A simplistic approach to ice cream. Photo: Sir Mildred Pierce

It's National Ice Cream month, and who -- the lactose-intolerant aside -- doesn't like ice cream?

Well, Southerners. America's favorite dessert is still a third-tier treat below the Mason-Dixon line, where cakes and puddings have a firm hold on the region's collective sweet tooth. Even in the most sweltering of Southern summers, New Englanders out-gorge their Southern neighbors. (Heck, New Englanders hang onto their ice cream eating edge straight through the winter, when their freezers are sometimes warmer than the air outside.)

Nobody's quite sure why Southerners never took to ice cream, although North Carolina food writer Sheri Castle confirms the phenomenon: "It's just not a big thing," she says. She suspects the relative paucity of milk cows might have contributed to ice cream's historical absence from the local food scene.

But a few serious ice cream makers are bent on tweaking the Southern tradition. Shops such as Ultimate Ice Cream in Asheville, N.C., and Morelli's in Atlanta are now providing a gentle -- and delicious -- introduction to the genre.

Continue reading Is Ice Cream Gaining Ground with Southern Sweet Tooths?

Hydrox is one of the ingredients. Photo: Chazz Layne/flickr

Continue reading Flashback to the Seventies: Grasshopper Pie

You've seen that sliced-up green apple sitting up top aside the Slashfood logo. Perhaps you've pondered its culinary potential -- the crisp snap of that bright green skin, the half-sweet/half-tart flavor that is the special domain of the Granny Smith apple.

Voila. Slashfood sorbet!

In sorbet, a single element is distilled into an intense burst of flavor. It should be so vivid that only a bite is necessary. Perhaps you're most familiar with it as an intermezzo to cleanse the palate, in a fluted paper cone to hold while walking alongside your companion and his gelato or in scoops piled high in a frosty parfait glass almost too cold to touch.

After the jump, an original recipe for a gorgeous green apple Slashfood Sorbet. We challenge you to only eat one bite.

Continue reading Slashfood Sorbet

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"Babycakes: Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery"

By Erin McKenna
Photographs by Tara Donne
Clarkson Potter -- 2009
Buy It at Amazon

Note: While testing the vanilla frosting recipe, we accidentally used soy flour instead of the the soy milk powder the recipe called for. The two are easily confused but not interchangeable, as our results demonstrated.

When Erin McKenna opened BabyCakes NYC in 2005, her gluten-free, vegan baked goods became a huge success, giving hope to the gluten-intolerant and converting legions of dairy-worshipping skeptics. Her new cookbook is both a how-to guide and winning, chatty account of McKenna's journey from junk food junkie to gluten-free goddess (she changed her Twinkie-loving ways in 2004, when she was diagnosed with wheat and dairy allergies). Pretty much everything in the baked good pantheon is here -- cupcakes, blueberry corn muffins, scones, cake and cobbler -- ensuring that while the gluten and dairy may be missing, absolutely nothing else is.

Takeaway Tips: McKenna writes in a clear, humorous and reassuring voice that makes you feel like you're baking in the company of, if not an old friend, then an endlessly understanding and forgiving teacher. She provides ingenious advice on making simple, natural food coloring (who knew that a pinch of turmeric made gorgeous yellow icing?), and her incredibly helpful ingredients glossary at the beginning of the book (from agave nectar to xantham gum) removes a lot of the considerable intimidation factor inherent in gluten-free, vegan baking.

See what we tested and whether the book's worth buying after the jump.

Continue reading 'Babycakes' - Cookbook Spotlight

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1. Apricot and Chocolate Bavarois
2. Apricot, Almond and Brown Butter Tart
3. Apricots Baked in Fig Leaves
4. Apricot and Almond Jam
5. Grilled Apricots with Bittersweet Chocolate and Almonds
6. Blueberry Apricot Crumble
7. Bread and Butter Pudding Served with Clotted Cream and Compote of Apricots
8. Apricot Streusel Coffeecake

Most desserts seem to fall into one of three realms -- something frozen, something rich with chocolate or some sort of fruit pastry. But when these barriers start to dissolve, that's when the real magic happens -- like key lime fudge.

As one of those strange people who has always preferred fruity desserts to chocolate ones, I couldn't help but pick up key lime fudge on my recent trip to Key West. Unlike many chocolate-free fudges, this wasn't merely a thick, confectioner's sugar-filled treat, but something that balanced the creaminess of fudge with the tart key lime without relying on that all-too-familiar frosting flavor.

Experimenting at home, I've come up with the perfect recipe to replicate that fresh citrus flavor. It relies on white chocolate, which frees us from the throes of frosting flavor that the confectioner's sugar inevitably leaves, and it's quite easy to make.

Continue reading Change Things Up With Key Lime Fudge

I have always been a huge fan of deliciously rich and creamy whoopie pies. So, when I read the recent New York Times article about its current popularity among New Yorkers, I was not too surprised.

The article traces the history of this delectable to pockets of New England, Pennsylvania and Ohio. And, it explains that due to their gaining popularity, supermarkets like Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and (specialty deli) Zingerman's sell them. But, my favorite spot for whoopie pies is at One Girl Cookies in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

As food historian Sandra Oliver states, the cake part that sandwiches the cream is not especially sweet and is often dry, because the frosting, the heart of the whoopie, is full of sugar and a gooey consistency. This characterizes One Girl Cookies' luscious whoopie pies. There is an amazing balances between the frosting in the center and the light fluffy dry cookie/cake.

Perhaps, one of the reasons why they're so special is that cream cheese frosting is sandwiched between pumpkin cake (see the photo above).

You can purchase a dozen whoopie pies from One Girl Cookies online for $27. The Times mentions another pastry shop in Brooklyn with whoopie fever called Trois Pommes Patisserie.