After typing a post about a wasabi popsicle, I started to think about other spice and and ice combinations. Naturally, I thought of cardamom, one of my favorite spices. A friend of mine recently suggested that we make cardamom ice cream. Unlike wasabi, cardamom is widely used in both savory and sweet dishes, such as rice and pastries. Its deeply aromatic qualities have always attracted me. And now, I'm dying with curiosity to find out its potential with ice cream.
One of my secret, guilty pleasures in life is eating ice cream straight out of the pint container. It's not just because it's a delicious, indulgent way to eat dessert, it's also fun for me because it's how my dad does it. He is something of a prodigious ice cream eater and so many evenings after dinner he can be found sitting on the living room couch, ball game on the television, with a dish towel swathed ice cream container in hand. His utensil of choice is an iced tea spoon with a hammered handle.
Wrapping the dish towel around the carton has always been a key part of eating-out-of-the-carton equation, because without it, the carton sweats clammy moisture all over the place. Additionally, you have to eat at a good clip, or you run the risk of melting the ice cream beyond the point of refreezing. However, some clever person out there has solved both of those problems by inventing an insulating ice cream sleeve. The Prepara Neoprene Ice Cream Pint Sleeve comes with or without zippers and will keep your ice cream cold and easy to handle. Too bad I only discovered this product after Father's Day!
Ice cream is the great equalizer. Every person from every walk of life loves ice cream. (Except for lactose intolerant people, but they're obviously being punished by God.)
While it's perfectly acceptable to march into Baskin-Robbins and demand a triple cone of Jamoca Almond Fudge (you weirdos), or dive head-first into the Haagen-Dazs freezer for a pint of Sticky Toffee Pudding (you English people), wouldn't it feel exponentially more gratifying to make your own?
My personal favorite is sweet corn ice cream. It sounds odd, but once you taste it you think "oh, that makes sense." The pale yellow ice cream has a subtle, summery corn flavor, studded with fresh kernels, like buttered corn on the cob distilled into a perfect, chilled essence.
I just had some today, at a place called Tara's in Santa Fe that specializes in non-standard flavors - they also make terrific sage, strawberry balsamic, chile-pistachio and black sesame ice creams. But there's something about cold sweet corn that's perfect for a hot June evening. My parents, recently returned from Singapore, described a local street food that I just may hop on a plane to try: corn ice cream, drizzled with syrup, and slapped between two pieces of pink-dyed white sandwich bread.
Until then, I'll have to make do with this recipe for sweet corn ice cream on Epicurious and am planning to try it this weekend. I bet it would be good with a cayenne caramel sauce.
We've been talking a lot about ice cream lately, so I became extremely excited yesterday when I found this article over at The Huffington Post. It features goat's milk ice cream, an intriguing dairy creation that's apparently healthier than regular ice cream and popular with celebrities like Jim Carrey and Kate Hudson.
The brand discussed in the article is called Laloo -- check out the site for details and adorable pictures of baby goats (kids, I know, but baby goats sounds so much cuter). After consulting the list of local dealers, I found out that it's actually sold at tons of stores that are close to my home. I'm a bit cautious about trying it, but if any of you have rave reviews, I may just have to go and purchase a pint. Anyone?
Can you tell a Drumstick from a King Cone or a ID your favorite brand of chocolate eclair? Take our coolest quiz yet, and then come back to share your score, or reminisce about your favorite frozen confections.
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Grandpa's Dribble Cake is no easy task: two layers of cake and two kinds of frosting make this a daunting - but rewarding - task
Forget vanchocstraw - instead, get a load of these Cook Farm family ice cream recipes: apple-blueberry crisp; coconut with chocolate and almonds; and - why not? - asparagus
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Want to teach your old dog new tricks? Try one with homemade sauerkraut, or even pineapple
A father, his road to chef-dom, and a really awesome recipe for fig, pear, caramelized onion and blue cheese pizza
Some types of kids will eat the icing off the birthday cake and leave the moist, denuded slab of cake lying dead on the plate. They'll pull the crispy bits off the fried chicken and leave the meaty carcass behind.
I was the other kind of kid, the one who ate her treats slowly, methodically, from the worst to the best. I could spend half an hour on a Twix bar, nibbling off the greasy, slightly grainy chocolate from the top and sides before separating the cookie from the thick, soft strip of caramel, which I'd roll into a ball and eat last. Give me Lucky Charms and I'd eat every last bit of soggy, Styrofoam puff cereal until I had an entire bowl full of marshmallows. I'd marvel gleefully at my bounty before digging in with a soup spoon, the marshmallows slippery as minnows in my mouth.
This culinary deconstructionism and best-for-last attitude explains my affection for the Drumstick. First comes the nuts, to be picked off one by one with your front teeth. Then the shattery chocolate shell, to be broken and removed piece-by-piece. Next, the globe of sweet, bland vanilla ice cream, to be licked to nothingness in a precise spiral pattern. The chocolate-lined cone would be eaten in a spiral pattern too, with overlapping rows of tiny, neat bites.
And there, hidden at the very bottom, was a solid cone of chocolate. I'd still be savoring the melting lump in my mouth even after I'd washed the stickiness off my hands and settled in to watch the Smurfs.
Earlier this week I spent a blistering hot couple of days back in my home town of New York City. It sparked my memory and took me back to when I was five or six years old and the Good Humor Man would drive up our block in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We all thought he was absolutely wonderful! Ringing his bells to announce that it was Good Humor time, jingling and jangling, starting faint off in the distance and slowly getting louder as he got closer. There was always plenty of time to run up the four flights of our Brownstone (the name of the style of four story buildings made of brownstone that were originally one family homes. Many had been carved up into several apartments) to let my mom know that He Was On His Way. Anticipation built as he made his way slowly up the street, stopping two or three times per block and hopping out to serve all the kids, and their parents, as well as uncles, aunts, and the occasional grandparent.
Everyone had their favorites. Mine varied slightly from day to day, depending on the weather or whim. Red, white, and blue Bomb Pops for those blistering hot days, sometimes varied with Italian Ices. lemon was my favorite, but occasionally chocolate, root beer, or watermelon. On days when it was warm, but not hot, I went for the ice cream bars. Chocolate Eclair or Toasted Almond were at the top of my list. My dad liked the Toasted Almond as well, with mom's favorite being Creamsicles. Sometimes she would get several and stash them in the fridge, something she still does to this day, but with a box from the supermarket. My little sister liked Snow Cones because they lasted so long. She would eat half of one and then stick the rest in the freezer for later, sometimes she would have several different types in there, building up for awhile, until mom would chuck them out when they started to disappear under a layer of frost.
Inspired by the bacon ice cream presented on last night's Top Chef, we're bumping this older post back to the top.
Deliciously demented maestro of molecular gastronomy Heston Blumenthal (chef & owner of the massively Michelin-starred UK restaurant The Fat Duck) shares his signature Bacon & Egg Ice Cream technique and recipe.
Of course, I'm not talking about the ways you try to keep cool in general, such as cranking the AC, jumping into a pool, or going to the beach. I'm talking about liquid refreshment.
There are many schools of thought on this. My mom used to drink hot coffee in June, July, and August, going by the old theory that drinking hot liquids in hot months actually cools you down. I myself like icedtea and ice cold water during the summer, with some diet soda and icy Ocean Spray Light Ruby Red here and there too. Others seem to like beer and cocktails, though I really doubt their effectiveness (beyond the initial hit of cold liquid going down).
After the jump, give us your liquid solutions for the summer. Besides the drinks above, I'm thinking about asking the owner of the liquor store down the street if I can live in his giant walk in fridge for the summer..
In early May, I told you about the ice cream cupcake roundup that I was co-hosting on Cupcake Project with Scoopalicious. The results from the roundup are in! There are 17 ice cream cupcake recipes to choose from. Everyone tackled the ice cream cupcakes in different ways. Some participants put the ice cream in the center of the cupcake and made essentially an ice cream cupcake sandwich, others put the ice cream on top and covered it with frosting, and some skipped the frosting altogether and just topped their cupcakes with a heaping scoop of ice cream.
It was also interesting to see the creativity surrounding the cupcake wrappers. While most used normal cupcake liners, some baked their ice cream cupcakes in ice cream cones, bakeable espresso cups, and waffle bowls.
We also had both dairy-free and gluten-free entries, so don't let your dietary restrictions stop you from getting in on the ice cream cupcake action.
We all know that ice cream is fatty. My mom likes to remind me that when I'm licking an ice cream cone, I'm essentially licking a ball of fat. I try to remove that image from my mind and instead picture that I'm licking a little ball of heaven. However, it is wise to be informed of what you are eating. In that light, I present you with Newsweek's list of six of the most fattening ice creams - all nutrition information is for a serving size of a half cup.
Our post about companies giving their food away for free wasn't a joke. After you've had your morning ice coffee from Dunkin Donuts and sampled the new Southern Chicken Biscuit thing from McDonald's today, wait until next week for a free ice cream cone from Baskin Robbins. They're making May 21, Wednesday, traditionally known as "Hump Day" into "Bump Day." It's a debut of their "newest addition," soft serve, which they'll be serving from 11 am to 10 pm.
That means, of course, you have to be sporting a baby bump to get your free cone. (Don't worry, we'll likely post a reminder when the day gets closer.)
The official start of Summer is rapidly approaching. That means it's nearly time for trips to the beach, backyard cookouts and lots of homemade ice cream (preferably eaten outside with friends and family). Whether you've got a hand crank ice cream maker, one that attaches to your stand mixer or a fancy one with its own compressor, you can always use some fresh ice cream inspiration.
That's where Sally Sampson's new book Recipe of the Week: Ice Cream comes in. As the title suggests, Sampson has written a fresh recipe for every week of the year, making it possible for you to always be experimenting with new recipes, while still going back to your favorites. She has included recipes for ice cream, granitas and gelatos in the book, so no matter what your preference, there's something here for you.
One of the nice things here is that Sampson has worked to lower the amount of sugar in her recipes over more traditional ice cream recipes, so if you are one without a strong sweet tooth, you may find this book particularly appealing. The only problem I've found with this volume is that Sampson doesn't give any advice as to how to go about choosing an ice cream maker if you don't already have one. She assumed a certain level of prior knowledge, which is good for someone with ice cream experience, but isn't particularly helpful for the novice.
However, if you are excited for fresh ice cream inspiration and you have a bit of ice cream making experience, I would recommend this book without hesitation.
We've been talking a lot about 
Some types of kids will eat the icing off the birthday cake and leave the moist, denuded slab of cake lying dead on the plate. They'll pull the crispy bits off the fried chicken and leave the meaty carcass behind. 
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Slashfood Ate (8): Ways to create the perfect cheese plate
A good trick for saving summer herbs for future use
