Oh, ice cream. This past week I was home, making ice cream and playing Word Realms (beta!). I was supposed to get so much done and I did. I made 18 ice creams, sorbets, frozen yoghurts and granitas. And then on one of the hottest days of the week, people gathered and ate. It was super hot, so cold ice cream was more appreciated than ever!
Now, I operate fairly well on deadline, but more than 2 deadlines and my brain goes explody. I had ice cream and two knitting projects, so really the only thing that happened was ice cream.
My flavors this year included:
Gin and tonic granita
Whoopie pie ice cream
Fleur de lait ice cream
Mimosa sorbet
Basil ice cream
Mango lassi kulfi frozen yoghurt
French toast ice cream
Apple crisp sorbet (bars)1
Eggs Benedict ice cream
Taro sorbet
Rice gelato ice cream
Strawberry sorbet with balsamic pearls
Pop rocks ice cream
Salted caramel ice cream1
Bittersweet chocolate sorbet
Milk chocolate ice cream1
Raita frozen yoghurt
Roasted peach pie ice cream
While most people had favorites, I think the losers were pretty obvious. The taro sorbet needed to be more like an ice cream with a coconut base. The rice gelato was delicious, but needed more time to soften. The apple crisp sorbet was also pretty hard, but we cut it with a knife and ate it like a bar cookie (would have benefited from a crust).
The winners were a little harder to pin down, because there were a few more choices. The strawberry sorbet was a joy to scoop and the balsamic pearls were a beautiful visual touch. The two ice creams from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream for the Home Cook (my newest cookbook thanks to my husband) were also easy to scoop and very tasty despite the oddity to me in the method2. The dark chocolate sorbet was really popular amongst the chocoholics, and my husband's favorite was whoopie pie.
Mine? My favorites were the raita frozen yoghurt and pop rocks. The pop rocks ice cream was the orange popsicle ice cream from the Perfect Scoop with chocolate covered pop rocks. My nephew was so upset that he didn't just have pop rocks to eat. I probably am a bad person for finding it funny, but it was such a silly thing to be upset over that I thought it was hilarious.
Because of the heat, people faded a lot faster. That meant some of the ice creams didn't come back for a second time. So, the granita and the peach pie are gone. There are so many ice creams left, that I might not need to make ice cream for months!
Other than leftover ice cream the best thing was getting to see so many people. There were people who made it who didn't get to come last year, so it was great to see people that I don't normally get to spend time with!
Ice cream photos (slideshow in Flickr, some are from last year because I'm too lazy to make another set)
1These ice creams were from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream for the Home Cook.
2Jeni's method for most ice creams involves heating milk and cream or other dairy until boiling. After it has boiled for a while you add a slurry with cornstarch (or tapioca starch, which I used) and boil till it thickens. Then you add it to cream cheese. All of those ingredients, including corn syrup, are designed to bind up the water, so the ice cream won't get icy. It works, and it tastes mostly the same but not as rich as a custard based ice cream. However, it meant I didn't go through more than 2 dozen eggs, so it was awesome.