"Fried" Ice Cream

When I was a teenager, I used to work at a Mexican restaurant named Chi-Chi's. You might remember the restaurant being in the news for an unfortunate Hepatitus A outbreak a couple of years ago. It was linked to green onions, sickened hundreds of patrons, and spelled the demise of the company. Well way before any of this happened, I worked as a waitress at a local Chi Chi's. And I loved it. While there, I was introduced to all kinds of glorious Mexican foods from enchiladas to burritos to the chimichanga. It was there that my love affair with sour cream blossomed. I also fell in love with another dish: fried ice cream. I probably sold at least one of these to every table that I waited on. People loved fried ice cream and could not get enough. I remembered the recipe from work: corn flakes, ice cream, cinnamon sugar, whipped cream, and honey. Here's a secret: We rarely ever dipped the ice cream into the fryer because it left an oily mess on the plate—so it wasn't truly fried ice cream. I decided to employ this technique. I also decided to use Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal since it was all I had on hand and didn't feel like making a trip to the store for corn flakes. This dessert brought me back to my days at Chi-Chi's.

"Fried" Ice Cream
adapted from Chi-Chi's

1/2 gallon french vanilla ice cream (or any other flavor)
3 cups Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal (or corn flakes mixed with 2 tablespoons cinnamon-sugar mixture)
whipped cream
honey (or chocolate or caramel or strawberry sauce)
sprinkles

Crush cereal into crumbs.
Form ice cream into 1/2 cup–3/4 cup balls and roll in crushed cereal.
Place on waxed paper and freeze until solid (about an hour or so).
Top with honey (or any other topping), whipped cream, and sprinkles.