Cornflake icecream bars

January 24, 2022

   

Here's a Meera Sodha dessert that I made, purely for the fun of it! It's a vegan icecream bar that celebrates breakfast cereal. There's the sugary, crunchy cornflake layers on top and bottom, most obviously, and the creamy filling is also infused with cornflakes. Between them there's a strip of tangy raspberries that save it all from cloying sweetness.

The recipe requires a blender but not an icecream maker. I really liked this combination of oat milk and cashews to form the icecream base. I could taste the cornflake infusion in the unfrozen mixture, but I think it's drowned out by the actual cornflakes in the finished dish and I'd be inclined to skip that process in future - it'll save time, mess and waste.

The coconut oil was surprisingly pleasant as a cornflake binder, but I think it's just inevitable that slicing and handling these icecream bars will be messy regardless. I wonder if it would just be easier to break this down into bowls of icecream scattered with Frosties and raspberries. I'm not sure that it would feel as fun, somehow.

This would also be a fun template for other cereal flavours - I'm imagining Coco Pops and strawberries, or (a vegan equivalent to) Froot Loops and blueberries!

Cornflake icecream bars

(slightly adapted from a recipe by Meera Sodha from The Guardian)

cornflake layers

175g cornflakes, crushed into crumbs

80g caster sugar

100g coconut oil, melted

250g raspberries (I used frozen), cut in half (I don't think this matters)

icecream

75g cornflakes

550mL oat milk

150g unsalted cashews

60g caster sugar

2 tablespoons maple or golden syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

pinch of salt

Line a 20cm square cake tin with plastic wrap, leaving as much overhang as you can on the sides.

Make the cornflake layer by stirring together the cornflake crumbs and sugar in a large bowl. Pour in the coconut oil and thoroughly combine. Pour half of the cornflake mixture into the cake tin and use the back of large spoon to spread it out evenly and compress it as best you can. Arrange the raspberries across the base - Sodha manages to achieve large even halves in a grid across her tray, but mine were more haphazard. Place the cake tin in the freezer while you prepare the icecream.

For the icecream, stir together the cornflakes and oat milk in a bowl, to infuse the milk with the cereal flavour for around 20 minutes.

Place the cashews in a small saucepan and cover them with water. Bring them to the boil, and simmer the cashews for 20 minutes. Drain the cashews and place them in a blender.

Strain the cornflakes out of the oat milk such that the oat milk lands in the blender, and as much liquid as possible has been squeezed out of the cereal. Discard the soggy cereal. Add the sugar, syrup, vanilla, oil and salt to the blender and completely liquidise the mixture - expect it to take a few minutes. The mixture should be smooth and creamy.

Retrieve the cake tin from the freezer and carefully pour the cashew cream mixture over the raspberries; smooth over the top if it's uneven. Freeze for 2-4 hours, until the icecream is firm. Press the remaining cornflake crumbs into the top of the icecream and freeze for another 2 hours to set completely.

Slice the icecream cake into bars using a large, sharp knife that's been run under cold water. I found it easiest to flip the cake upside down onto a cutting board and cut it from base to top.