A Story for Every Flavour

You know how much I love ice cream, right? So it should be of no surprise that I don't care what the weather is like outside, I'm going to keep on making ice cream. If you're one of those people who only eats ice cream when it's hot outside, I have this to say: It's always hot somewhere so if you're in the Northern hemisphere and preparing for cold weather, I can recommend lovely Australia as the place to go for sunshine and eternal enjoyment of ice cream. So without further ado here are a sampling of a few of the ice creams I've recently made. You can find all of these recipes in David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. A book every ice cream enthusiast should own.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream: The first time I had chocolate peanut butter ice cream was to impress a boy. It was his favourite flavour but I had never had it before and ordered it just to show him I had good taste. He also introduced me to cherry flavoured candy canes and although I like them both to this day, the boy is long gone. Lobovitz’s Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream wasn’t quite the same as the first cone I had but it’s awfully good when sandwiched between cookies.

Rich Vanilla Frozen Yogurt: This one is made by first straining regular yogurt, (or using Greek yogurt if you have access to it) until it’s thick and the results are phenomenal. I was hooked on this for a while and made batch after batch. That’s saying a lot for the girl who doesn’t like to make anything twice. It’s the perfect base for any add in of your choice but I liked it best with fresh fruit on top. I even ate it for breakfast with fruit and granola. What? It’s yogurt, it’s practically health food.

Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Fudge Ripple: I am a big fan of chocolate mint combos, especially if they come in the form of Girl Guide cookies. I was a Girl Guide for exactly one year and it may have been just so that I could eat a ridiculous amount of thin mint cookies. I haven’t laid my hands on a box of those in ages but I know if I did they would disappear in seconds. This Fresh Min Ice Cream was good on its own, but better with the Fudge Ripple.

Peach Ice Cream with Blueberry Sauce: I’ve struggled with peach ice cream this year. I’ve made it a few times and a few different ways and I’ve been somewhat disappointed each time. I don’t think the ice cream recipes have been the problem, I think it’s the quality of the peaches. Good peaches have been hard to find this year, they haven’t been sweet enough and consequently my ice creams have suffered. Coating the ice cream with blueberry sauce definitely helped make it better though.

Guinness-Milk Chocolate Ice Cream: I wanted to love this ice cream, I really did. I adored the intro story that David told, (he essentially described it as boy-bait) and I wanted to make it right away. Sadly I didn’t love the results, but once again, this is not the fault of the recipe. I decided that I don’t actually like Guinness and therefore didn’t like the ice cream. I kept eating it though because when you first take a bite all you taste is chocolate but the aftertaste is definitively Guinness. The Guinness makes the ice cream incredibly creamy though and I’m certain that this ice cream would win over many people but sadly I was not one of them.

Olive Oil Ice Cream with Lemon: Most people wrinkled their noses at me when I told them I made olive oil ice cream, and if your nose is currently wrinkled, unwrinkle it! The ice cream doesn’t taste overwhelmingly of olive oil, it’s just unbelievably creamy. I used a fruity olive oil from New Zealand and took David’s suggestion of infusing the olive oil with lemon zest. I’d be interested in trying it with orange and lime zest as well. I sneak citrus zest into a lot of things, I love the flavour it lends and zest is a fun word to say.

Fresh Ginger Ice Cream: I like ginger. I like it pickled with sushi, ground in desserts, grated in stir fries, candied and dipped in chocolate. I like it lots of ways. I like it in ice cream and especially when served over a Dorie Apple-Cranberry Crisp. Perfect for fall. Perfect for anytime.

Aztec “Hot” Chocolate Ice Cream: This one was definitely spicy. I like it that way though. It’s a confusing sort of ice cream as the temperature of the ice cream is obviously cold but after swallowing it your mouth is curiously on fire. I tried to dress up the ice cream by torching a marshmallow on top but stupid me forgot that ice cream + fire = ice cream soup. Only the top layer turned to liquid, it was still solid underneath and I love toasted marshmallows so I guess it was worth it. That reminds me, I want to make a toasted marshmallow ice cream…

I’ve also made David’s Super Lemon Ice Cream but the pictures are still in my camera and I have plans to make his Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream next. Stories for another day.