Store-bought ice cream cones can be flavourless and cardboard-like, but this method from Food 52 allows you to make tiny, extremely tasty, adorable little cones from your favourite tuile, brandy snap, or lace cookie batter.
Photo by David Blaine.
To make these cute little cones, you’ll need a recipe for one of the cookies listed above (or you can use Alice Medrich’s coconut tuile recipe), a flexible piece of plastic (like a cutting mat or a silicon baking sheet that has seen better days), and some electrical tape. To make your cone mould “Cut a fan-shaped piece with 15cm sides from one corner of the mat. Clip about 3cm off across the corner.” Roll the fan into a cone with a 3cm opening at the top and secure with electrical tape. (Alice Medrich has used Scotch tape with success, but electrical seems like a better bet to me.)
Once your mould is all set, you are ready to make the cones themselves. Prepare your batter according to whatever recipe you’re using, and place a rack in the center of the oven. Coat two Silpat-lined baking sheets with a thin coat of butter, drop level tablespoons of batter onto the sheets, and use a small spatula to spread them into 5-inch rounds. Bake the tuiles until they are “mostly golden brown with pale splotches” (about 10-14 minutes) rotating halfway through the baking time.
Remove from the cookies from the oven and set them on top of the stove to keep warm. As soon as you can slip the cookies off the sheet without destroying them, gently remove the tuile and wrap it around your cone mould, smooth side towards the mould, pressing the edges of the cone against itself so it doesn’t unroll. To keep the cookies flexible while you work, use the hot Silpat as a work surface. Let your little cones cool on a paper towel, fill with your favourite ice cream, and chomp down.
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