Homemade Waffle Cones

These homemade waffle cones are quick and easy to make, chewy with crisp edges and have a sweet buttery flavor that’s reminiscent of a sugar cookie! Ice cream cones just ready and waiting to be filled with your favorite ice cream.

Quick personal update

Feel free to jump to the recipe if you’re not interested and just want to get to the good stuff!

Things have been tough around here the last few weeks. A couple people I cared very much about passed away, both very suddenly.

It’s hard to get your head back on straight when you lose good people and start thinking about your own mortality. You do that thing where you reevaluate what’s important vs. what isn’t, and you try to take the time to be alone and grieve.

But I ended up having to do a week long business trip, and then ran a 5K, and then we had company for two weeks (which was a good distraction, tbh). And then of course just needing to go to work, make meals, give a fussy cat his medication twice a day, keep up with getting exercise, remembering to drink water and take a shower… all the little things end up feeling like a lot.

Sadly, this blog went on the back burner during all that. I didn’t do any baking, I didn’t take any photos, I didn’t even do any recipe brainstorming. Nothing.

But now I’m back, and today we’re going to take about something I love to turn things around.

Enter the waffle cone maker

I’m in love with a waffle maker. That’s right. I’m professing my love for a waffle cone maker. We got a Chef’sChoice Waffle Cone Express (aff link) as a wedding gift, and I hadn’t even touched it until now.

Not that it’s not always ice cream season for me, but summer is the time when it’s socially acceptable to eat copious amounts of it.

And to do so, I need a delicious vessel for it because bowls just aren’t good enough for me. Why use the thing that’s made specifically to hold food for my food? Psssssh. I’d rather be able to eat said vessel.

Are a waffle cone maker and waffle iron the same thing?

If you’re not familiar with waffle cone makers, they’re not the same thing as a waffle iron. So if you have a waffle iron and try to make this recipe it’s… well, it’s going to be terrible.

Waffle irons have deep grids intended for big, fluffy Belgian waffles.

Waffle cone makers have a very shallow grid – we want them to easily wrap into a cone and have just enough thickness to support our delicious, delicious ice cream.

If you try to wrap a Belgian waffle into a cone you’re going to end up with something that’s… again, just terrible. But turning Belgian waffles into a gigantic ice cream sandwich? I’m on board.

How to use a waffle cone maker

It will come with instructions and a description of the various settings, but quite honestly it takes some trial and error to find the ideal settings for you. For my machine, about 2 minutes on setting 3 is perfect for me.

It also comes with this cone form that makes it easy to wrap the thin waffle around.

Tips for making waffle cones

I recommend laying out a dish towel for the process because:

• That waffle is going to be piping hot.
• You probably don’t want to throw your piping hot waffle onto your bare countertop.
• You can use the towel to manipulate the waffle around the form and save your finger tips from certain burning
• It’ll nicely collect any crumbs so you can easily throw them away. Or eat them, either way.

Having the dish towel is also key to the “setting” process. You need to let the cone rest seam side down until it sticks in place as it cools.

You also need to make sure you pinch the tip of the cone closed. If you don’t, you’re just going to have ice cream dribbling all over you.

Hopefully I don’t have to tell you… that’s not a good look.

You need to let them cool so that they hold their shape, and my favorite way to do that is to gently place them in these vintage ice cream dishes.

You could always use a different kind of glass, or just let them lie on their sides – I just find this way easy and compact on my counter top. I just stack them inside one another, and I’ve never had a problem.

I like mine to be more brown than golden brown, as it makes them more crunchy than chewy – so I let mine cook for about 2 minutes on setting 3 on my waffle cone maker.

If you’d like yours less crisp and/or more chewy, just bake them for a little less time than I note in the recipe instructions. 

You know what else I love?

My new Erickson Surfaces photography board. I needed a larger board than the two I have, and I wanted to experiment with darker colors. I picked up their 21″ x 34″ in Cookie Sheet, with Farmhouse White on the other side. 

If you’ve seen a similar background in pictures from posts in the past, it’s because I was using an actual cookie sheet. Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone makes a 21″ x 34″ metal cookie sheet, so… yeah.

Can you imagine the oven you’d use that in? ‘Cause I’d want one. Immediately.

Anyway, back to the waffle cones.

I don’t try to make them perfectly shapes, or with completely smooth and rounded tops. Per usual, I let them be perfectly imperfect because it’s way less stressful.

See that chipped one in the bottom right of the below photo? I broke it when I was moving stuff around, and SURPRISE.

It still tastes just as delicious as the rest of them.

The magical waffle cone flavor

Speaking of the taste, let’s talk about the flavor in these waffle cones. Have you ever been to a Jeni’s Ice Cream? I’ve always loved the flavor of their cones because they have a sugar cookie-esque taste.

Lucky for us, Jeni actually published her buttercrisp waffle cone recipe, so I tweaked the recipe a little to my liking – specifically, I use vanilla bean paste (aff link) and added ground cinnamon.

You could always use vanilla extract and omit the cinnamon, but my spin on Jeni’s recipe is my absolute favorite.

Now that you have the recipe, what kind of ice cream are you going to fill yours with first?

Try filling it with one of these ice cream recipes:

• Loaded Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
• Bourbon Butter Pecan Ice Cream
• No Churn Homemade Americone Dream Ice Cream
• No Churn Salted Caramel Swirl Ice Cream
• Salted Nutella Fudge Brownie Gelato
• Oreo Ice Cream
• Gingerbread Ice Cream

After you’ve made this recipe, please consider coming back to share your experience with others by leaving a comment below with a star rating!

Homemade Waffle Cones

3.65 from 14 votes

These homemade waffle cones are quick and easy to make, chewy with crisp edges and have a sweet buttery flavor that's reminiscent of a sugar cookie! Ice cream cones just ready and waiting to be filled with your favorite ice cream.

Adapted from Jeni's Buttercrisp Waffle Cone recipe.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Servings 6 cones

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 egg whites
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• ⅔ cup all purpose flour

Instructions

 

• In a small pan over low heat, melt butter and then set aside to cool.
• Turn on your waffle cone maker to let it preheat.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together egg whites and heavy cream until combined.
• Add sugar, cinnamon, salt, vanilla bean paste and almond extract and whisk until well combined.
• Add melted butter and whisk to combine.
• Add flour and whisk only until just combined and smooth.
• Spray waffle maker with nonstick spray on both the bottom and top grids.
• Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop batter into the center of prepared waffle cone maker, and cook according to the manufacturer's instructions.Note: For my Chef's Choice Waffle Cone Express, I find best results cooking on the Color Control setting 3, for 2 minutes.
• Lay a dishtowel on the counter next to your waffle cone maker. Once the round is cooked to your desired doneness, carefully and quickly remove it and place it on the dishtowel.
• Position the point of the form close to the edge of the round with the form resting across the diameter of the round. Use the cloth (to protect your fingers) to wrap one edge of the round onto the form, and then roll the cone forward until it's wrapped completely around the form.
• Hold the cone with the seam side down, gently but firmly, against the cloth and allow it to cool for 15 seconds or so. While it's cooling, also make sure you pinch the tip of the cone so that it's sealed!
• Once you feel like the cone has cooled enough to hold it's shape, carefully remove it from the form and let cool upright (I like to place them in these vintage tall ice cream bowls I have, or stacked in a pint glass). You can also lay them on their sides on a wire rack.
• Add your favorite ice cream and serve immediately. Enjoy!

Notes

Storage: These are best served the same day (and still slightly warm - there's nothing better!), but can be placed in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Smaller cones, more of them! You can get more cones out of the same amount of batter if you reduce the amount you add to the waffle iron - just use 3 tablespoons of batter and you can 8-9 cones.

Nutrition

Calories: 244kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 39mg | Sodium: 119mg | Potassium: 43mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 17g | Vitamin A: 438IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Author Leslie Kiszka

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