Welcome back, fans of Grady Hendrix!
Roughly two weeks ago, I posted recipes for Cheese Straws and Taco Casserole inspired by Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Vampires. This week, we return to Mount Pleasant’s Old Village for a fried ice cream recipe influenced by My Best Friend’s Exorcism.
Taking place in the same neighborhood as SBC, this book is full of teenage drama and 80’s nostalgia as if The Exorcist and Heathers had a literary baby. Sure there’s a demon, and the story examines the power of faith. Friendship, though, takes the place of divinity in this book. Specifically, it’s the strong friendships during adolescence, when the world is hell, and you need someone who will bear the mutual awkwardness with you.
Click here to skip to the recipe for DBQ Fried Ice Cream.
The Devil vs. DBQ
In Mount Pleasant, SC’s Old Village, 1982, no one shows up to 10-year-old Abby Rivers‘s E.T.-themed roller rink birthday party. No one, that is, except for Gretchen Lang. From that moment on, the girls are inseparable and E.T. and scrunchies evolve to makeup and hairbrush-singing Madonna. Their DBQ (“Dearly, but not Queerly”) halcyon days come under threat six years later, though, when Gretchen gets more than just a bad LSD trip during a slumber party. She becomes the vessel of a bonafide, sulfur-scented denizen from Satan’s frathouse.
The demon then sets out ruining the lives of Gretchen’s friends and family in ways that are so subtle and yet bizarre that they seem indistinguishable from standard teenage mood swings and manipulation. Like an abusive partner, the demon works at destroying every part of Gretchen’s support network — especially Abby. With every slight and psychological torture, though, Abby is the only one who believes something is wrong beyond high school hijinks.
We learn through Grady’s Exorcism that faith is not just trusting in a deity. But it could also be the full confidence and trust in anything we are DBQ (or DAQ) about. As adults, we grow or change in our convictions with varying intensity. As teenagers, though, we fixate on a feeling of life or death when it comes to our chosen person or thing. And when it comes to demonic possession, that intensity mistaken for weakness becomes Abby and Gretchen’s greatest strength.
Hell hath no fury…
E.T., Exorcism, and Coca Cola
So with this book, I wanted to develop a recipe symbolic of Gretchen and Abby’s friendship through snacks from their greatest memories. I was initially inspired by when Abby takes Gretchen to see E.T.:
Abby’s heart cramped and then, before she said anything, she saw the light from the screen reflecting off Gretchen’s wet cheeks, and Abby’s heart unclenched and Gretchen turned to her and said, “Can we see it again?”
They could. Then they had dinner at Chi-Chi’s and Abby’s dad pretended it was his birthday and the waiters came out and put a giant sombrero on his head and sang the Mexican birthday song and gave them all fried ice cream.
It was the greatest day of Abby’s life.
When they become friends during Abby’s birthday party, “[th]ere were E.T. balloons, E.T. tablecloths, E.T. part hats, snack-sized Reese’s Pieces next to every E.T. paper plate, [and] a peanut butter and chocolate ice cream cake with E.T.’s face on top[.]” So with that, I folded Reese’s Pieces into chocolate ice cream.
During the same birthday party, the cutest senior at school accidentally skates into Abby and busts her lip. He visits her classroom later and gifts her with a cold can of Coke. She takes it home but never opens it. Turns out, Coca Cola does not sell full-sized cans in six-packs anymore. The mini-cans, however, are just large enough to make a delicious drizzling syrup.
Finally, I noted that Abby makes Gretchen some rice krispie treats to make her feel better after the LSD trip from literal hell. So I then toasted some rice cereal with butter and cinnamon before using it and marshmallow fluff to coat these frozen sugar bombs. It’s easier to garnish with marshmallow fluff after the ice cream with cereal and freezing. But I leave it to your preference.
With enough sugar and product placements for its own afternoon special, this recipe does take some effort. But these decadent treats are perfect for the DBQ (or DAQ) in your life to show you love them more than peanut butter loves chocolate.
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The printable recipe card and playlist for DBQ Fried Iced Cream will be available as a $2 donor reward on my Ko-Fi page until the next post goes up.
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More than Peanut Butter Loves Chocolate
DBQ Fried Iced Cream
Equipment: Freezer, refrigerator, stovetop, skillet, small saucepan, wire whisk, 2 glass or metal mixing bowls, ice cream scoop, large baking sheet, large plate, kitchen mallet, and parchment paper.
Ingredients:
- 6 cups puffed rice cereal
- half-gallon chocolate ice cream
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 cup Reese’s Pieces
- 2 cups marshmallow fluff
- 1 cup coca-cola
- 1 and 1/2 cup sugar
Instructions:
- Place the Reeses Pieces in a ziplock bag and set it, one of the mixing bowls, the plate, and the baking sheet in the freezer. After an hour, smash the candy with a mallet, then return to the freezer. Move the ice cream to the refrigerator and set a timer for 30 minutes.
- When the timer goes off, take the candy and mixing bowl out of the freezer and the ice cream out of the refrigerator. Scoop sections of ice cream into the bowl and sprinkle the smashed candy between each section. Turn the whole thing over with a spatula and repeat until you run out of ice cream and candy. Cover the bowl and re-freeze for 30 minutes.
- Take the bowl of ice cream and baking sheet out of the freezer, then line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Working quickly, divide the ice cream into eighths and shape each portion into a ball. Arrange the ice cream balls on the baking sheet and freeze them overnight.
- The following day, preheat the skillet for 3 minutes over a medium flame on the stovetop. Add 1/4 cup of butter. Once melted, stir in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, a pinch of kosher salt, and 3 cups of cereal. Stir-cook until toasted golden, then transfer to the clean mixing bowl. Repeat these steps with the remaining spices, cereal, and butter.
- Take the baking sheet from the freezer, then quickly cover each ball of ice cream with a 1/4 cup of marshmallow fluff. Refreeze for 20 minutes.
- Bring the plate and baking sheet out of the freezer. Drop a ball of ice cream into the bowl of cereal, then roll to coat. Place on the cold plate. Repeat this with the remaining portions. Line the baking sheet with a clean layer of parchment paper and top with the finished fried ice cream. Return to the freezer while working on the syrup.
- Combine the sugar and cola in a saucepan over medium heat on the stovetop and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and whisk to dissolve. Let simmer until reduced by half. Then turn off the heat to cool completely before serving drizzled over the fried ice cream.
