Most of us are happy to eat ice cream straight out of the container; even scooping it into a cone seems like too much of a hassle. But a restaurant in Spain called El Celler de Can Roca has come up with a novel way to serve the frozen treat — they bake it. Or, more specifically, they use a machine called the Oxymoron Maker II to entomb a scoop of ice cream inside a freshly baked brioche.
It’s a neat parlour trick, made possible by this wonderful stainless steel and bamboo appliance, custom designed and built by Andreu Carulla for the restaurant. It quickly heats up and bakes the brioche bread before the ice cream can completely melt into a runny mess. Think of it as a classier alternative to the fried ice cream gimmick that made a restaurant called Chi-Chi’s so popular back in the day.
Sadly, if you want to try it at home, you won’t have the benefit of Carulla’s wonderful appliance since El Celler de Can Roca has no intentions of letting him sell their main attraction to the rest of the world. But going back to just eating Ben & Jerry’s out of tub with a spoon is an ok consolation prize. [Andreu Carulla via MoCo Loco]