Vegan Vanilla Waffle Cones, finally in my belly

It's a thing of beauty, isn't it?  The "ice cream" is not the central player here, it is just frozen creamed banana with some almond butter.  No, no, the best part is the homemade waffle cone bowl.  Yes!  Homemade and still warm and about as thick as a crepe and snapping off into big crunchy pieces I could dip in the cold banana, dripping with bits of chocolate cherry sauce and toasted flaky almonds.... I love dinners like this (dinner indeed) and whatever inspires me to make them.  

I'm trying to remember what inspired me to make this....

Oh right!  It was watching Hubert Keller make a waffle cone something-or-other on Top Chef Masters (I think it was Keller, don't quote me on that).  And the fact that every time I pass an ice cream shop I basically just stop and drool at the buttery cone smell.  Thankfully Gale Gand had a recipe that's essentially vegan, so I whipped it up with a kind of MacGuyver-esque method of squishing the batter between a liberally lubed-up saucepan and a frypan.  'Cause I don't have a waffle iron (yet).

Check it out!  Method of champions!  Ha ha, well, its an interesting progression nonetheless.  The first one was floppy-doppy, not hard or thin enough at all.  The second was after I broke out the second pan for squishing, and it was much better, much more crisp.  Things just improved down the line... none of them were quite as thin as I'd like (I might make a slightly thinner batter next time), and they were lacking the little waffle pattern that I bet contributes to a high shatter-factor, but they were otherwise the real deal!

Leading ultimately to this glorious bowl of sweet sweet goo............ gone in 5 minutes, probably. :)

I'd like to try the others with a real ice cream, though, and I have a few cups of slightly-sweetened coconut milk in my freezer waiting for just a purpose such as this... does anyone have a favourite recipe?  It doesn't necessarily have to be coconut flavoured, but coconut-rum would be pretty cool.  

Vegan Vanilla Waffle Cones

(adapted from Gale Gand)

1 cup heavy soy cream

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

1 tbsp cornstarch

oil for the iron

In a bowl, briskly whip together the cream with the vanilla.  Sift together the dry ingredients, then add them to the wet and stir just to mix smooth the biggest lumps.  Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.

Heat up a waffle cone iron (I don't know!  Maybe waffle irons come with attachments!) and brush with a little oil.  Pour in some batter and close to lid to bake and brown.  Open the iron and remove the browned batter and shape it while it's still warm.  You can wrap it around a cone shape to make a classic cone, fold it over a ramekin to make a deep bowl, turn it into a taco - whatever possibility you like, as long as you're fast and use oven mitts to protect your hands from burning!  

Let them cool, devour with ice cream.