Enjoy the Last Day of National Ice Cream Month

Today is the last day of National Ice Cream Month -- we've enjoyed it thoroughly but we are ready to take a break from daily posts for a bit -- though we'll still post often. This month always reminds us of how many awesome ice cream related things there are to post about. So we'll keep 'em coming and please feel free to send us anything you think is blog-worthy as well!

It was a big month, full of contests, recipes, events, and even our 300th post! (We got some great feedback which I'll share soon, as well as picked the winners from our drawing, but I just realized I can't post the winners names because I only have their email addresses -- but congrats to our winners!)

I am keeping this short because today is a special day for me...my golden birthday...thirty-one on the thirty-first. While my friend Karla (who first told me about "golden birthdays") wanted to celebrate her golden birthday by being on Deal or No Deal, I am off to celebrate in a simpler way -- with cake and ice cream -- perfection!

Thanks to Anisha Palmer for the yummy photo above.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Instructables Homemade Magic Shell

Marsha recently sent over a recipe from Instuctables on how to make a homemade "Magic Shell" for ice cream by scoochmaroo (who also has some more pretty cool Instructables, so check them out!) Since I am a huge fan of Dairy Queen's cherry dip cone, I am going to have to figure out how to make this in cherry! For now though, I'll settle for the chocolate!

As a bonus, today only, Deals.Woot has a Cuisinart soft serve machine on sale for $39.99 + $5.00 shipping. (Thanks to Marsha yet again for this tip!). If you miss the deal no worries, you can get the soft serve machine here. With the machine, a box of wafer cones, and the Instructable, you can have a Dairy Queen chocolate dip right in your kitchen!

Ooooh, this might also be an interesting variation instead if the whipped cream frosting on yesterday's cake!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake

I made an ice cream cake this week. It was only the second one I have ever made, so I was pretty excited with how it came out.

Basically, I layered the all the ingredients (except for the whipped frosting, sprinkles, and peanut butter cups) in a spring form pan, froze it, then when completely frozen, released it, and frosted and decorated it.

1.  I crumbled a box of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer Cookies in the food processor and added a half a stick of butter to help them stick. I used half of this crumble (or maybe a little more) as the bottom layer. In retrospect, next time I probably would use Oreos in place of the Wafer Cookies , because the cream would help it stick better. 
2. Next, I piled on a layer of ice cream. I used Jacques Torres Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe (it's a little hidden in the entire recipe listed, but well worth it.) While not usually a honey fan, I love the flavor that the touch of honey adds to it. Instead of vanilla bean, I used 2 tablespoons of vanilla bean paste. Unfortunately, I used to be able to get this at Trader Joe's for $4.99 a bottle, but as with everything I love from Trader Joes, they stopped carrying it. It's best to use the ice cream right out of the ice cream maker, so have the crust ready to go.
3. Next, the remainder of the cookie crumble.
4. I then added peanut butter sauce. My friend and I have been trying to reproduce Friendly's sauce. I found a recipe online here, but as I was making it, I thought it wasn't peanut buttery enough, and I added more. I shouldn't have. I think if I had left it as is, it would have been perfect. Thanks Rachelle at the Saucy Little Dish! Spreading was impossible, so I more dropped it on as dollops. I froze this layer while I made the next layer. 
5. I then added a layer of peanut butter ice cream straight out of the ice cream maker. This recipe was from The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book: Savory and Sweet, Breakfast to Dessert, Hundereds of Ways to Use America's Favorite Spread by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. I love these guys. You can also use the recipe from their The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More (my bible in ice cream making) but the one in The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book is more peanut butter, which is what the cake recipients liked! Freeze the cake after this step until frozen solid.
6. I then released the cake from the spring form, and frosted it. Frosting was made up of two cups of whipping cream whipped with 1/4 cup cocoa powder and a 1/4 cup granulated sugar until stiff peaks formed.
7. I decorated the cake with six Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and chocolate sprinkles, but really, you could do as you please!

Freeze again until the whipped topping is frozen and enjoy!

My apologies for the coloring on both photos. My phone makes them a little too yellow and the quality isn't great, we were impatient to try the cake (which, I forgot to add, was AMAZING, if I do say so myself -- but the guests enjoyed it too), and I am not great at color adjustment!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Part One - The Ice Cream Mega Ball Experiment

I first have to thank my awesome co-blogger for this fun gift, Ice Cream Revolution's Mega Ice Cream Ball. I swear every time I see this in a store I think about how fun it would be but its one of those things you just wouldn't buy for yourself so when Bethany surprised me on my birthday with this I was so excited! Basically its this ball that you add cream, sugar, and flavoring in the middle. Then add rock salt and ice in the freezing compartment and shake, roll, throw, rotate and do whatever you have to in order to self churn the ingredients to make soft serve ice cream on the spot. No electric, no eggs...just fun!


 
So why the two parts? Well basically because I can't say I took part in the first attempt at making ice cream with the ball so when I go camping next weekend I hope to bring you Part Two of my own personal experience of making ice cream in the woods.

So yesterday while at work I received a text from my summer sitter asking if it was okay to use that "ball thing" to make ice cream with the kids. Absolutely! It's fun for everyone. I was truly bummed that I couldn't be the first to test it out but I was excited to get home to see how it went. So I anxiously ran home and the first thing I asked was how'd it go? Hmmm....she said she vigorously shaked the thing for the 15 minutes it called for and when she opened it it had slightly frozen on the edges so she closed it and kept at it. One suggestion I had after checking out the Mega Ball's web site was to go on the trampline with it. It was a sure way to keep it rolling and shaking. So they kept rolling and shaking and when she went to open it back up she had closed it so tight they couldn't get it back open. My poor daugheter was so excited to try the vanilla ice cream they made so I went in and tried, and tried, and tried, and tried to get it open. Ugh..I now had to wait 3 hours for the husband to come home. And I was sooooo curious I went back in the freezer and tried more than once during those few hours as I was determined to see what was inside asap. No luck!

So finally....hours later its open and my husband comes in with a spoon and says "Now this is the kind of ice cream I like! It's icy and just reminds me of ice cream from when I was a kid (those years before premium ice cream was discovered by Sir Ben & Jerry)!" It is hard to truly give my opinion as we tried it after hours of the ball being in my freezer and the reality is you are supposed to eat it 20 minutes after shaking it yourself to get it to freeze. It should be a soft serve consistency but was slightly hardened when we got to it so I will wait to give you my true review when I can experience it as it should be.

I can't tell you how excited I am to be able to make this while camping. The kids are going to love it as will the adults I am sure. Stay tuned for Part Two...The Mega Ball goes Camping.

Chicago's Luxury Ice Cream Festival - July 30/31

Okay so we're cutting it close on this event but if you happen to be in the Chicago area this weekend you must check this out. It's on Friday and Saturday July 30 & 31st from 7-10pm. We at Scoopalicious rave about our own hometown all you can eat festival, Scooper Bowl, but it looks like Chicago is showing us some serious competition with their Luxury Ice Cream Festival. Now the two festivals definitely have a different take...main stream brands on a city plaza with lots of kids, music and fun and the other is artisan flavors in a chic museum, The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, under the stars with beer and wine. Each I love for different reasons. Who doesn't love watching kids eat as many scoops as they want and being able to do the same with fun music and tourists buzzing all around. But I do have to say a night out in a cool museum with cocktails and micro-creamery ice cream sounds pretty darn good too. 

Tickets are $25 for 25 tasting stations of various ice cream, gelato, chocolatiers, pastry chefs, and more. For a night out that's not too shabby especially when there was also a grilling section on a rooftop terrace of a Nature Museum with beer and wine tastings too!


I am not all familiar with these chefs but you might be if you are from that area....go check out Gino Bahena, Michelle Garcia, Christine McCabe's cool creations, plus artisan ice cream from Black Dog Gelato, Nice Cream, Vosges haut Chocolate, Homer's, Oberweis, Sassy Cow Creamery and many more! 


We'd love to hear more about this. If you happen to end up here this Friday or Saturday please drop us a line and share your experience.


[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

No Ice Cream Maker? No Worries With Eagle Brand Condensed Milk...an AWESOME prize pack awaits!

We often write about making ice cream with an ice cream maker, mostly because we don't know how to do it any other way. Ok, well, there is the plastic bag method and a few others, but recently we got an email from the folks at Eagle Brand Condensed Milk with a great offer for both us and for our readers (yes, coming to that) and some great ideas for how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker! How exciting!

Honestly, I don't know why I didn't think of it, because when I used their condensed milk to make that lemonade pie, it was very ice cream-y and I didn't even need to use my ice cream maker.

So our friends over at Eagle said they wanted to send us an ice cream kit (um, ok!), try out making some ice cream with their condensed milk, ask our readers to try making some with the condensed milk, and then finally, ask our readers to submit their recipes so they too can win one of two ice cream kits.

So to start, let's keep our eye on the prize...you can win exactly what we got in the mail:

• Three cans of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (one each of regular, low fat, and non-fat)
• An awesome insulated picnic basket
• A Zak! Designs Insulated Ice Cream Container
• An ice cream scoop
• An ice cream pint cozie
• Assorted Smuckers toppings
• Frozen pop molds
• A Walmart gift card to get the supplies you need to make more ice cream

How do you win? Make ice cream! I mean, best contest ever, right? You have to make the sweetest treat in order to win another sweet treat.

Here are the guidelines...

1. Go to Eagle Brand and look over the ice cream recipes to use as inspiration. Get inspired and make up (and test) your own recipe! You can make straight up ice cream or an ice cream dessert, but it MUST use Eagle Brand Condensed Milk. It's preferred that you make this without an ice cream maker so we can appeal to the masses, but you can use your ice cream maker if you must.
2. Blog about your recipe and be sure to include a picture of the finished product! Send us the link to your recipe. If you don't have a blog, send us a write up and picture and we'll get your recipe up for our readers to see.
3. Enter by Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 11:59PM EST
4. We'll have a readers vote the following week and the top two winners will win the prize pack from Eagle.
5. PLEASE NOTE: We can only ship prizes within the US due to high shipping costs and coupon restrictions! If you fill out the survey and DO win but do not live in the US, you can opt to have your prize mailed to someone in the states. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience! 

We tried it out and it is definitely pretty cool that you can make ice cream without an ice cream maker. 

Bethany's Orange Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 can Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (I used the low fat, and yes, my can got a little crushed in the mail -- but it still worked just fine!)
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 can of frozen orange juice concentrate
• 1 teaspoon orange extract

Directions: 

1. Whip heavy cream and sugar until stiff peaks form
2. Mix condensed milk, orange extract, and orange juice in a separate bowl
3. Fold whipped cream into the condensed milk mixture
4. Freeze for about 5 hours

I just pulled mine out of the freezer and had a small dish (I had to sprinkle the mini chips on top because I forgot I wanted to add the chips, but it was yummy that way too). You can see it at left -- sorry the picture is so dark. 

My ice cream didn't harden as I thought it would (may have been the OJ) but it was quite like soft serve -- very creamy, and kind of like an Orange Julius. Too bad Kevin has to lay off the milk products because he LOVES Orange Julius. Definitely refreshing!

Happy 300th Post to Us!

Can't believe we have hit our three hundred post mark, and during National Ice Cream Month! What could be more exciting?

We've learned a lot over the course of posting, but we want to know what YOU think so we can make this blog even better.

Please follow the link directly below to answer some quick questions.

Scoopalicious Feedback

We'll pick winners for some fun prizes on the last day of National Ice Cream Month 2010, so please respond by July 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.

Prizes will include (but may not be limited to):

• A book of ice cream recipes
• A coupon for a free package of Klondike treats
• Flat ice cream cone notecards designed and printed by Bethany

Note: We can only ship prizes within the US due to high shipping costs and coupon restrictions! If you fill out the survey and DO win but do not live in the US, you can opt to have your prize mailed to someone in the states. Thank you and sorry for the inconvenience!

Photo by Melissa Robison.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Fun Links

When you write an ice cream blog, friends LOVE to send you links, which is just great. But it becomes redundant for me to write a whole blog about them because someone has already done the dirty work...so I have compiled a bunch of them into a list.

Enjoy, and thanks friends!

Daily Candy is keeping us cool with some ice cream posts...Here's one for some super cool ice cream accessories. And here's another from Daily Candy on unique ice cream flavors. (Thanks, Martha!)

Thanks to Adam for this one on Shine from Yahoo...More bizarre flavors.

Marsha sent along this blog post on BoingBoing for some easy, healthy "cream." Lactose intolerant? No worries, this actually has no milk products.

And finally, yet another Adam (founder of the fabulous My World) sent this link. I think I need to go there and yes, this might need a longer post in the future.

Thanks all!

Thanks to Anisha Palmer for the awesome photo above.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Happy National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

For those of you who love a good old fashioned plain vanilla scoop...its your day to celebrate and indulge! It always intrigues me when I am waiting in line to order my ice cream and I hear people ordering vanilla. How can you choose plain old boring vanilla when you have the Double Rich Chocolate Chunk Caramel Fudge Swirled Mocha Almond Surpise to choose instead. What makes you want just a scoop of vanilla? Well plain and simple...because its simplicity at its best. It brings back wonderful memories of childhood. It satisfies without it being too much. Funny thing is I am totally in the camp of loving the flavored ice cream with something mixed in but once in awhile I really crave a cone of soft serve vanilla (with chocolate sprinkles of course) and I never regret that decision. It's easy, its good, its refreshing, and its pure.

If you are up for making some of yor own to celebrate National Vanilla Ice Cream Day check out Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe with  a 5 star rating I truly doubt it will disappoint. Interestingly it has Peach Preserves in it...wonder what that does. One reviewer says, "I find it to be perfect. I agree with other reviews that this recipe is a great "base" for other things. Just today I whipped up a batch of Chai Ice cream using these ratios. Full five stars. Every batch of ice cream I could ever want will be based upon this one." I am totally going to check this one out too. I am not usually a fan of bases without eggs but it got rave reviews its worth a shot.

Happy National Vanilla Day!

Dovebar Ice Cream Miniatures

A while back I posted about some treats from Dove. Dove was holding a contest and asked our readers to vote and in turn, we were able to offer some coupons for Dovebar Ice Cream Miniatures. 

I hadn't tried them when I wrote about them, but as I was writing about them, I started craving them. Can you crave something you have yet to try? Well, either way, I wanted them. Next time I was at the store, I bought them. And on the car ride home, I ate them. And I don't want to admit how many I ate. 

Instead, I'll tell you that I put the remaining in the chest freezer downstairs (it's a little less tempting) and I trek down there once in a while when I am having an ice cream/chocolate/sweet craving and take just one (ok, sometimes two) bring it upstairs and indulge in a 70 calorie (or 14o calorie) treat. It's perfect. Guilt free. And no Splenda or Sucralose or whatever-that-is yucky aftertaste which you get in a lot of lo-cal treats. Just a nice, healthy, feed-my-craving, size that happens to work out to 70 calories.

Funny, though Dove has a variety of packages of these treats, the picture above (which our PR friends sent) happens to actually the one I bought. 

The combo is perfect: a smooth vanilla ice cream enrobed in Dove milk chocolate (complete with the little inspirational sayings you usually find INSIDE a Dove chocolate wrapper, but this time on the outside of your mini ice cream wrapper). I know this description is pretty vague, but this is one of those things you really must enjoy for yourself. 

I haven't quite figured out how (or maybe I haven't paused long enough to check) which package holds the chocolate chip filled ones, but either way, the surprise is a nice one when you open the package and find chocolate ribbons dribbled across the top and you know you are going to have some mini chips in the ice cream of that particular bar. 

Anyway, it's 8:53AM as I write this post and I am tempted to go down and grab one from the freezer, but maybe I'll be good and wait at least until 9...

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

The Ultimate Banana Split

I read about this on the Naptime Chef site (though now I can't find her link -- I wonder if she took it down). 

This promotion is right up our alley. I wonder why WE don't get invited to parties like this?! We get left out, but we love our readers so we happily share these cool contests with you. 

From the "Kelly Confidental" site: 

"Create your ultimate banana split. Each day you do, Electrolux will donate $1 to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund¹. Plus, you'll be entered for a chance to win the daily prize, $50 toward sweet summer treats, AND the grand prize - the ultimate kitchen "split" - the new stand-alone refrigerator and freezer from Electrolux²." (please see here for further details)

This is pretty fun and comes with good prizes and a good cause. You can make your sundaes and enter through September 7, 2010. 

I wish I could email my split like you can email your cake, but alas, I just had to take a screen shot to share it with you. I suppose they are aware that ice cream just doesn't mail well. 

Finally, for an additional treat for those who aren't satisfied with licking the screen, Serendipity 3 founder Steven Bruce shares with us some of his favorite split recipes. 

---

In other news, our Dovebar Coupon drawing had ten contactable (is that even a word?) entrants for ten coupons, so everyone was a winner! Congrats to everyone who "played"!

The drawing we held on National Ice Cream Day (best day of the year) was held today and Ivy of Little Ivy Cakes won a coupon for free ice cream. We love Ivy and her blog and her ideas for celebrating National Caviar Day with National Ice Cream Day. You tell us how that is, Ivy!

More drawings to follow. Keep visiting our site and send your friends!


[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Meet Russell, The Ice Cream Geek

A while back, Tina and I told you about how we met up with Russell, the self-proclaimed ice cream geek, and his wife, Kathey, at the 2010 Scooperbowl. As the focus of that post was the Scooperbowl, we didn't focus on Russell, but it's time now that we do.

Tina and I met up with Russell and over the loud music, got to scream about ice cream. It was a bit hard to really talk in depth about it. Later I went to lunch at Wagamama with Russell and Kathey and we were able to chat some more about ice cream and the process.

But for those of you who couldn't join us, you can visit his beautifully designed site.

Broken down into five categories, Russell's site is a goldmine of information.

1. Equipment talks about, well, equipment. Ice cream makers and containers to contain your creations are the topics of discussion for the time being, but we hope our ice cream expert will add more categories. For now though, the ice cream makers post is very thorough and there is a great link for cardboard containers.
2. The General category covers things that don't really have another place to be -- like meeting Tina and I!
3. In How To you can find a great article about transporting ice cream from Texas to Rhode Island!
4. Recipes brings us great recipes, such as one for a Spicy Peach Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream made with chocolate, cayanne, and peaches (wow!) -- with a great story of it's inspiration to boot -- as well as a a great review/contest between multiple chocolate ice creams.
5. Finally, Technical is my favorite category. With posts about stabilizers and butterfat, this geek knows his stuff. Best of all he has a butterfat calculator for ice cream. No, we aren't using this to find out how unhealthy the ice cream is, but instead it's a great resource for figuring out how to obtain the desired consistency to your frozen treats. Russell says it best when describing how butterfat figures into ice cream:
   
   

   If there’s not enough butterfat, the ice cream tends to taste icy and not very smooth—which is fine if you’re making a sherbet or a sorbet, but not great if you’re aiming for your own version of Ben & Jerry’s. On the other hand, if there’s too much butterfat, it starts to taste greasy like lard, and it sticks to the inside of your mouth. Or in other words, it has bad “mouth feel”.

   I've certainly had both the icy ice cream and the "bad mouth feel" type. His write up here tells you what butterfat to aim for for each of your desired types of ice cream. Neither category of "icy" or "bad mouth feel" are on his list, so if you want those, you are on your own!

Russell, you certainly are an ice cream geek -- or perhaps, more appropriately, an ice cream god. Whatever it is you are, keep posting!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Ice Cream Finds on Etsy

Every once in awhile I like to poke around on Etsy and am so amazed by all the incredible talent out there. So in honor of all the great designers making incredible art I wanted to highlight some fun ice cream items I found while trampsing around on this great site.

Cutest rings ever by Jewelori on Etsy

Adorable onesies by Rockentot on Etsy

Raspberry Sorbet Lip Balm by Orangethyme

There's Always Room For Ice Cream Print by Twoforjoypaper

Happy National Ice Cream Day - FREE coupon

Wow I am so torn today. Not only is today National Ice Cream Day but its also National Caviar Day...really throws me for a loop. Ummm...ice cream or caviar? I can happily say this is not a decision that will weigh on me and not even one I will give more than a seconds thought to. Ice cream all the way and lots of it.

Leave a comment by the end of the day today about what kind of ice cream you had or would like to celebrate National Ice Cream day and we'll give the random winner a coupon good for 1 FREE package of Good Humor Ice Cream Products.


Oh and just in case you are near a Perrys in Pennsylvania head on over today because they are celebrating by dishing out FREE cones at participating Perrys stores.

Thanks again President Reagan for giving us National Ice Cream Day. Just another good excuse to indulge!

Happy National Peach Ice Cream Day

Ah Peaches, a fresh taste of summer that is short and sweet so what better way then to celebrate than to make ice cream with them and to declare it a national holiday. Who comes up with these holidays anyways?!

I did try to find out the background of National Peach Ice Cream Day but its all rather elusive so really I have no good answer for you. I did find out about the peach was brought to America in the 16th century (maybe on July 17th?!) by explorers from Spain. Then finally in the 1800s The States started commercially cultivating them into what is today the country's second biggest fruit crop. Never knew we had so many peaches.

So now that this history lesson is done we are happy to share with you a yummy recipe from allrecipes. I am a big fan of this site. I love how its become such a community and I totally rely on reviews for my recipes and for how to make adjustments. Here are a couple I thought would be helpful as you tackle this recipe.

"We have made a similar recipe to this for years and years. It is without a doubt the best ice cream recipe there is..."

"VERY EASY and delicious! i halved the recipe and cut down on the sugar by quite a bit, as suggested by other reviewers. it was the best peach ice cream we've ever eaten!"

"I took a tip from another reviewer and subbed almond extract. I added some freshly ground nutmeg and saved some peach slices to add to the mixture at the very end so that there were some chunks to give it more texture. So good!"


Peach Ice Cream
6 eggs, beaten
3 1/2 cups white sugar
10 fresh peaches, pitted and chopped
4 cups heavy cream
2 cups half-and-half cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

In large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until smooth; puree peaches in blender or food processor and stir 5 cups of puree into egg mixture. Stir in cream, half-and-half, vanilla and salt and mix well.

Pour mixture into freezer canister of ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Recipe: Lemonade Pie

I recently rediscovered a treat I used to love but had completely forgotten about. It's not quite ice cream but it is so much like ice cream I think it's ok to post about during National Ice Cream Month. This post goes out to an old roommate and a dear friend who introduced me to this refreshing summertime treat back when we were roommates almost ten years ago...ladies and gentlemen, lemonade pie...

You need:

• A graham cracker crust -- store bought is fine
• A can of sweetened condensed milk (I like Eagle Brand -- and low fat works fine)
• A can of frozen pink lemonade, thawed
• A 9-oz container of whipped topping, thawed

You need to do:

Mix the lemonade and condensed milk. Fold in the whipped topping. Pour into graham cracker crust. Place pie in freezer until solid.

You are done! Easy, huh?


Gorgeous lemon photo courtesy of nhzs at stock.xchng.


[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

#OMGFreeBenJerrys hits Beantown on July 28th

The countdown is on until the Ben & Jerry's scoop truck hits the Boston streets for 4 weeks handing out as many free samples as possible. This is so fun.....it all starts on July 28th and you can even influence where the truck heads.  Just go on their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter and tell them where you want it to go and maybe, just maybe, you might get lucky. Seriously I am going to go on every day and tell them to come to my work. Keeping my fingers crossed!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

RECIPE - Cinnamon Toast Ice Cream

My recent daily ritual...press snooze 3 times and then get up and make sweet cinnamon toast for my daughter. I know I know...sugar for breakfast makes me a bad mom but its a light sprinkle and it brings back great memories of my own mom making me cinnamon toast. It has become one of her favorite things but what's not to like so when I saw this recipe on Epicurious it totally caught my eye. Plus I too love anything with cinnamon in it. And did you know...when added to food, it inhibits bacterial growth and food spoilage, making it a natural food preservative. Perfect for ice cream...makes the goodness last that much longer!


One reviewer reminds us of the time it takes but also how worth it it is..."First off, the recipe is time consuming... that being said, it is one of my top crowd pleasers. I can only manage to make it a few times a year but everyone who has tried it begs for more! It is amazing how all the qualities of warm buttery toast get infused into the ice cream. truly unique and special."

Enjoy!
(the following is an Epicurious recipe)

2 cups whole milk

2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks

5 slices firm white sandwich bread 

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted

2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon molasses

1 cup heavy cream

Bring milk and cinnamon sticks to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then remove from heat and let steep, covered, 30 minutes.


While milk steeps, put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 300°F.


Cut 3 slices bread into 1/4-inch cubes and transfer to a bowl. Quarter remaining 2 slices and pulse in a food processor to make bread crumbs. Whisk together butter, brown sugar, and ground cinnamon in another bowl. Drizzle 3 tablespoons butter mixture over bread cubes and stir to lightly coat. Spread in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan. Add bread crumbs to remaining butter mixture and stir to evenly coat. Spread crumbs evenly in another shallow baking pan.

Bake bread cubes and crumbs, stirring occasionally and switching position of pans halfway through baking, until golden brown and crisp, about 25 minutes total. Cool in pans on racks, then transfer bread crumbs to a bowl.

Return milk to a boil, then pour over bread crumbs and let stand 10 minutes. Pour milk through a fine-mesh sieve into saucepan, pressing hard on solids, then discarding them.

Whisk together yolks, granulated sugar, molasses, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Return milk mixture to a boil and add half to yolk mixture in a slow stream, whisking until combined well. Add yolk mixture in a slow stream to milk in saucepan, whisking, then cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and thermometer registers 170 to 175°F (do not let boil).

Remove from heat and immediately stir in cream, then pour custard through fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. Quick-chill custard by setting bowl into a larger bowl of ice and cold water and stirring occasionally until cold, about 15 minutes. Freeze custard in ice cream maker until almost firm. Fold bread cubes into ice cream, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours.

Cooks' note: Though the toast is crunchiest the first 2 days after it's made, the ice cream keeps 1 week.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]