Chocolate Malted Ice Cream Bonbons

I have so much to say about this recipe I don't even know where to start.  I guess I will start with The New York Times, where I first ran across this recipe.  It was the very essence of easy wonderfulness...three ingredients and voila! Malted ice cream bonbons.  It seemed too good to be true.

It was too good to be true.  I'm sorry, New York Times.  Usually I adore you, but this time...not so much.

Here's why.  The recipe essentially says, scoop out your favorite ice cream (hello??  chocolate!!) with a melon baller.  Roll the chocolate balls in malted milk powder, and then roll them again in crushed malted milk balls.  Stick them in the freezer until everything is nice and frozen, and then you will have a delectable bite-sized malted ice cream treat.  Well, okay!  I'm in!  All I need is some ice cream, some malted milk balls and some malted milk powder and I'm golden!

So off I go to the supermarket.  Chocolate ice cream?  Check - a pint of Ben and Jerry's tossed into the cart.  Malted milk balls?  You bet...a couple of boxes of Whoppers Malted Milk Balls.  Good and good for you.  Uh-huh.

And then I looked for malted milk powder, which was one of the three essential ingredients the recipe called for.  I looked high.  I looked low.  I called my mother.  Nothing.  Oh, the anguish!!!  My mother, who I had finally stumped by asking for something that she didn't have in her endless pantry, suggested that I skip the malted milk powder and move right to the malted milk ball part, but I would not be deterred. Finally, after two tortuous weeks, I found a jar of Nestles malted milk powder lurking at the back of the shelf at the supermarket.  YES!!!

The next morning I assembled my ingredients.  One pint of chocolate ice cream, slightly softened.  One cup of malted milk balls, smashed into little pieces.  And one cup of my hard-to-come-by malted milk powder.  The general instructions were to scoop out a ball of ice cream, roll it in the malted milk powder,  then roll it in the pulverized malted milk balls, then pop it in the freezer.  Repeat 25 times.

Which I was perfectly happy to do, except I got stalled on the first one.  I scooped a ball of ice cream.  I rolled it in malted milk powder.  Then I tried to roll it in the crushed malted milk balls...and guess what.  The malted milk ball pieces didn't stick to the ice cream, because it was already good and coated with malted milk powder.  Those smashed malted milk pieces fell right off.  When I tried to push them on, they still fell right off.  Which once you think of it, makes total sense.   I have to say, I lost a little faith in my beloved New York Times, and I was also now saddled with a jar of malted milk powder with no plan for it.  But I soldiered on.

My next 24 bonbons were as simple as scooping out a ball of ice cream with my handy melon-baller and rolling them only in the crushed malted milk balls.  Which just for the record, have malted milk in them.  You need to pop each one in the freezer as you go so you don't have some meltage on your hands - I set up my staging area right next to the fridge, and had a plate lined with parchment paper right in the freezer, so it was scoop, roll, freeze, one after the other.  Leave them in the fridge for an hour or two to get nice and solid, and there you go.

The moral of the story?  Always listen to your mother.  She is NEVER wrong.

I hope the teenager is paying attention.

Chocolate Malted Ice Cream Bonbons, adapted crankily from The New York Times

1 cup chocolate malted milk balls

1/2 pint chocolate, coffee, ginger or other ice cream.

1. Freeze the malted milk balls for 30 minutes. Pulse them in a food processor, or crush them in a sealed plastic bag to make pieces the size of rice grains.

2. Scoop out a ball of ice cream and roll it in the crumbs made from the malted milk balls. Immediately put it on a plate in the freezer and repeat with remaining ingredients. Firm them up in the freezer for at least 20 minutes before serving.

Yield: 25 to 30 ice cream balls.

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