroll...so you can win cool prizes like this.  Or not...that just means more chances for me...and I like more chances to win.  Because after all, winning food totally rocks, right? Right.