Deep Fried Ice Cream Cupcake

The blog is finally up and I owe a certain amount of thanks to Cupcake Project and Scoopalicious for holding the Ice Cream Cupcake Contest.  Without a hard deadline to make it into the contest I would probably still be draggin my feet getting this thing going.  So thanks for the great contest idea and helping to motivate me.

This is my entry into the 2011 Ice Cream Cupcake Contest.

Its my Deep Fried Salted Caramel Ice Cream Cupcake.  When my sister and I were talking about ideas for the contest she mentioned a dessert my mother (and many others) made called Ice Cream Crunch.  If memory serves it was coconut, crushed pecans and rice crispies coated in sugar and butter, toasted, then spread into the bottom of a pan.  Then spread ice cream on top and then top with more crunch and freeze.  Somehow from there I got the idea of deep fried ice cream and thought of how I could incorporate that into a cupcake.  The flavors just came out of wanting to try making salted caramel ice cream and what I could do with that.  Chocolate, caramel and nuts sounds good to me!

This was quite a process but a lot of fun.  Funny that I didn’t really think about it beforehand, but the end result really tastes like a Snickers.

I started with making the caramel. You will use it in the ice cream, the butter cream and as a topping so I just made one big batch and split up as needed.  It will make about 4 cups.

Salted Caramel Recipe – This was adapted from basic caramel recipe I learned while working at Sunset Country Club.

Aprox. 2 cups of sugar

Aprox. 1 cup of water

Aprox. 2 1/4 cups of cream

Aprox. 2 teaspoons of sea salt

Aprox 3 tablespoons of butter

Method: Combine sugar and water in a saucepan prior to placing over medium high heat.  Do not stir or swirl much while on heat as it will help create sugar crystals.  Cook until you reach desired amber color being careful not to overcook.  Add cream and it will bubble rapidly.  Whisk and add salt.  Finish with butter and take on and off heat as you whisk until smooth and no crystals.  Again be careful not to overcook.  Cool to room temp and reserve.

Next I prepared the ice cream mixture.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream Recipe – This was adapted from the Sweet Cream Base found in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream & Dessert Book.

3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

Aprox. 2 cups salted caramel

 

 

Method: Whisk the eggs until light and fluffy – about 2 minutes.  Whisk sugar into eggs a little at a time until incorporated and then whisk about 1 minute more.  Whisk in cream and milk and chill as long as possible before adding to ice cream maker.  Follow instructions for ice cream maker and place finished product in freezer.

Next it made the chocolate cupcakes.

This recipe was taken from Allrecipes.com. It has a good texture and came out very moist.

Next step is to make your butter cream.

I used the basic Swiss Butter cream recipe I learned at Sunset Country Club and added salted caramel.

 

4 egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup softened butter

Touch of vanilla

Aprox. 1 cup salted caramel

 

Method: Add sugar and egg whites to preferably a glass bowl over pot of simmering water.  Whisk together until reaches 140 degrees.  Remove from heat and whisk on high speed until soft peaks are formed.  Start adding softened butter a little at a time.  Reduce speed a bit and continue to whip.  Butter cream will start to come together, then it will look like it’s going to break, and then it will come back together.  I love this process!  Add the touch of vanilla and the salted caramel.

Time to make the batter for frying. I went with a beignet batter based on Barry’s suggestion from The Red Lion.  That’s what they use to fry their Twinkies.  I adapted a recipe from The Pastry Sampler.

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

dash of salt

1 egg beaten

1 cup milk

1/2 cup beer

Crushed dry roasted, unsalted peanuts to roll cupcake in after batter.

Method: Place dry ingredients in bowl and stir with a whisk.  Add the wet ingredients and stir until smooth.

Okay let’s do this!

1. Core your cupcakes.  You can get an actual cupcake corer to help with this or use your trusty pairing knife.  Both have their advantages.  Save your scraps.  Pat down the inside of the cake a bit.  Freeze the cupcakes.  When I used the corer and did three overlapping holes to create the desired area needed.

2. Place ice cream in a pasty bag.  It may need to thaw for a minute to become able to pipe.  Pipe in ice cream into cupcake not overfilling.  Leave room to add cake back on top to form seal.  Do this quick and get back into the freezer.  Freeze until nice and hard with overnight being your best bet.

You don’t want this to happen!

3. Make your cupcake balls.  Take small scoop of ice cream and roll in cupcake crumbs. Place in freezer with cupcakes preferably over night.  If you have a deep freezer use it!

4. Heat fryer to 350 degrees.  Remove one cupcake and one ball at a time from freezer.  Everything from now to table needs to happen quickly.  Batter dip your cupcake letting excess drip off.  Place in fryer just until batter sets and gets some color.  Better dip you ice cream ball, let excess drip off, roll in crushed nuts and place in fryer until batter sets and you achieve a bit of color.  Balls will need less time.  Be careful with these as there is less cake protecting them from the heat.

5. Top cupcake with butter cream and caramel sauce and serve with the cupcake ball.

Have fun with this creation!