Am I dense? Or is it this recipe?

I hate to come back to this blog on a negative note, but with two kids under three, I don't make a lot of ice cream anymore.

When I do make ice cream, I want it to work.

Twice, I have used chocolate ice cream recipes from Scoop: 125 Specialty Ice Creams from the Nation's Best Creameries and been super frustrated. The ice creams tasted great when I made the base, but they were so darn thick they just spun and spun in the ice cream maker, not getting cold, just attaching to the dasher.

Is it me? Am I doing something wrong? I know I did do one thing wrong this time but I can't imagine it would have been the result of my base refrigerating into one gelatinous blob. My mistake (and yes, I know the saying ab out blaming one's tools, but I also know as a graphic designer, I think they made a poor design mistake...) was that I missed adding the heavy cream at the beginning. Why? Because when they list the first step, they try to be all fancy with their design and bold the first couple of words and first ingredient. It pulls that first ingredient out of the list of other ingredients and combines it with the action...at least it does for me.

I have attached a screen shot from the Amazon preview of one of their other recipes for you to see what I am talking about.

See, don't you miss the cream? Maybe it's me. But to me the design just doesn't work in that way.

But I digress because I did add the cream, albeit later, but that shouldn't make much of a difference because my dear favorite ice cream authors in The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, And More add the heavy cream at the end all the time and they never have gelatinous bases!

The first time I made a chocolate recipe from this book, I looked at the base and I thought it was just too dense. I have a note in the book that I added an extra half cup of both whole milk and heavy cream and it worked out just fine.

However, this time, I thought to myself that maybe it would work, maybe I should give it the benefit of the doubt. Nope. I even tried stopping the churning a couple of times to push the mess back down with a spoon. And you know what happened? The ice cream froze to the side (finally) but ended up freezing too fast that the dasher got stuck and wouldn't turn anymore.

I want to love this book. The concept is great. I just can't see how these recipes made it into the book. Did someone not test them? Did someone leave out some liquid in the typesetting of the book?

Again, maybe it's me. I have taken quite a hiatus but I would like to think ice cream churning is like riding a bike.

I'm interested to see if anyone else feels this way about the book.

And I am sorry, Jackie, your present is to come because I just don't want to give you a solid block of frozen chocolate. In the meantime, you can tell me what your favorite flavor is.

It's all about the Scoop

As Mitch Cohen, holder of the Guiness World Record for scooping the most ice cream in one minute, says..."The most difficult part about eating ice cream is getting it out of the container." He's got that right!

Most tips you'll read says to let your ice cream sit for 5-10 minutes before serving for ease of scoop and best flavor but seriously who can wait that long. So it really does come down to what tools you use to get the ice cream out of the tub. Mitch swears by The Original Zeroll Ice Cream Scoop. that's made of aluminum alloy and has a heat-conductive liquid inside that warms up from your hand and just glides through the hardest ice cream ever. What is really neat about this scoop, besides the liquid inside, is that it also comes in a variety of sizes, from 1-4 oz portions and the end cap is color coded according to its size. So you can have a kiddy cone version for your little ones and one for the adults. It'll drop you about $15-$20 and from the sounds of it is made like a tank so it'll last. One reader on Amazon says, "This ice cream scoop is really amazing. You'll feel like you're at an ice cream parlor, scooping your own nice, perfect scoop from that vat of ice cream." Now what's better than that!

Interesting thing is before I even read about what the Zeroll scoop was all about I was going to say my top pick for an ice cream scooper is Pampered Chef's Ice Cream Dipper, which come to find out is essentially the same thing. Has the same heat-conductive liquid in the middle and it seriously is a godsend. I swear by this scoop. It does have one major downfall, as does the Zeroll scoop...you CANNOT PUT IN THE DISHWASHER. I think I need to put a sign up in my kitchen for this because my husband has ruined two scoops in the past 6 months on me and I have a new one on order. Let's see how this one lasts...any bets?!

1 can gets ya 1 scoop for 1 buck @ Ben & Jerrys...Tues, 3/24

Sort of last minute but if you have a Ben & Jerry's nearby swing on in Tuesday, March 24th and donate one (or more is accepted of course) non-perishable food item and receive a scoop for $1! What's better than that, getting a scoop for a buck and doing good for others.

All donations will be supplied to your community's local food bank.

It's Free (or Cheap) Ice Cream Week!

It's that time of year again...back in 1979, to celebrate their first anniversary, one Vermont ice cream company decided to have a free cone day. As you know, it's all about keeping up with the Joneses. Lucky for us, two other companies followed suit and this week, starting Tuesday, you can hop from shop to shop and get your fill of ice cream!

Tuesday it's free cone day at Ben and Jerry's Scoop Shops! Stop by, but be prepared to stand in line, because this freebie always draws mad crowds.

Wednesday, search under your couch cushions for loose change. If you find 31¢, you're in luck...take your 31¢ and head over to participating Baskin-Robbins between 5 and 10pm to take your pick of their 31 flavors...a scoop is only gonna cost you one quarter, one nickel, and one penny (Or three dimes, and a penny. Or thirty one pennies. You get my drift.)

Thursday, head over to Carvel after work for some caffeine and cream. Carvel is offering a free arctic blender or blended coffee.

Friday, no free ice cream, but buck up. There's only one day until the weekend.