When I was a kid, a new food product came out. It was a truly amazing thing and something my brother and I (mostly unsuccessfully) begged for at the store.

Magic Shell.

For those of you outside the culinary influences of the U.S., or who come from stricter food backgrounds than I (as I said, we mostly unsuccessfully begged for it, but sometimes we got it. And one of my grandmas would buy it for us), Magic Shell is an ice cream topping that, kind of the reverse of hot fudge (which melts the ice cream on contact), hardens upon contact with ice cream.

I was thinking about it not too long ago, and contemplating what kind of horrific esterified trans fats must have been in it to make it behave that way - some kind of lipid that is an oil at room temperature, but not too far below it, hardens into a solid-like substance.

Well, it turns out it's not some kind of lab-created thing, and although it's saturated fat, it's apparently not trans: it's coconut oil.

here is a recipe for your very own, homemade version of Magic Shell.

I will admit, I'd probably not eat this today - I remember, as I hit adolescence, Magic Shell seemed to lose something - there was the oddly slimy mouthfeel and (as the foodblogger notes) that weird, slightly artificial flavor imparted by the coconut oil. These days I'd probably be more likely to either melt some chocolate with butter and milk and make a sort of hot fudge mix, or buy a decent brand of hot fudge (most of the grocery-store ones, though, rely too heavily on corn syrup for their sweetness, and yes, I can taste a difference).

But maybe some of you might like to make this for your kids. Or maybe you aren't bothered by the feel of coconut oil in your food.