Picture this: New York City, August, 2009. It's hot -- I mean really hot. Like, stick to the seats on the subway hot. You're feeling mighty low and mighty steamed, and all you want is a belt of something quick and cool to keep you moving. Something that'll put the spring back into your step.
You know what you need, buddy? A caffeinated dessert. An affogato al caffé.
When you finally get one and it does the trick, turn your re-energized self toward Italy and give 'em a salute: Not only did our friends on the boot give us both the espresso and gelato that make up this icy indulgence, but they did us one better by putting them together. The resulting dessert, often shortened to simply affogato -- literally "drowned" in Italian -- is heavenly in its traditional form (a scoop of vanilla gelato topped with freshly brewed espresso), so even tiny tweaks (chocolate ice cream) or additions (Frangelico) can make it sublime.
Gabrielle Carbone, co-owner of the Bent Spoon Photo: Eating in Translation/Flickr
Since Gabrielle Carbone and Matthew Errico opened the doors of Princeton, N.J.'s The Bent Spoon in 2004, their ice cream shop has become synonymous with high-quality, imaginatively flavored ice cream, winning over countless customers with flavors like cardamom-ginger, dark chocolate habanero and mint julep. Called one of the Top Nine Ice Cream Places in America, it's one of a growing number of ice cream shops that have shaken off the shackles of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry to bring frozen dairy into the brave new world of small-batch, artisanal production and top-shelf organic and seasonal ingredients.
As we're entering the height of ice cream season (though true aficionados would argue that ice cream has no season), and with National Ice Cream Month around the bend, we turned to Carbone for a primer in All Things Ice Cream.
What makes good ice cream? Oh man. You know, it kind of boils down to good ingredients. You can make good ice cream hands down if your dairy and eggs are good. The organic yolks we use are bright orange and creamy, and our dairy is hormone-free. It's great if the recipes are good, but if you start with good ingredients, you end up with good stuff.
Oyster ice cream, bourbon-vanilla ice cream swirled with sea salt and Dolly Madison, after the jump.
There's no doubt about it: The cheese boom is in full swing.
Over the past several years, specialty shops have blossomed across the country, from southern California to Maine (including Blue Fog Market, Fromagination and The Cave), all with super-dedicated cheese selections. This month renowned Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant Franny's became the latest eatery to open its very own specialty food shop, Bklyn Larder, just down the street.
Aside from an array of prepared foods cooked by chef Travis Post, Bklyn Larder has its own cheese room, with an appropriate humidity and temperature for aging and storing cheese. "This will enable us to carry larger amounts of cheese," says Francine Stephens, who, along with co-owner and husband Andrew Feinberg, co-founded the restaurant back in 2004.
In September of 2007, Feinberg attended the Slow Flood cheese festival in Bra, Italy to seek out unique and tasty cheeses to eventually carry at the still-in-the-planning-stages Larder. They can all be spied through the glass window of the shop's aging room. (Food voyeurs -- you know who you are -- beware!)
At New York City's Roasting Plant Coffee Company (81 Orchard St. between Broome and Grand streets, and 75 Greenwich Ave. at Seventh Ave., 212-775-7755), they have to-die-for hot chocolate. The recipe is shockingly simple, and you can make it at home!
The secret? Gelato.
Go buy a pint of your favorite chocolate gelato (dark chocolate is recommeneded), put a scoop in a mug, and let it melt. Add steamed milk to taste. Top it with marshmallows or whipped cream and chocolate chips (right). Done! Classy, frothy hot chocolate with a divine, rich flavor.
If you want pre-melted gelato at your beck and call (pour steamed milk on frozen gelato and you get "lukewarm chocolate"), keep some in your fridge in a sealable tupperware container, and use it within two days.
Today (January 26th) is Australia Day and one way that some of our friends down in summery Australia are celebrating is with Vegemite gelato.
The combination sounds slightly horrifying to anyone who doesn't already love Vegemite, the salty brewers' yeast paste that, like Marmite, is popular on toast in many parts of the world, but for those who enjoy its flavor, the combination is proving to be a popular seller for its creator. Gherardo Deflorian is from Italy and has a gelato shop, Gelateria Cremona, in Brisbane. Not a fan of Vegemite himself, he thought that the flavor would be unique, a little controversial and a bit more interesting than the same old flavors that everyone uses. He had to have his customers taste the gelato in progress, as he just couldn't stomach the concoction himself, but it has been met with positive feedback from gelato (and Vegemite) fans who say that "it reminds them of when they were little and they had Vegemite on toast with butter."
There are a lot of different types of foodies, from those who love to cook at home to those who eat out exclusively, those who relish a great selection of seasonal veggies and those to whom meat is the most important part of a meal. No matter what types of food they fancy, there is going to be something out there, something extraordinary, that will make your favorite foodie's mouth water with anticipation. It could very well be one of the items on our list here. These are top of the line gifts, so some are quite expensive, but each and every one will be well-appreciated.
You can't go wrong with a good balsamic vinegar. It makes a wonderful addition to salads, as well as to sauces and marinades for all kinds of meat and vegetables. If you get a really good one, aged 25-50 years, the flavor will be rich and strong to the point where you might only need a drop or two to finish of a main dish or dessert. Aceto balsamico di Modena and balsamico di Reggio Emilia are the best types you can get, and they'll cost quite a bit more than the average grocery store brand, but are well worth it. Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena - 25 Years, $150.
Personally, I can't get enough of the salty-sweet pleasure that comes from eating Sea Salt Caramels and, with the exception of a handful of people who don't seem to like caramel in any form, they're popular with everyone who tries them. So, when Faith, a commenter, mentioned that there was a shop that sold salty caramel ice cream, it sounded like a tip that was worth checking out. Jeni's Fresh Ice Creams does indeed carry Salty Caramel Ice Cream as one of their signature flavors, but their other flavors sound equally as impressive. They include:
Gravel Road - salty caramel with chopped smoked almonds added
Honey Vanilla Bean - simple and delicate, with Ohio honey and Madagascar vanilla
Queen City Cayenne - milk chocolate "Cincinnati style" ice cream with cayenne and cinnamon
Thai Chili - Krema peanut butter with toasted coconut, cayenne and coconut milk
Black Coffee - cream steeped with just-roasted coffee (no water). "It tastes like coffee smells."
There are also a number of limited-time seasonal creations at Jeni's, including Lemon Yogurt and Fresh Cranberry Sauce, Farmer's Market Apple Cider Sorbet, Butternut Squash with Pecan Pralines, Goat's Cheese with Figs and Port and Toasted Brioche with Butter and Jam (yes, they're all ice creams). Jeni's has two locations in Columbus, Ohio and you can order all of their flavors online.
Capogiro Gelato is a small artisanal gelateria based in Philadelphia. The family-run business works on a very small scale, producing gelato in batches of just 1-3 gallons using almost entirely locally sourced ingredients. Their milk comes from grass-fed, hormone free cows and the produce they use is hand picked, varying from season to season and delivered directly from farms and by growers. This seasonality means that the gelateria has more than 250 different flavors in its repertoire, all produced with the same devotion to high-quality that is applied when sourcing ingredients.
The attention to detail is well worth it. Capogiro Gelato makes some of the best that I can remember tasting.
A new magazine dedicated to chocolate, Chocolate Zoom, has put out a list of the top five ice cream shops in New York City - something that New Yorkers might be interested in, given the fact that this has been quite a hot summer there. Not that we need an excuse to eat good ice cream, but when it's hot sometimes you need the extra incentive of knowing that you're going for the best, rather than just setting for whatever frozen novelties are offered at the corner market.
If you're not down at the boardwalk, it could be a little bit harder to find frozen custard. Though the rich, ice cream-like treat is very popular in some parts of the country, other stands are few and far between. There is a resource available to frozen custard lovers: the CustardList. This website not only has the locations for various custard stands around the country, but maintains a record of what daily flavors are offered at many locations! You can even get this information while you are out driving to the stand, since they have a setup that allows you to access the database of current flavors via a web-enabled cell phone.
To make your search for a stand easier, you can narrow the field by searching by state. Twenty different states have custard stands listed at the moment, and if you know of one that isn't listed, you can submit it to be added.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're going to make ice cream at home, it is worth it to get an ice cream maker. In fact, it is necessary to get an ice cream maker because it ensures that you will always get the optimal results from your frozen desserts. There are a wide range of ice cream makers to choose from, but there will definitely be at least one that fits your kitchen and your budget. After a batch or three of homemade ice cream, every single one will pay for itself in taste alone.
Ice Cream Ball - play with it and make ice cream. It's a great way to give your kids something to keep them occupied while they wait for the ice cream to be ready. $29
Cuisinart 1.5-qt. Yogurt, Ice Cream and Sorbet Maker - a great, easy-to-use all-purpose machine that can handle most family-sized jobs. Keep the extra freezer bowl in the freezer at all times so you're ready to go. Recommended by me (I own this model, pictured, and love it) and America's Test Kitchen. $49.95
Ice cream sandwiches are not difficult to make. You only really need cookies and ice cream - preferably in complimentary flavors. But when it's really hot, you lose your motivation to do even simple things, like going to the store. Whether you're doing it out of convenience to treat yourself or as a gift to a loved one (perhaps one who is experiencing heat-related black-outs in parts of California), you can buy ice cream sandwiches online from Ciao Bella Gelato. Ciao Bella is known for their outstanding quality and flavors, and their Ottimo Gelato Sandwiches pair the gelato with perfectly matched Eleni's Cookies. The sandwiches are shipped overnight via FedEx in a dry-ice filled insulated box and are $54.95 for 9 sandwich cookies in assorted flavors, which include the Chocolate Ottimo (Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Chocolate Gelato), the Espresso Ottimo (Chocolate Neat Chunk Cookies with Espresso Gelato) and the Lemon Ottimo (Lemon Poppy Cookies with Lemon Gelato).
After much debate about the sorbet vs. ice cream issue in a post earlier this week, we can conclude that sorbets, by definition, do not contain any milk products. We also know the different fat contents that make the difference between low fat and regular ice creams. But what of other ice cream terms? Here are a couple of handy definitions that should help clear things up:
Sorbet - does not contains dairy; always very light in flavor
Sherbet - almost always has a fruit component, but also must contain dairy to produce a dessert that is lighter than ice cream, but richer than sorbet
Frozen yogurt - contains dairy that has been cultured (though most do not contain active cultures), and is churned to resemble soft ice cream, with a smooth, rich texture.
Ice milk - just like an ice cream, but made with milk rather than cream; a little used term for strict constructionists of the word "ice cream," since most home chefs would say ice cream anyway
Ice cream - must have at least 10% milkfat (or 8% if there is a mix-in) by volume (if sold commercially); may or may not contain eggs
Frozen custard (also called French ice cream) - ice cream that is made with at least 1.4% egg yolks, giving it a richer texture than ordinary ice cream.
Gelato - ice cream with a mixture of milk and sometimes cream in the base, often including eggs. It is churned less than regular ice cream and has less air in the final product, which gives it a dense texture.
At Boing Boing, there was a post that was too odd not to pass along. One of their readers sent them a photo they snapped of viagra gelato.
Before you get too excited, it's not really made with viagra. The gelato is really flavored with limoncello, which is a light, lemon-flavored liquor, and dyed blue. It is sold at the Amato Gelato Cafe or in Vancouver, BC, so if you're in the area and are looking for something novel, head over and give it a try. At the very least, you'll probably be able to give your friends a little scare. And if you prefer something a little less blue, their other flavors range from green tea to hazelnut.
It's early June, and the mercury in Virginia has started to climb. But that's alright. Hot weather gives me an excuse to indulge in my favorite summertime treat: frozen Italian desserts. I'm not talking about the Italian Ice that comes in a waxed cup in your grocery's freezer. I'm talking about the artisanal home-made treats that you can only buy at your local transplant gelateria.
From gelato to granita to the rare semifreddo, believe me, I have my loyalties.
Gelato: Made from milk and sugar, combined with other flavorings. The ingredients are super-cooled while stirring to break up ice crystals. Gelato generally has less than 35% air, which results in a dense and extremely flavorful product.
At New York City's 
Today (January 26th) is 
There are a lot of 
Personally, I can't get enough of the salty-sweet pleasure that comes from eating 
A new magazine dedicated to chocolate, 
If you're not down 
I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you're going to make ice cream at home, it is worth it to get an ice cream maker. In fact, it is necessary to get an ice cream maker because it ensures that you will always get the optimal results from your frozen desserts. There are a wide range of ice cream makers to choose from, but there will definitely be at least one that fits your kitchen and your budget. After a batch or three of homemade ice cream, every single one will pay for itself in taste alone. 
After much debate about the sorbet vs. ice cream issue 
It's early June, and the mercury in Virginia has started to climb. But that's alright. Hot weather gives me an excuse to indulge in my favorite summertime treat: frozen Italian desserts. I'm not talking about the Italian Ice that comes in a waxed cup in your grocery's freezer. I'm talking about the artisanal home-made treats that you can only buy at your local transplant gelateria.
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