Whether you've got a bunch of broken waffle cones, the box of sugar cones is about to go stale, or you just don't have a use for any of them until next summer, don't throw them out; there's a way to put them to use: You can turn one tasty dessert ingredient into another one and it's as easy as, well, pie – to be exact.
Just think of those cones like graham crackers and you'll get a good idea of how simple and delicious they'll be repurposed as a creative dessert. All you have to do is break the cones up into teeny tiny pieces the same way you would crush graham crackers, mix in sugar and melted butter, form the mixture to the inside of a pie pan, give it a little time in the oven to bake, and voilà — you've got pie crust.
Alternatively, you can form the crust by molding the broken pieces to the pan without the butter and sugar. And if you don't want to do all that breaking up by hand just use a food processor — though you will need to use butter to hold the pulverized bits together in that case.
There are a couple of different directions you can go in. If you want to make an actual — with ice cream as the filling — you certainly can. But it's not the only option. This tasty creation also works great with cream pies and fruit pies. You can even make layered pies with pudding, chocolate, and pieces of candy. It's perfect for these kinds of pies since the ice cream cone crust is so similar to ones made from graham crackers and Nilla wafers.
You'll want to be sure that the crust is fully cooled if you're going to add ice cream as a filling. Rock solid ice cream will be too hard to work with so you'll want to soften it up in the refrigerator for a little while ahead of time. And of course, once you've assembled your ice cream pie, you'll want to re-freeze it.
Bake fruit pies (or pumpkin) and cream pies the same as you would with an ordinary pie crust. Likewise, if you want to use pudding as a pie filling, the process will be the same as it would with a cookie crust.
When it comes to ice cream cone pie crusts, feel free to let your imagination run wild. Got a bunch of broken-up pretzels? Throw them in the food processor too — the mix of sweet and salty will make an excellent base for a custard filling as well as any number of ice creams, including Rocky Road, butter pecan, and salted caramel. You can also layer different flavors of ice cream, syrups, nuts, and more for a truly extravagant dessert.
Broken cookie pieces can be used in the same way. Simply blend them up along with the ice cream cone remnants. You'll get a sweet, delicious crust that is perfect for pudding or ice cream filling. Naturally, this will work great with both graham crackers and Nilla wafers, but other types of cookies can be used too. Sugar cookies, gingersnaps, and the chocolate biscuit part of Oreos all come to mind. However you end up making it, this is a fantastic way to use up broken ice cream cones and more.
