Recipe: 'Fried' ice cream for Shavuot

Yup, you read that correctly! According to About.com:

"Tikun Leyl Shavuot is a kabbalistic (mystical) custom that is relatively new to Jewish tradition. It is increasingly popular among modern Jews and is meant to help us rededicate ourselves to studying Torah. Kabbalists taught that at midnight on Shavuot the skies open for a brief moment and God favorably hears all prayers."

A tikkun leil shavuot (the spelling I'm accustomed to, pronounced tee-KOON lay-EEL SHAH-voo-OTE) is an evening of communal study which generally ends at midnight with a sweet treat featuring the holiday's traditional dairy products, and cheesecake — which is so luscious! — is often the preferred indulgence.

Many people eat blintzes at Shavuot, since the folded and stuffed crepes resemble Torah scrolls and the tablets containing the Ten Commandments.

But I have my own traditional dairy dessert for Shavuot: "Fried" ice cream. Blintzes require making the crepes, filling the crepes, folding the crepes, frying the crepes ... a lot of bother, even if the end result is utterly fabulous.

So I just make these easy "fried" ice cream cylinders, shaping softened ice cream and then letting it set before rolling the "scrolls" in sweetened cookie crumbs and drizzling them with chocolate sauce.

This still honors the dairy tradition whose origins are unknown, though it is thought to be a reference to Israel being the "land of milk and honey" — and it still offers something sweet and celebratory, but without a lot of effort.

Shavuot is a holiday, after all!

"Fried" Ice Cream Torah Scrolls

1 1/3 cups ice cream, any flavor, softened a bit
8 vanilla wafers, finely crushed
Generous sprinkle of cinnamon
3 tablespoons sugar
Chocolate sauce

Place a square of plastic wrap onto the counter. Place 1/3 cup ice cream in the center of the wrap.

Shape into a 3-inch-long cylinder, then wrap it up in the plastic wrap, twisting the ends, and place into the freezer to set. Repeat with remaining ice cream until you have 4 cylinders.

When the ice cream is set, combine the wafer crumbs, cinnamon and sugar on a plate. One by one, unwrap the ice cream cylinders and roll them in the crumb mixture until they are well coated.

Place the coated ice cream onto a freezer-safe plate that has been covered with plastic wrap, then repeat with the remaining ice cream. Freeze until set.

Place 2 ice cream cylinders onto a dessert plate. Place froofy toothpicks into the tops of the "scrolls" (to represent decorative crowns), and place plain toothpicks into the bottoms of the "scrolls." Drizzle chocolate sauce over the ice cream. Repeat with remaining cylinders.

Serves 2.

has won or placed in more than 60 cooking contests and writes about her adventures in the kitchen. She was thrilled to have her post about Scottish Oatmeal Shortbread named as one of the daily "Best of the Blogs" by the prestigious Food News Journal.

Go visit Mary's blog — Food Floozie — on which she enthuses and effuses over all things food-related. Her newest feature is Frugal Floozie Friday, seeking fun and food for $5 or less ... really! Feel free to email her with questions or comments or suggestions: yentamary@gmail.com.

The phrase "You Should Only Be Happy" (written in Hebrew on the stone pictured at the top of this post) comes from Deuteronomy 16:15 and is a wish for all her readers as they cook along with her ... may you always be happy here.