Here's How Dairy Queen's Iconic Dipped Cones Are Made

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Dairy Queen has been proving time and time again that ice cream makes everything better since the first location opened in 1940. The iconic dipped cones with a crispy candy coating have been a part of the DQ legacy since nearly the restaurant's beginning, and are each made to order via a seamless routine.

Dairy Queen employees let the ice cream machine do the work while they hold the cone steady and use the weight of the frozen treat coming out of the dispenser to create a perfectly stacked tower of ice cream. Dairy Queen employees achieve the iconic "Cone With The Curl On Top" look by pulling the finished ice cream cone away from the soft serve machine in one quick twisting swoop. To obtain the delicious chocolate or butterscotch shell, the ice cream is dipped into a vat of liquified topping. The dipping is done by the employee quickly inverting the ice cream and dunking it into the topping with no fear or hesitation. Hesitation could be detrimental as it raises the risk of the ice cream falling out of the cone. You can see the procedure in this video from Corey Winthrop:

After the dipping is complete, the cone is lifted out of the topping, and then it's a waiting game as the sauce hardens around the ice cream and any excess drips back down into the container. Employees are careful not to dip the treat beyond the ice cream, as the chilly temperature of the soft serve is what makes the coating harden. Since the cone isn't cold, any sauce on it will remain runny.

What if you want to recreate Dairy Queen dipped soft serve cones at home? While it's easy to make the perfect copycat Dairy Queen Blizzard at home, making the perfect curly soft serve cone might prove difficult without an industrial soft serve machine. However, while you might not be able to achieve the iconic DQ look, you can create delicious soft serve with a smaller at-home machine like this Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. 

The chocolate shell (AKA homemade Magic Shell) can be made at home as well by melting down chocolate and coconut oil to create a delicious sauce that will harden over ice cream, thanks to coconut oil having a melting point of 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Is it the exact Dairy Queen dip cone? Maybe not. But it's the perfect way to enjoy a treat that comes incredibly close to the real thing.