Doughnut Ice Cream Cone — a cinnamon-sugar doughnut spiral filled with ice cream

i. Origin & history

The doughnut cone's ancestor is the chimney cake of Central Europe: a strip of sweet yeast dough wound around a wooden spit, rolled in sugar and baked over glowing coals, rotating, until the sugar caramelises into a crackling crust. In Hungary and among the Hungarian community of Transylvania it is called kürtőskalács; in Slovakia and the Czech Republic it is trdelník; similar spit cakes are made in Austria, Germany and Lithuania. It is a festival and Christmas-market sweet with a history going back at least to the eighteenth century.

In the 2010s, chimney-cake stalls in Prague's tourist centre began serving trdelník filled with soft-serve ice cream, whipped cream or chocolate spread. Photographs of the filled cones spread quickly on social media, and dessert shops in North America, Asia and elsewhere picked up the idea, often calling them 'chimney cones'. In the United States, where fried dough is a fairground staple, many vendors adapted the format into a doughnut cone: the same spiral of dough, but fried in oil like a doughnut and coated in cinnamon sugar, then filled with soft-serve and toppings.

It joined a wave of 2010s 'hybrid' desserts — the cronut, the croffle, the over-the-top freakshake — that were designed to be striking in photographs as much as good to eat. Unlike some of those, the doughnut cone has a sound culinary logic: a sturdy, edible container with its own flavour, in place of a crisp wafer.

A note on names. 'Chimney cone' usually means the baked, chimney-cake style; 'doughnut cone' usually means fried. Both are filled the same way, and recipes, including this one, often offer either method.

ii. Building a cone that holds ice cream

A cone has to do something a doughnut never does: hold a cold, melting filling without collapsing or leaking. That shapes every step.

The dough is an enriched yeast dough, slightly firmer than for ordinary doughnuts, so that a long strip can be stretched and wound without tearing and holds its shape on the mould. It is rolled into a rope or a thin strip and wrapped in a spiral with overlapping edges, pressed together so the coils fuse as they cook. Gaps between coils become holes in the finished cone.

The mould gives the shape. Metal cream-horn moulds or cone-shaped forms, wrapped in greased foil, support the dough while it rises and cooks. Frying with the mould inside sets the cone's interior and keeps it hollow; once the outside is golden, the mould is slid out while still warm, before the dough contracts around it. For a baked chimney cone the dough cooks on the mould in the oven, and the sugar on the outside caramelises into a crust.

Finally, the seal. Even a well-formed cone has a narrow point that ice cream will leak through as it melts, and warm dough melts ice cream on contact. The answer is to let the cone cool to just warm, then brush the inside — especially the tip — with melted chocolate, which sets into a waterproof lining, exactly as with the chocolate seal at the bottom of a commercial wafer cone. Cinnamon sugar on the outside, applied while the cone is warm, adds the doughnut flavour and a pleasant crunch.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 8 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 400 g strong white bread flour
• 50 g caster sugar
• 7 g instant yeast
• 6 g fine salt
• 200 ml whole milk, lukewarm
• 1 large egg
• 50 g unsalted butter, softened
• 1500 ml sunflower or rapeseed oil, for frying
• 120 g caster sugar, for coating
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 100 g dark or milk chocolate, melted, for sealing
• 1000 ml vanilla ice cream or soft-serve
• 4 tbsp sprinkles, chopped nuts or crushed biscuits, to top

You will need 8 metal cone moulds (cream-horn moulds, about 12 cm long) or homemade cones of doubled heavy-duty foil, each wrapped in greased foil so the dough releases. Strong bread flour gives a dough that stretches into strips without tearing. The cinnamon sugar is classic; plain sugar, cocoa sugar or crushed freeze-dried berries are alternatives. Any ice cream works; firm, scoopable ice cream is easier at home than soft-serve, which needs a machine. Classic chimney-cake toppings — ground walnuts, coconut or almonds — can be pressed into the sugar.

iv. Method

1. Mix the flour, 50 g sugar, yeast and salt. Add the warm milk and egg and mix to a dough, then knead for 8 minutes, working in the butter, until smooth, elastic and only slightly tacky. Cover and leave in a warm place for 1 hour, until doubled.
2. Wrap each cone mould in foil and brush generously with oil. Knock back the dough and divide it into 8 pieces of about 90 g.
3. Roll each piece into a thin rope about 60 cm long and 1 cm thick, or roll out and cut a strip 2 cm wide. Starting at the point of the mould, wind the dough round in a spiral, overlapping each coil slightly and pressing the edges together firmly. Pinch the end to seal.
4. Stand the cones on a tray, cover loosely and prove for 20 minutes until slightly puffy. Mix the 120 g sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish.
5. Heat the oil in a deep pan to 170 °C (340 °F). Fry the cones two at a time, with the moulds inside, turning them constantly with tongs, for 3–4 minutes until evenly deep golden. (To bake instead, brush with melted butter, roll in sugar and bake at 190 °C (375 °F) for 15–18 minutes, turning halfway.)
6. Drain for a few seconds, then, protecting your hand with a cloth, slide out the mould while the cone is still hot. Roll the cone in the cinnamon sugar and leave on a rack until just warm, about 10 minutes.
7. Spoon a little melted chocolate inside each cone, tilting to coat the inside and fill the tip, and leave to set for 5 minutes. Fill with scoops of ice cream, finish with sprinkles or nuts and serve straight away.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Overlap the coils. Gaps between turns of dough become holes. Overlap each coil by a few millimetres and press firmly.
• Grease the moulds well. Dough sticks to bare metal and tears when you remove the mould. Foil plus oil releases cleanly.
• Remove the mould while hot. As the cone cools, the dough tightens around the metal and is much harder to free.
• Keep the oil at 170 °C. Hotter oil browns the outside before the inner layer touching the mould cooks; cooler oil makes greasy cones.
• Seal with chocolate. A lining of melted chocolate stops ice cream leaking from the tip and soaking the dough.
• Fill just before eating. The cone is best warm with cold ice cream; once filled, it softens within minutes.

vi. Variations

Chimney cones, in the Hungarian and Czech manner, are baked rather than fried and coated in granulated sugar that caramelises into a glassy crust, sometimes with ground walnuts. Nutella-lined cones spread the inside with chocolate hazelnut spread instead of melted chocolate. Churro cones pipe churro batter around the mould. Fillings range from soft-serve and gelato to whipped cream and berries or chocolate mousse; savoury versions are filled with pulled pork or salad.

For more fried dough on DessertCat, see the classic glazed donut, the molten lava donut, the maple bacon donut and the New York cronut. For other ice-cream holders, Hong Kong's egg waffle is often rolled into a cone and filled the same way.

vii. Serving & storage

Doughnut cones are street food, eaten standing up, warm, with a spoon for the first few mouthfuls of ice cream and then bitten from the top down. Serve them in a tall glass or a cone stand to keep them upright while you fill them.

Unfilled cones are best within a few hours of frying. They can be kept loosely covered at room temperature for up to a day and warmed in a 160 °C oven for 5 minutes, then re-rolled in sugar. Fried, unfilled cones freeze well for up to a month; reheat from frozen in a hot oven for about 8 minutes. Once filled with ice cream, they must be eaten straight away.

ix. More from North American

• Donuts — classic glazed yeast doughnuts
• Freakshake — doughnut-topped loaded milkshake
• Cronut — croissant-doughnut hybrid
• Egg Waffle — Hong Kong bubble waffle
• Frozen Custard — rich egg-yolk soft-serve
• Croffle — Korean croissant-waffle