Homemade Gourmet Ice Cream Cones
Now I feel really old! I was just treated to an ice cream cone at this place where they mix the ice cream with whatever kind of crushed cookie, candy or sprinkles you want, slap it into a cone and charge $5 for it! Why does this make me feel old? Because I can remember when ice cream cones used to cost 25 cents.
I’m not sure what I was most shocked at – the price of the ice cream or the fact in these “hard economic times” there were so many people in the store not batting an eye over buying “gourmet” ice cream. The conversations in the store made me realize that many of them do this on a regular basis.
I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, thinking this must be some great tasting gourmet ice cream cone but I was very disappointed. The ice cream didn’t taste nearly as good as the inexpensive kind I buy at my grocery store and the gourmet store used the same candy bars and cookies that I can buy at any store.
Going to places like this is not the way to save money or to get out of debt. Watch your spending and on a hot summer day, instead of climbing in a hot car to go get a cone which will cost you an arm and a leg, try making your own. Here are some tips to make it easy:
- Make your own homemade ice cream cones. You can buy regular cones or waffle cones at most grocery stores. Keep a box of them and some ice cream on hand. Then, just crush your kids’ favorite candy or cookies in a bag or use sprinkles, chocolate chips or other toppings. Place some of the ice cream in a bowl for just a bit until it gets a little soft and stir in your treats. Then scoop it into a cone.
- This is a great way to use those broken cookies or crumbs in the bottom of the bag, which no one ever wants to eat. You can even keep a bag in the freezer, adding to it until you have enough to use.
- Making these homemade gourmet ice cream comes is another great way to use the candy you got on sale after Easter, Halloween or Christmas.
- Another thing I like about ice cream cones is there are no dishes to deal with when you are done.
I hope this gets you thinking about how to cool yourself and your spending for the summer!
What are your favorite gourmet ice cream add-ins? Leave a comment below and let us know!
-Jill
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It has never failed to amaze me what people will throw their money away on. $5.00 for an ice cream come to me is outrageous when you can get a whole carton for less than that. I buy a whole carton for $2.99 or less. Thanks for the tips. I love ice cream, but will make my own cones, like you suggested. I always felt that way about those $5.00 cups of coffee too. I will sacrifice being “cool” and make my own flavored coffee.
my friend makes her own waffle cones… she has a waffle maker and uses the waffle/pancake mix (very thin and runny) and well when they are just done, roll them to make the cone shape (this is what she does)…
i like to buy the sugar cones and eat them like cookies (to me they taste like a fortune cookie and who doesnt like those? hehehe :D)…
we normally but ice cream when its buy one get one free or i buy the store brand (choc van strawberry, and make shakes with those :D … i normally take 1 scoop of each flavor add a small amt of milk adn blend and my sister adds ice cubes instead of milk bc she has trouble digesting the milk and says there really isnt much of a difference in taste)…
thanks for sharing this with us …
and bea you are soooo right! … $5 for a cup of coffee is just outrageous … just like its 3.99 for a double scoop of ice cream at this one place near our house… just outrageous!
Oh I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE waffle cones. I wish I wasn’t on a gluten free diet anymore because I do miss them! The good part is I’ve lost 15 pounds though! :-)
Rose this doesn’t have anything to do with ice cream but you asked on another post how long often do you need to replace a shower curtain liner and I say if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. I keep mine forever too. If it isn’t moldy and looks ok I wouldn’t worry about it.
Rose, Nice to see your posts. Always enjoy them.
I thought I was the only person who thought $5.00 for a cup of ice cream with sprinkles or add ins was outrageous! I had one once, and will never have another one. I didn’t think the ice cream tasted all that fantastic! I’ll make my own at home if I want that type of ice cream. What I like to do is put ice cream in a glass and pour milk on it. It’s like making a float, only use milk. It doesn’t change the taste of the ice cream, but it gets all icy on the outside of the scoop of ice cream. I just love it, especially in this hot weather.
Kendra, sometimes when you guys mention things like how you eat ice cream it is all I can do to keep from running up and fixing me some. To be honest the only thing which is keeping me from doing it is I ran out of ice cream last night. :)
JILL
Kendra,
I do the same thing with my ice cream… In our house, we call those milk shakes. Not that they really are, but we put ice cream in a tall glass and pour milk over it. Then we lightly mix it with a spoon and half drink/half eat it with a spoon. Mmmm… We love it!
Oh, and Tawra…congrats on your 15 pound weight loss. That’s great!!!
Angie
Hey, Jill, I can remember when we got a cone for a nickel!
Mary we have to be careful because we are dating ourselves. : ) I remember when a candy bar and a pop was a nickel too. They always seemed to be such a treat when we would get one. I would say oh for the good old days but at the same time I remember how they seemed to have bigger needles when they gave shots or drew blood back then and even minor surgery was major. So I guess each world has it’s good things and not so good. : )
I remember walking a couple blocks to get ice cream for 10 cents at the Dairy Bar and 10 cent cokes, so I am nearly as old as you! I like chocolate chips and any kind of chopped nuts in my ice cream. One of the local high dollar ice cream places is called the Marble Slab, and they do the mixing in on chilled marble slabs. We once removed a marble window sill when we were adding a room onto our house. Well, it got broken in two pieces, and my recycling husband saved it, and he puts the two marble pieces in the freezer and chills them and uses two rice rice paddles to mix in ice cream add-ins! I will confess that we occasionally go to one of the high dollar places, but we always use coupons, so we only spend half the price. As to the mega-bucks coffee, I have a recipe I call my “Glorified Leftover Coffee.” I put leftover coffee heated up in the microwave (3 cups) in my blender with 1/4 cup chocolate chips, 1/2 cup powdered milk, 1 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar, and 1/4 cup cream (or half and half). I blend until it is frothy and drink it with hubby or a friend and think about how much money I am saving. Sometimes one of my students in the cooking classes I teach will bless me with a gift card from the high dollar coffee places, and I use the gift cards. We do need to think of these places as occasional treats (and even when we fix these things at home, they need to be occasional) so that we don’t feel that we are owed these comfort foods all the time. The psychology of this is part of the American obesity epidemic.
We only eat homemade ice cream in our house! I can make any flavor, and just got a recipe from a good friend for homemade orange sherbet YUM!!! We found a hand crank ice cream make and my husband and kids take turns cranking till it frozen Put it in a lg plastic tub and freeze till firm.
Sorry *Hand crank ice cream maker!
Hi everyone….I too think these places are outrageous. And my kids have been brought up frugal- so they are shocked at the prices too. But for years I’ve done this at home & the kids like it better because they can have as little or as much as they want- some days they literally only want one scoops worth- other days it is the full heaping cone. Another fun tip- take two plastic cups & fill the bottom one with some water- push the second one in & rubber band it in place (do this over the sink) then pop them in the freezer. When solid- run under water a couple of seconds to get it to pop out. Then fill with a scoop of ice cream & soda for a really fun float. We’ve also done homemade water ice (frozen juice or koolaid thrown in the blender) and serve this in the “frozen water cups” makes for a fun & cool day !!
I remember cones for a dime and a hot fudge sundae for 35 cents, not that we ever got to have one of those! We would occasionally get to go to the corner drugstore for ice cream with our family and my mother never got any because she said she didn’t really like ice cream. I remember praying fervently that I would never stop loving it!
Recently my husband and I stopped at a little restaurant/ice cream place out in the middle of nowhere and he got a waffle cone, double scoop for $2.00. We live about 1/2 hour from Wisconsin Dells and I thought, WOW, this would probably cost $10 there!
I remember those times too. We have a hamburger place here called Spangles and they have cones for $1.30 but what is so nice about them is my Spangles make them huge. My dad has to get one every time he comes for a visit and on Tawra’s oldest son’s last birthday they made him one special that was 12 inches tall. We almost didn’t get it out to the car without it toppling but sure was fun.
I have always dreamed of having a candy store and selling ice cream cones for 1/4 the cost of normal places just to see the looks on the kid’s faces. Wouldn’t that be a fun place to work?
I was just thinking the same thing about restaraunt desserts… $4.50 for a scoop of ice cream with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, You can buy a whole half gallon of ice cream and a bottle of chocolate sauce for that! And how about those pizookies: a big cookie seved in a deep dish with ice cream…only $7.00 Ha! Thanks for the heads up, I never go to those places anymore, there is a drug store near by that has single scoop ice cream cones for $1.00 and they are awesome.
Sometimes, when we travel, we want some ice cream or snow cones. In the winter, we can scoop up some clean snow and pour our juice on it for flavor. In the summer, we can buy what used to be 1/2 gallon of ice cream (now convenience size of 1.5 – 1.75 gallons) and I would tell my four children and husband, we need to eat this all up before we leave! What punishments I used to give… It would be gone before we left.
One time I made the mistake of buying the ice cream cones by the ounce! Oh my! You really have no idea how much that will come too! It sounds like such a deal until you weight the cones! That was more than I planned on spending for ice cream!
I bought the big, big box of sugar cones at Smart and Final. I like to get one or two down and eat them like cookies too! I hadn’t thought of them tasting like fortune cookies… Yumm!
Now, if my children would only clean up the kitchen on time, we could all enjoy some ice cream! Not just the adults who don’t really need those extra calories… ; [
My mom used to work at a local “High’s” which was a dairy that franschised ice cream stores. One scoop – a nickel, 2 scoops, a dime and they even had a cone with a double “hole” that would hold 3 scoops by putting 2 scoops side by side and one on top between the two. My fav was a banana split but they were about 60 cents and we never had money for those unless I saved my babysitting money and got one. I still love ice cream and bought some store brand dreamcicles (you know, the orange with vanilla inside). Well, I’ll have to say, they must be saving money on the vanilla ice cream because there is very little in the popcicles anymore. Mostly orange ice. Not bad but if you are looking for the double flavor, just put orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream in a cone at home and make your own. Thanks for the cone ideas. Since my kids are no longer at home, we don’t make them often but it is really a good treat. My kids used to use the flat bottom cones, put choc sprinkles in the bottom, then fill the cone with ice cream and dip in the sprinkles so they have lots of extra goodies. Store Brand Ice cream costs about $3.99 a carton which is no longer a half gallon but sometimes name brands can be purchased 2 for the price of one. I think i want some ice cream. Guess I’ll have to add it to my grocery list this week.
I use to like ice cream with all kinds of add-ins that have names like “Death by Chocolate” and “Moose Tracks” etc. But lately I realized that I like to Do-it-yourself ice cream. I will buy plain vanilla or chocolate and add my own add-ins. It’s cheaper and you can control yourself what you put in. Fun too.
What wonderful ideas for ice cream treats! I also love to make root beer or Coke floats for my gang. I carton of ice cream on sale for 99 cents, and a 2L bottle of pop on sale for 89 cents makes a really inexpensive treat for a big group. If I can get a brownie mix on sale for 99 cents, I bake those to go with the floats. This all totals just over $3.00 and serves at least 6-8 people. At $5.00 a piece for 6 people, I would have spent $30.00. That seems pretty crazy to me.
Congrats, Tawra, on your weight loss-waay to go!!
Hi Jill! Hope all is well. I hit Spangles when I’m in Wichita, too.;)
I don’t buy ice cream much because it’s expensive & I’m cheap. But we did get a small snow cone maker as a gift recently, and I tell you what, you can make a snow cone for next to nothing if you have an ice maker in your freezer! Make simple syrup at home (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, heat on the stove till almost boiling & then let cool, add whatever flavor you want). Dump in a 15 cent pack of Koolaid for an easy option. My kids & their friends think it’s a great treat & they couldn’t care less that it was pennies a serving. I’m happy about that, though. Love your tips!
So perfect. I use my ice shaver constantly in the summer, people don’t think they want dessert but they’ll eat shaved ice and you can get seriously gourmet with the syrups for pennies, try putting defrosted juice concentrate in a squeeze bottle, we like grape or pink lemonade. Add some coffee crystals to that simple syrup and top with a dollop of whipped cream…awesome.
Terri, I like your comment “I don’t buy ice cream much because it’s expensive & I’m cheap.” That’s me totally! I do sign us up for the free birthday cones at Baskin and Robbins.
Last weekend we made frozen yogurt sundaes. I had some yogurt I had bought on clearance, for 25 cents a cup. I froze 5 of them, and made a fudge sauce with cocoa powder, corn starch, sugar, water and vanilla. When the yogurts were frozen, everyone grabbed a bowl and squeezed their yogurt out of their cup and topped with the fudge sauce. It was quite yummy. And those go-gurt style yogurts make cool treats for kids in summer (when I find them on clearance that is). Freeze them, then the kids eat them like Kool-pops.
My kids LOVE those expensive ice cream mix-in toppings places, but we hardly ever/almost never go because of the price. We have done it at home, with inexpensive ice cream and toppings we have on-hand (bananas, crushed cookies & candy, etc). The kids enjoy making their own and having an almost unlimited list of toppings, but even more than that they love snow cones! We bought an ice shaver years ago for about $20 and use it every year, all summer long. I haven’t tried making my own syrups yet, but the store brands are pretty affordable and last forever since so little is used per serving.
I got one of these gift cards to an ice cream store where they crush the candy in your ice cream on a marble slab (that’s the gourmet part) The card was for $10.00 and I still had to pay $3.00 by the time they added the taxes in. So by the time I got two ice cream cones I paid $13.00 for them!! I NEVER go out for ice cream because as a kid I also stood in line at our ice cream store and got ice cream for .25 cents! In the summer this was family time and entertainment on a Friday or Saturday Night! We don’t want to pay 13.00 every time we go out for ice cream so we too buy cheaper ice creme and make our own gourmet ice cream!!
I know what you mean. $13.00 for 2 ice cream cones is ridiculous. (I still don’t understand spending $5 for a cup of coffee). I remember getting a cone after church for 25 cents, but only on special Sundays. Now that summer is about here, I’ll get out our hand crank machine and make our own. I especially like making sorbet with strawberries from our garden. It’s very easy to make. I run a couple cups of strawberries through the food processor with some sugar and a bit of lemon juice. Then freeze it in the ice cream maker.
We buy “bucket” ice cream (cheapest) and add syrups, sprinkles, nuts, chocolate chips, etc. Baskin-Robbins has 99 cent scoops on Wed. nights in our town, and 99 cent scoop specials on different flavors every day (usually the less popular flavors or whatever they have too much of!), which we do occasionally. Sonic has half-price specials (on drinks after 4 pm, shakes after 8 pm, etc.) too. Wendy’s frostees are pretty good for 99 cents when you’re hot and far from home too, or McDonald’s cones for 50 cents – 89 cents, depending on the time of year.
I love Dairy Queen sundaes (small – $2.49) but the ones at MacDonald’s for 99 cents are almost as good and I save $1.50. When you want a cold treat, MacDonald’s works well.
When I was in high school I worked at a drugstore as a soda clerk (soda jerk). A few salesmen would come in and order hot coffee with a scoop of unflavored ice cream in it. One regular would get butter pecan ice cream in his coffee. I guess that was the early version of flavored coffees. I don’t even remember what the prices were then, but I do remember how thrilled I was when I got a raise to one dollar an hour!
I live in Indiana. Our local Pizza Hut has a serve yourself ice cream cone station located near the entryway and they cost 25 cents that you put into a wooden box. Vanilla is the only option, but nobody cares :) And you don’t have to be a patron or buy any menu items to get the cones.
That’s it! I’m moving to Indiana! Or one of those places where they sell eggs and excess garden produce on the honor system. You go have on for me Judith. I am envious. K.
I started influencing my nephew (with the spendthrift parents) early on. I’m all about choices; it isn’t a black and white/all or nothing world. After taking the 10-year-old to a matinee he wanted a trip to the cold ice cream place. I figured this was a $10 for both of us. I agreed to the ten dollars but gave him some alternatives 1) we go the cold stone route and stand in line sit at sticky tables and spend our money there 2) we hit the McD’s drive thru for a buck each, he keeps the change and we go for a drive along the beach or 3) we go home and have fudgesicles out of the freezer and he keeps all the money towards whatever it was he was saving for. He chose #2. Good choice. He still makes those types of choices. I believe that when you take a relaxed approach and give yourself reasonable alternatives, saving/being frugal feels more like a personal choice and less like a punishment.
That’s a great way to do it!
Oooo…. I like the choices you gave! Very wise! Now he can see where money goes and how to save it!
Good Job!
Okay. Just call me chatty tonight, last one I swear; I first discovered this in a frugal entertaining guide…1-Ingredient Ice Cream: when bananas are ripe peel and freeze (try to keep them separated until frozen then store in zippy bag ’til needed.) Break into your food processor and puree. Soft serve and awesome in two minutes, serve immediately. Drizzle with favorite topping (hot fudge anyone?) I like to add a few pitted dates for sweetness and texture. Any frozen fruit will do, add a splash of juice or milk if needed,or just wait a bit.
==> if you have ice cream cones lying about, and why wouldn’t you? they are awesome for serving scoops of just about any kind of salad; tuna, egg, potato but it is mandatory that you sing the candyman song when you do. K.
That’s a great idea! I love it because I’m not supposed to eat sugar or milk but this way I could still have some “ice cream”!
Kathy,
I love the idea of using the cones for salads. What a treat and good portion control, too. I have used them to make cakes and then it’s easy for little kids eating at a party or picnic but never even thought of them for other things. What a great container for fruit slices or grapes. No paper plates or dishes to wash. You are a genious. Also, love the choices you gave your nephew. Kids love to make decisions and this was the perfect opportunity for him to use his judgment. Thanks for the hints. As I said before, I love the MacDonald sundaes! :)
I also love to eat ice cream; but I don’t like spending so much at the ice cream shop. So, when we want to go “out” for ice cream we usually go to McDonald’s for a sundae or Wendy’s for a Frosty. For about $1 it’s totally worth it! This summer I’m going to try the homemade gourmet ice cream cones. I’m sure the kids will enjoy it. Thanks Jill and Tawra for your frugal and delicioius ideas.
GOOD IDEALS. I AM STILL STRUGGING WITH MY
BROKE HIP AND BROKE KNEE. PRAY FOR ME AND
MY RECOVER.
THANK YOU SO MUCH.
LOVE BARBARA LESCOE
Hi Barbara,
That sounds awful!
Hope you’ll get better soon. you are in my prayers.
Kind regards Maria
I have friends and family w gluten and dairy allergies. Just did a search on gluten free waffle cone recipes …and there are quite a few. :)
Hi,
I never thought to mix in cookie crumbs. Great idea for the weekend. When my kids want ice cream for a weekday snack I either get them a homemade fr
popsicle, or something I found out by chance one night when I intended to make banana chocolate milkshake. I always slice and freeze those bananas thatthat are overly ripe. I have many uses for them, milkshakes, bananabread and now overran. Put per serving about the equivalent of one frozen banana (sliced) in your mixer with cocoa powder (my kids like a strong chocolate flavour so I use 1 or 2 teaspoons)and if you wish add a sweetener sugar syrup our honey.also a teaspoon or so of smooth peanutbutter and pulse until it has nice creamy texture. My kids loved this, I tonight it was a little rich, and that a small serving was enough, but the texture was just like creamy quality ice. cream. Amazing. Chocolate ice cream almost for free, since Boone in our house would east a sweet brown banana like that, plain.:-)
Just a tip
Thanks for the tip Maria. My granddaughter didn’t have any cookies crumbs for her milk shake so she tossed a couple of cookies in the blender and mixed them up first then added her ice cream etc. They were cookies that weren’t getting quickly eaten on their own so I was glad she found a way to use them.
Hi,
Well, I see I missed my spell check on that last comment… Sorry all. That’s pretty much unreadable. :-(
We have guests this weekend, for midsummers party, so I will use your granddaughters too. I think chocolate chip Cookiees or a mint candy will be a nice choice for the kids. I just love this site. :-) It is a reminder that it is ok not to spend, spend spend. I need that, cause at my work people are so.concerned over how other people value them for what they wear, own, eat, take holidays etc instead of who they are. It is exhausting, cause I never cared much for appearance and keeping up with the others, cause that’s how my friends and family was when I grew up. All my coworkers are nice, good people, but I am well aware that I have other value and I feel a bit Lonely and odd at times. we choose both my husband and I to work part timme to be able to spend time with our kids and cook them good food. But that also means we bring our own work lunch and wear less fancy clothes and our house is not top notch. We have a debt for our house and try to pay it off, which seems not to be the standard, so we have lots less money to spend than my coworkers. It is nice to have found a site full of practical advice and also a since of hope we cannot as society continue to spend, spend, spend more than we earn. And it is so nice to know that we are not the only people who prioritise differently. Thank you both, Jill and Tawra
I take my family to an ice cream store and buy the carton. Then we get some cups and spoons which are readily available and enjoy. If we have any left over we take it home. Paying $4-$5 for a carton beats paying $2.00 to $3.50 for each individual. We do buy some cups of coffee, but we can get refills with them. No complaints yet.
I have 5 children who can go through a box of cones in no time flat! I tried making cones on the stove top…FAIL. So I bought a waffle cone maker. During the shipping wait I had watched a cooking show which featured the alleged “first” ice cone recipe. Here you go:
Waffle Cone
3 oz butter or margarine melted
3 oz vanilla
2 cups sugar
2 lbs flour
30 oz water
Mix together. Put 2 tablespoons on hot waffle iron. Cook approx 2 mins. Roll immediately
Hi Jill, by the dates on the comments this looks like an old post. Anyway I have always bought my cones at the dollar store or dollar general and I always buy the store brand ice cream. As far as adding things somethings I have peaches left over and mix that with my vanilla ice cream and scoop in a cone. Delicious! I have even added left over brownie pieces. I am debt free ( except for my regular monthly bills like electric, phone etc) and I refuse to buy that expensive stuff! I have always tried to watch my money and even now I still look for ways to save, love the articles and videos you all do! Thanks!
Susan
So glad Susan you are enjoying the videos and articles and these are great tips you gave us too.