Pamper Yourself with Ice Cream Treats Under $6.00

Holidays stressing you out? I found some sweet treats on Etsy to calm for this holiday season. It might be a little late to order as a holiday gift (but contact the sellers to be sure) but are a perfect new year treat!

Since we are all busy, I am keeping the list short, but as always, sweet.

I was first inspired to write this post when I saw a listing for CrazyKBathandBody's Waffle Bowl Ice Cream Goats Milk Soap, but just visiting her site for the link, I also see she makes an Ice Cream Sandwich soap and some super cute Hostess Cupcake looking soaps (which is so real looking it seems that the seller's mom almost ate it!) Funny, I said these would be great pampering products, but I don't know if I could actually use these beauties, as they are so sculptural. At under six dollars and over three hundred scents to choose from, these soaps are a steal!

Next up we have something perhaps only a pregnant lady could love -- but boy would she love it! Elladean sells, get this, Pickles and Ice Cream Vegan Soothing Lip Conditioner for Moms to Be. I don't know if I could actually buy and wear this (but then again, I am not pregnant) but I am so amused by her darling illustrations and illustrative photos and the quirky text on the packaging (visit the listing to see that!) that it seems worth the $3.25 to try it out...Has anyone ever tried pickles and ice cream? Or pickle ice cream? Please do write us and tell us your opinions.

And last but not least, we have perfect Ice Cream Cone Handmade Soap by SoapStore. SoapStore's shop is totally worth checking out, as her food soaps are so realistic looking. At $4.50, these are so on the list of prizes for next year's ice cream party -- my only trouble? -- picking among the many colors and flavors! My one sweet wish -- not SoapStore's fault -- is that shipping didn't have to be so high.

Have a clean and sweet holiday!

My Little Secret: Ice Cream Cookbooks Galore!

I love books. I love ice cream. I love mail and packages. I don't really love soy. I don't love spending money. So, I traded one book for another.

I guess this isn't totally about ice cream making, but it is, kind of. Just the other day I got a couple of new-used ice cream books in the mail. I got a like-new copy of Ice Cream: The Perfect Weekend Treat by Susanna Tee, and better yet, a little out-of-print gem of a book called The Joy of Ice Cream by Matthew Klein.

I just wanted to write a little post about the virtues of searching places other than your internet superstore or megabook store (though those can be good too!) for those books you want to add to your collection...I got one of my favorite books at the library book sale, and another one on Paperback Swap.

I just did a search at Paperback Swap for Ice Cream in the Cookbook category, and I found a number of books here. Don't worry, I didn't take them all! Sometimes, though, my favorite part isn't gettnig them immediately, but putting it on my wishlist until it becomes available, and then "Poof!," all of a sudden, a new ice cream book arrives at my door.

Of course, the popular ones are hard to come by but if you wait enough, you just might be surprised -- and of course, sometimes the unpopular ones are better than expected...

Anyway, this post is a little different from previous posts, but I guess I was a bit excited by my new finds!

City of Brotherly Love...

I know in past posts I have referred to "Philadelphia Style Ice Cream" which I was under the impression was ice cream made without a custard (egg) base.

A few weekends ago, I was down in Philadelphia for the first time, and had Bassett's famous ice cream at Reading Terminal Market. Not usually a fan of eggless ice cream as I think it tastes like frozen whipped cream, I was surprised by the lack of whipped cream taste in the mint chocolate chip I had ordered. When I got back to Boston, I wrote to Bassett's to confirm that this really was "Philadelphia Style" as I knew it and got this reply:

Thank you for your inquiry. Actually, what makes the vanilla "Philadelphia-style" is the vanilla bean specks in the ice cream, so both our vanilla and French vanilla (made with egg yolks) are "Philadelphia-style" ice creams. If you are unsure about a flavor, you can check out our ingredients on the Flavors page of our web site--Bassetts Ice Cream - Since 1861.

Hm. This is not what I thought. In fact, I had never heard of anything of the sort. I checked out the ingredient list [Cream, Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoa Butter, Soy Lecithin,Vanilla), Nonfat Milk, Green Coloring (F. D. & C. Yellow No. 5, F. D. & C. Green No. 3), Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Carrageenan, Soy Lecithin, Oil of Peppermint] there were no eggs to speak of, but I still felt shakey on the definition of "Philadelphia Style" I had always known.

I decided to write to Turkey Hill, makers of my favorite brand of commercially made ice cream, who happen to be located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania (they should know something about Philadelphia AND ice cream, right?) Unbeknownst to me, Turkey Hill has their own "Philadelphia Style" ice cream so their answer wasn't too helpful either:

This is our All Natural line of ice cream. This ice cream is made with cream, milk, sugar and all natural flavors. Philadelphia Style is just the name that was chosen for this line.

Ok, ok, but Turkey Hill does have a blog with an ice cream expert named Ernie, so I decided to check there. Here's a snippet of the answer on the blog:

Traditionally, Philadelphia style ice creams are milk and cream-based mixtures which contain no eggs. This means the ice cream is less rich, but it has a more intense flavor. The style is also known for using pure, natural ingredients and some Philadelphia Style ice cream mixtures are also cooked before they are frozen. Of course, all of this is in contrast to “French Style” ice cream which uses eggs and is sometimes also referred to as a custard.

Well, at least Ernie is on my side! Thanks, Ernie!

I began to think about where I got this initial impression, and it turns out that our favorite ice cream author Bruce Weinstein distinguishes eggless ice cream as "Philadelphia Style". On the first page of his Introduction in The Ultimate Ice Cream Book, Weinstein writes "There are two basic styles of ice cream in this book: custard style ice cream (some times called "frozen custard," "French ice cream," or "gelato"), which is made with eggs; and Philadelphia-style ice cream, which is made without eggs." Well there it is folks. Weinstein's book being a favorite, and somewhat of a bible, and in fact only the second ice cream book purchase, I learned early on this definition of "Philadelphia Style."

However, only one of my ten other ice cream books actually talked of "Philadelphia Style." In Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop, Gail Damerow (another one of my ice cream author heros) writes in her glossary:

Philadelphia ice cream--ice cream containing only cream, sugar and flavoring; also, vanilla ice cream flavored with visible vanilla seeds or crushed vanilla pods.

Whew. So I am still not quite sure of the exact definition. Damerow seems to kind of combine both Weinstein and Turkey Hill's definition with that of Bassett's. This makes me a little reassured but also a little weary, since Bassett's so directly told me their "Philadelphia Style" has egg yolks and I am under the impression that Bassett's is the defining ice cream of Philadelphia.

I'm interested in your opinion. What defines "Philadelphia Style" to you? Would especially love to hear from you Philadelphian's!

On another note, as I was looking for some specific ice cream images, I came across this beautiful water color on PaperandThreads Blog that I just had to share. Lovely work! There is just something so wonderful in its simplicity, as in much of this artist's work. I hope he/she doesn't mind my sharing!

Counterfeit Ice Cream

So I have been drawing lot of sweets lately and I really wanted to draw ice cream. My couple of attempts at drawing ice cream bars were frustrating and quite frankly the images were pretty boring. (There is very little texture to ice cream bars and pudding pops.) What I wanted was the fantastic airy texture of a scoop of ice cream.

I have been looking online for models (kind of pricey) and am hoping Jenni B of Jenni B Originals will take me up on her suggestion for soft serve fake food, but in the meantime, it finally hit me! I remember being a kid and watching a special on photo secrets. The two that stuck with me? Duct taping and saran wrapping female models (you gotta love modeling) and making fake ice cream. Since I had no models to duct tape, I realized my future was in fake ice cream. I searched online and finally found some good recipes for fake ice cream...the one I used is basically a very very dense frosting, but the results are pretty good. Here's the thing that kind of makes me wonder though -- the recipes for fake ice cream came from the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture (not the first place I would look for something like this)...

Below is the recipe (from the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture site) that I found made some great looking (and not horrible tasting -- I had to test!) fake ice cream:

Artificial Hard-pack Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt
May be doubled. (I actually ended up halving it so I wouldn't have to use all of our powdered sugar. I got about 2 cups, but it was harder to scoop from such a small amount.)

1/3 to 1/2 cup light (Karo) corn syrup
1/3 to 1/2 cup white solid shortening (Crisco)
1 lb. (453 g) powdered sugar

In standing mixer (Kitchen Aid) or food processor, blend corn syrup and shortening until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until stiff dough forms (this is basically a stiff frosting). Knead in remaining sugar (as needed to reach desired consistency) on a cleansurface. Store in heavy resealable plastic bag; keeps well in refrigerator. Freeze for longer storage.

You can go here for my drawing of the fake ice cream. As it was my first time making fake ice cream, it was also my first time drawing fake ice cream, so I am not too practiced...