Waffling Adventures: Freezer Burned Choco Taco

Update Review, June 2020

So, I had another freezer meltdown.  This time my home freezer, along with the fridge.  Sigh.

Yes, the entire thing failed, and yes, it was a nightmare for me, as, well, it was entirely full of my treasures.  Including, um, some Choco Tacos.

The Choco Tacos, like most of the food in the freezer, were perfectly *cold* when I found them, still quite food safe, but, uh, ice cream it most certainly was not.

But I knew exactly what to do with the Choco Tacos at least.  I have waffled them before after all, and it was a great success.  I did eat a few bites of just cold, soggy, chewy defrosted Choco Taco, and I can assure you, that is not tasty.

Into the Grill!

So, I just headed to the waffle iron again, this time using grill plates, since they were already on the iron.

The result was basically the same: it looked like a disaster, but wow, it was shockingly good.  And the grill plates were a much better match for this than the waffle plates, as it extracted far easier.

I again loved eating bits right off the iron, so crispy and caramelized and sweet.

Defrosted, Grilled Choco Taco, with Whipped Cream and Snickerdoodle "Ice Milk".

It extracted with no problem, and I served it up with whipped cream and some re-frozen melted Snickerdoodle ice cream, which I now dub "ice milk" as it most certainly didn't have its creamy texture anymore.

This was, well, just all delicious.

The waffle cone piece of the Choco Taco was hot and crispy, and the ice cream really does caramelized around it beautifully.  Just that alone was delicious, honestly didn't need anything, but whipped cream is always welcome in my world, and the ice milk was actually great, the cinnamon made the whole thing eat a bit like a hot fresh crispy churro.  I was in love.

Some bites had bits of gooey chocolate as well, from the chocolate coating (although, to be honest, I scoped a lot of that out and ate it before it hit the iron), and the chocolate of course was lovely too.

I really adored this, likely even more than a regular Choco Taco, so, one item at least was most certainly not lost due to the meltdown!

Original Review, December 2017

By now, you know that I throw ... basically everything into my waffle iron, particularly leftovers, when the item has degraded.

While a Choco Taco may not *sound* like a leftover, this one was, for reasons you'll soon read about.

Freezer Burned, Refrozen, Choco Taco Transformation.

You can pull out your skeptics hat now, because I sure had mine on.  I thought this was just going to be for fun, since the product was ruined anyway.

But I was thrilled with the result.

So, Freezer Burned, Refrozen, Choco Taco: Will it Waffle?  Shockingly, yes.

It was more successful than I ever imagined.

Choco Taco.

"Vanilla ice cream with fudgy swirls wrapped in a crunchy sugar cone taco, then drenched in a thick, chocolatey coating and sprinkled with peanuts."
I started with a Klondike Choco Taco.  For the unfamiliar, it is a sugar cone that is made into a taco shell, stuffed with vanilla ice cream with chocolate swirls, dipped in chocolate, and coated in chopped peanuts.

I have fond memories of these from the rare times growing up when we were allowed to get them at Del Taco, after our taco salads.

Freezer Burned, Defrosted & Refrozen, Choco Taco.

I had a box of them in my freezer, excited to pull them out one day.

But, a bit of a disaster struck.  My chest freezer, where I store my non-essentials, broke.  The compressor failed.  Everything inside was still cold, so, food safe, but, things like ice cream were rather ruined.

But I didn't have the heart to throw it all out.  I threw plenty out, don't get me wrong, but I stashed the Choco Tacos back in, with a side thought, "maybe it will waffle".

I tried a bite of the now re-frozen creation.  It was soggy, the shell tasted stale, and the ice cream clearly icy and freezer burned.  What you'd expect.  Trash.

Except it wasn't.

Into the Waffle Iron.

I heated the waffle iron up to the highest setting (450 degrees), thinking that I'd kinda like to sear the taco cone so it got crispy, while maybe keeping the ice cream frozen?

I put it into the waffle iron (yup, there was my bite taken out), pressed down, and walked away for a second.

The sounds coming out of the waffle iron were instant.  Something was, uh, clearly cooking.  It was much more noisy than usual.

30 Seconds In ...

It was so noisy I opened the lid much sooner than I usually do, less than a minute in.

It was ... a bubbling disaster.  The ice cream melted out instantly, all over the waffle plates.  The taco cone shell was still soggy.

I thought all hope was lost, but closed it again.

The sounds continued.  I laughed at myself, and starting thinking about what a pain it would be to clean up.

A few minutes more ...

I let it go a few minutes more, commenting that I really just didn't know what to do.  I didn't think anything positive would come of it at this point.

When I opened the lid again, I could see it was about to start burning.  But the cone did crisp up.

I pulled out a wooden chopstick (my preferred extraction tool), and ran it through the liquid, scooping some up.  I tasted it.

It was ... good.  Piping hot, but, it tasted sorta like dulce de leche, something in that direction.  It was a liquid-like, but had incredible caramelized flavor.  I guess this is what happens to ice cream when it cooks?

I was also very surprised at how easily it came out, so, I extracted the whole thing.

Waffled Choco Taco.

Still, the larger taco didn't look very good.  It did however extract easily, in one piece, leaving no mess behind.  I was shocked.  It solidified within seconds.  Hmmm.  I did have a waffle, after all.

I had to try a bite, right?

I was blown away.

The sugar cone taco shell did indeed get crispy, and, it was now totally caramelized from the ice cream that somehow turned into sweet caramel.  A crispy, sweet wrapper.

A wrapper around what?  The ice cream clearly had all melted out, right?  Yes.  But the chocolate ... it stayed inside.  I was beyond shocked when I bit in, and something came squirting out.  Inside was like a molten chocolate cake.

Basically, I had a crispy shell, molten chocolate, and a prevailing dulce de leche taste.  It was delicious.  Beyond successful, and transformed what was clearly otherwise trash.

I'm so glad I tried this one, and that I have an entire box to play with!