The last two times I had an ice cream cones that I can recall were at culinary festivals where restaurant chefs from around the valley served up bite size samples of some of their signature dishes to hoards of hungry diners. The most memorable was cone came from the West of Western Culinary Festival in downtown Phoenix a few years ago. Kai restaurant served their famous goat cheesecake filling swirled with cinnamon and coarse sugar in cones made from crispy baked corn tortillas. Last weekend at Phoenix Cooks in Scottsdale, I had a mini ice cream cone filled with a layered spongey cake with raspberry filling scooped into a pointy cone. Neither the cone nor the filling wowed me. In fact, I found the filling too syrupy sweet so I didn’t finish it. Other than that I can’t recall the last time I had an ice cream cone over the past 15 or 20 years!

My cone-less existence
I’m atypical and so are my eating habits. For years I was very strictly into macrobiotics and veganism, so dairy products and ice cream were a rarity and the few frozen desserts I had were mostly non-dairy versions purchased from a store and eaten by the scoop in a bowl, at home. I was coneless, but I didn’t mind. Even after I added animal products back to my diet, dairy played a minor role, if any, in my diet. Ditto for frozen desserts.

Photo right: Vanilla Caramel Ripple Ice Dream by Chef Rachel Albert

Dairy-free delights!
During the creation of recipes for my Ice Dream Cookbook, I ate frozen desserts more frequently, but they were made from coconut milk rather than milk and cream and I ate them without a cone. (To get your copy of Ice Dream Cookbook click here. To see sample recipes click here).

Try me!
That said, I love trying new recipes and testing and writing about gluten-free, grain-free, and dairy-free products. Given how tightly I have packed my closet-sized pantry, I sometimes lose track of what’s stashed inside.

Take my sample box of Let’s Do Gluten-Free Ice Cream Cones. Made by Edward and Sons Trading Co.
They sat in my pantry for months (four, maybe five?) before I finally
pulled them out and decided to give them a recent taste test.

How do they taste?
Even with my long ago and far away memory of conventional ice cream cones I thought these tasted like what I remember eating a child and teenager! These are not sugar cones. They’re the plain and simple cones that have that nonchalant flavor, crispy, crackly texture, and airy melt-in-your mouth-feel that allows ice cream (or dairy-free Ice Dream) to take center cone. They don’t compete for your taste buds. Instead, they make a neutral contrast to the cold, creamy, dense texture of the frozen custard mounded on top. My tongue, teeth, and tummy loved them. I suffered no ill-effects.

What’s in them?
Let’s Do Gluten-Free Ice Cream Cones contain potato starch, tapioca starch, expeller-pressed palm oil, demerara sugar, potato fiber, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda, and natural vanilla flavor. You’ll find these stable starches in many gluten free products. Palm oil is a very healthy fat, far healthier than vegetable oils. The cocoa powder I didn’t even taste. Xantha gum, like guar gum, is used to improve the texture and reduce crumbling of gluten-free baked goods.

The amount of sugar used is negligible. Each cone contains only 3 grams of carbohydrate (zero fiber and zero sugars), zero total fat and zero trans fats, and only 10 calories. So, they won’t set you back a lot of calories even if  you’re low-carbing or following a low-sugar or low-calorie diet.

How do they look?
Just like the real thing I grew up eating! Flat on the bottom, light beige, thin, wafery and waffle-y. I don’t think anyone would guess they were gluten-free. I think you could easily serve them at a kids birthday party without anyone raising an eye.

The verdict
Would I recommend Let’s Do Gluten-Free Ice Cream Cones? Yes! Would I eat them again? Yes! These gluten-free, grain-free, vegan, Kosher, zero trans fatm 100% NON-GMO cones come 12 to a package. So I’ll have to invite some friends over for dessert to have help eating them or slowly use them up over a period of months. Not a problem since I can re-crisp them in the oven, if necessary.

Photo right: Carob Ice Dream by Chef Rachel Albert

Crisped to perfection
If the cones lose crispness, all you
have to do is preheat the oven to 300˚F (150˚ C) and turn it off. Now
place the individual cones in the oven for 2 minutes to bring back that
fresh-made taste!

Have you tried them? Did you like them? Have you tried other gluten-free ice cream cones? If so, what brands?