Taste Testing: Popsicle/Klondike Products

Are you ready for another "What Husband Did With The Dry Ice?" Here is Photo Essay Number Two. The cool people at Klondike/Popsicle contacted Tina and I asking if we would be willing to test some of their products..."of course," we said!

Keep reading until the end for a chance to test your own ice cream novelties!

The ice cream came on Friday, September 5 in a
HUGE box that was probably 3x2x2 feet.
Clearly Ernie the pup was unphased.

I opened it to get my samples into the freezer and
was I glad that I had. The big cooler that was
holding the ice cream was cracked on the top.

The ice cream seemed still frozen, but
unfortunately for Husband, it looked
like a lot of the dry ice had melted away.

First things first. I pulled out the styrafoam cooler I got from our first sample of ice cream cupcakes and poured the dry ice. No boohooing for Kevin. The smaller cooler was brim to the top with dry ice, which means Kevin ended up with more than he had the first time he played with the dry ice from my ice cream samples.

When Kevin arrived home, what we really needed to do was clean because his parents were coming within hours...as I was folding laundry in the other room, I hear an excited Kevin and walk into the kitchen to see this:

Sink filled with dry ice. Wait...

That smoke/steam/whatever it is
looks pretty cool falling over the counter.

Yes, we need to zoom out. The floor is so covered
in dry ice "smoke" that Kevin has to quickly find Ernie
in the haze and pick him up so he doesn't suffocate.
(Ernie is fine, but probably wondering
why he moved in with us)

Ah, yes, it was all over the house...into the dining
room in this picture (Did I mention the in-laws
were due from Arizona in an hour and
the house clutter still needed to be picked up a bit?)

Here is our romantic, steamy
photo of the products in the dry ice.

So, how did we like the treats? Um, yum!

So to the left is an image of the Slim-A-Bear line. The package we got contained both French Vanilla and English Toffee. I was a little hesitant because these are a lower fat treat, with only a hundred calories, but Husband and I were pleasantly surprised with the taste. The French Vanilla were pretty much the original Klondike Bar on a stick and the English Toffee was a sweet surprise -- I loved the toffee ice cream with the chocolate shell that had little chunks of toffee in it. Husband and I shared tastes of each of the bars, because we knew dinner with in-laws was soon approaching and we didn't want to ruin our appetites -- oh, but we really easily could have. These were good! It was all we could do to keep from diving into the freezer. Later on in the weekend, Mother-in-law, who had mentioned she'd like to see some low fat treats on our blog, tested them was also pleasantly surprised. These are definitely on my running grocery list -- a great treat for when I am craving ice cream but still trying to recover from the fatty ice cream from I Scream 2008 (more to come on that in a future post...)

The other product we tested was Cookies & Cream Popsicle Ice Cream Shots. These were so much fun. While I chose to eat mine out of the carton with a spoon, Kevin put his in a beer stein (we don't have any shot glasses) and "drank" them down. The flavor was good. The ice cream (that's the white shots -- the brown ones were cookie pieces) was super frozen and less airy than regular ice cream and kind of squeaked in your teeth. It seemed much colder than regular, scoopable ice cream, but maybe this is because every time I took them from the freezer I dug in without letting them soften/melt a bit. I don't know if this is the Popsicle/Klondike treat I would choose from the freezer section regularly for myself (though I am sure it would be quite a hit with kids so I'll keep that in mind when I have 'em!) but I can see myself once in a while picking out these little shots to mix the ice cream consumption up a bit!

We'll look forward to Tina's follow up post on this subject -- she got some different products in the mail and I'm interested to see what she thought.

Bonus: Who invented the popsicle and at what age? Email us at scoopaliciousblog@gmail.com by Monday, September 22 for a chance to win a coupon for a free package of any Breyers, Popsicle, Klondike, or Good Humor Product.

Dulce de Leche Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

I have to start by saying this is probably the best ice cream I have made this far. From the super creamy texture to the rich caramel flavor and smooth milk chocolate chunks, this is one I know I will make again! FYI...for anyone wondering what is Dulce de Leche, it is spanish and is a rich, silky and smooth caramel.

So my brother is over and asks...can you replicate B&J's Cinnamon Bun? Not sure I can even come close to replicating anything B&J but I'll sure try and especially since I love anything cinnamon. For anyone who hasn't tried this newer flavor its caramel ice cream with cinnamon bun dough and a caramel streusel swirl...totally awesome! I had the luxury of trying it at Boston's all you can eat Scooper Bowl and it was by far my favorite. So when I was given this challenge I jumped at it. So this recipe really is part one of my experiment...I thought I'd try to master the base before figuring out the mix-ins thus the chocolate chunk mix-ins instead of dough. To be honest...I have no idea how to replicate the cinnamon bun dough so I have to do my research and testing first....oh and will accept any ideas you may have ;). So here's my fabulous recipe for homemade Dulce de Leche ice cream. It's actually quite simple and basic since I used the one and only Lebovitz's vanilla ice cream as my base and added the Dulce de Leche syrup ( I used Nestle's La Lechera) instead of making it myself. I started with the vanilla base and added the syrup before refrigerating...and this created the silkiest, richest, and super super creamy and heavenly caramel ice cream. I also used a Perugina milk chocolate (go figure another Nestle brand product) to add to the creaminess and voila...Homemade Dulce de Leche ice cream with Milk Chocolate Chunks. Enjoy!!

Dulce de Leche Chocolate Chunk 

Ice Cream

1 cup milk

pinch of salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 vanlla bean

5 egg yolks

2 cups heavy cream

few drops of vanilla extract

1 15oz can of Dulce de Leche

3.5 oz milk chocolate bar (chopped in chunks)

Heat milk, sugar, salt. Split vanilla bean, scrape beans into mix, add bean. Let steep for half hour. Stir together yolks in a separate bowl and slowly add heated milk. Then pour back into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens to lightly coat a rubber spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream, stir in Dulce de Leche until smooth, and cool over an ice bath. Refrigerate 4 hours then freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions. Mix in chocolate chunks before freezing.

The true scoop on our candidates

Not getting all political here. Just nice to know that our future president loves ice cream too! Even our presidential candidates won't let summer end without a scoop or two. The Obama and McCain teams both hit local shops on August 29th to share America's favorite dessert. Looks like its the cone vs. the dish!

Barack makes a stop at Windmill Ice Cream Shop in Aliquippa, Pa.,
for a good old fashioned Butter Pecan on a plain cone.

Double fisting! And one looks like two scoops. Biden doesn't fool around. According to this article Biden says, "I may have vices but this is my biggest one."  Well we here at scoopalicious sure can relate to that!

The McCain camp hits Concord, Ohio for some scoops. Looks like they don't like to get their hands dirty. Dishes of soft serve for the Republicans.

I think the debates would be much more interesting if they would debate the cone vs the dish or maybe soft serve vs hard ice cream. Seriously let's talk Mint Chocolate Chip vs plain old Vanilla. It's the right to choose..ice cream that is!

Photos: Reuters

Boston's J.P. Licks' Frozen Yogurt X

Yesterday my dear friend Amanda and I went to J.P. Licks in Harvard Square. Though I did settle on my favorite Oreo Cakebatter, I did want to try J.P. Licks' new Frozen Yogurt X (soon-to-be-named -- by you!): "Tart, tangy, non-fat, refreshing, no cholesterol, less sugar, millions of probiotic bacteria..." Hm, sounds a lot to me like Pinkberry...I asked for a taste and the scoop girl kindly agreed. Fancy that! It was much sweeter than I remembered Pinkberry to be (read my previous post on my Pinkberry thoughts), and I didn't actually hate it! Actually, it was good, but the truth is, I would never ever walk into an J.P. Licks and order it when I am surrounded by rich, sweet, creamy real ice cream.

But, if this is up your alley, run over to one of J.P. Licks' many shops in the Boston area before September 30, 2008 and taste for yourself, and then visit their site and suggest a name for a chance to one free medium serving of the new concoction every day for a year! (Or don't bother to taste it, as you can still technically name it without tasting!) 

Added bonus? Visit the flagship store on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain the weekend of September 28 and 29th and enjoy your frozen yogurt while visiting the 15th Annual Jamaica Plain Open Studios. (Stop by my old studio space at 128 Brookside Avenue and give a shout out to Gordon, Catherine, and Amy!)

 

Get Dirty and Help Save a Farm!

A while back I got an email that said "Does this ice cream taste like dirt?" Oh great, I thought...Harry Potter brought us earwax tasting jelly beans, now dirt tasting ice cream? Still, curiosity got the better of me, and I opened the email...The email was from a woman who represents the Lancaster Farmland Trust -- yes, the same Lancaster where Turkey Hill is made. Turns out the two have a partnership and "since 2005, Turkey Hill Dairy has donated proceeds from the sales of its All Natural Recipe Ice Cream to the Lancaster Farmland Trust. Last year, the Dairy’s generosity enabled the Trust to preserve an additional 63 acres of prime farmland– a dairy farm owned by an Amish family in Fulton Township. They hope to do the same again this year." Pretty cool seeing as 1,000 acres of farmland in Lancaster County are being lost each year to development. (The Trust has preserved 20,000 acres to date!)

Also part of the email was a recipe that I have been anxious to try ever since I got the email...

Preservation Pie

1 chocolate pie shell (crust)
1 lb. mint-chocolate chips (or semi-sweet chips if preferred)
1 container (1.5 Quart) of Turkey Hill All Natural Recipe Ice Cream – Chocolate
1 8-oz. container Chocolate Whipped Topping
Green Jimmies

Allow the ice cream and whipped topping to soften until spreadable. Cover the bottom of the pie shell with up to ¾ of the mint-chocolate chips.

Stir the remaining chips into the ice cream. Spread the mixture into the pie shell, adding ice cream until you’ve filled to the top edge. Liberally cover the ice cream with the chocolate whipped topping. If you didn’t use all of the chips, sprinkle the remainder over the top with the green jimmies as decoration.

Freeze the pie until solid (allow at least 12 hours between preparation and serving). If frozen solid, it will cut more easily with a heated knife.

Makes 8 servings. Saves farms.

Sounds pretty good. The Farmland Trust rep who sent the recipe and photos, tells me "While Preservation Pie tastes outrageously good, it’s not so pretty." Who needs looks when you've got taste?

Here's to ice cream and good deeds. What could be finer?

Photos courtesy of Lancaster Farmland Trust.