Someone recently reminded me of the heavenly treat from my childhood from ChiChi’s and Casa Lupita. Delicious layers of caramel, ice cream, and crunch. Yum. The traditional dessert is deep-fried, so I decided to see if my air-fryer could replicate the texture. It worked! So I turned my kitchen into Casa Christina and my kids were introduced to this delectable indulgence.
I’m not sure why Chi-Chi’s or Casa Lupita went out of business given this delicious dessert. You could choose from chocolate sauce, caramel, or honey. There might have been another flavor, too, but I never tried it.
Air-Fried Ice Cream
Course: DessertCuisine: MexicanDifficulty: Medium3
servings3
hours20
minutes2
minutes3
hours22
minutesIngredients
1 pint of ice cream (e.g., vanilla, chocolate chip)
1 cup of corn flakes (see note, I used Frosted Flakes with Cinnamon Basketballs)
1 tsp cinnamon
Caramel sauce (or chocolate sauce)
Whipped cream
Maraschino cherries
Directions
- Using a potato masher, gently mash the corn flakes. You want to have a decent mix of crumbs with bits of corn flakes remaining – see note.
- Add 1 tsp of cinnamon to the mashed corn flakes.
- Divide pint of ice cream into 3 balls of ice cream.
- Roll the ball of ice cream in your hand and then roll into your crumb mixture.
- Immediately put the ice cream balls into the freezer. Freeze for 3 hours.
- Place a sheet of foil to line the bottom of the air-fryer. Preheat air-fryer to 400 degrees.
- Once preheated, add the ice cream balls to the fryer basket. Air-fry for 2 minutes only!
- Put in bowl. Add caramel or chocolate sauce with whipped cream and a cherry.
Notes
- If you happen to find Frosted Flakes with cinnamon basketballs, they worked well. I pulverized the cinnamon basketballs. Then I gently mashed the flakes with the potato masher. This gave me a good mix of sand-like cereal for even coating, and bigger chunks for that crunch factor once cooked.
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That looks amazing!