Inspired Ice Cream

The title of this ice cream blog post serves 2 different purposes ....

1. To talk about how famous people have inspired ice cream makers to come up with new ice creams in their honor. Nice idea - especially when some of the proceeds often go to charity. Like the 'Yellow Brickle Road' ice cream that was inspired by Sir Elton's first concert in Vermont (home state of Ben & Jerry of course). Read more about inspired ice cream

2. To talk about the truly inspiring range of ice cream sundaes that it's possible to create. I have seen some fabulous ice cream sundaes over the years and love to make my own like this Knickerbocker Glory. I also have a gallery of ice cream sundaes on my ice cream recipes Facebook page.

All truly inspiring stuff!

Christmas Ice Cream

Make ice cream part of your Christmas food celebrations. I have no less than 8 recipes ideally suited to being Christmas ice cream. Some are rich and creamy, some are sorbets and one or two have alcoholic content so there's something for everyone.

Most of these 8 recipes take a little time to make. Some require a custard base to be made first such as the rich white chocolate ice cream recipe. Others have steps that require cooling times of up to an hour such as the white wine sorbet - but it's all well worth the time and effort.

Happy Christmas to ice cream lovers everywhere .... I think that's everyone anyway!

Choc Ice Still Standing

As a child I remember ice cream being quite a simple affair - usually a weekly treat of a vanilla cone from the ice cream truck. A really special treat was going to the cinema and having a choc ice. I remember the anticipation of that ... tearing off the wrapper carefully so as not to break the chocolate coating and then crunching through it to get to the creamy vanilla ice cream.

Today of course ice cream is much more sophisticated. We have American ice cream, French ice cream and of course Italian gelato ice cream. Commercial ice cream makers add to this with their offerings of 'chunky' ice cream, ice creams named after celebrities, etc. Then there's homemade ice cream which is a world in itself.

So what's the point of this post?

Well, I have often wondered how many other fans of the simple choc ice might be out there when I was stopped in my tracks the other day by a music video my son was playing. It was Sir Elton John's "I'm Still Standing" - a great song with the music video filmed in Cannes and Nice in the South of France back in 1983.

About halfway into the track there is a quick flash of a clapperboard in front of the camera; I couldn't quite make out what it said so I naturally wanted to check it out. I went back to the clapperboard and paused the video .... what did it say?

"CHOC ICE RULES"

Nice one Sir Elton ... at least I know I'm not alone in my thinking!

Ice Cream & Hot Chocolate Treats - With Chestnuts!

Chestnuts are synonomous with autumn and winter. As a food the chestnut is surprisingly versatile and you will find it used in both sweet and savoury recipes - from pie recipes (usually with pork, venison and duck) and soup recipes to dessert recipes such as chestnut cheesecake and even bread recipes.

Christmas is an ideal time to offer some chestnut based fare for your friends and family. Here are a couple of ideas you might like to try ....

Chestnut ice cream - it's quite a simple recipe without eggs and produces a sweet, nutty ice cream.

Chestnut hot chocolate - this is courtesy of my friend Emma who runs a great little English coffee shop. She came up with the Halloween hot chocolate I told you about recently. Her chestnut hot chocolate is a quality hot chocolate with a special chestnut flavouring, decorated with powdered chocolate. Thanks to Emma for sharing this super photo with us.

Want to explore chestnut foods further? Well, here are a couple of suggestions ....

1. A page of really interesting chestnut recipes which I came across on the web - I have yet to try any but they certainly look appetizing!

2. The Chestnut Growers of America website which has some fantastic information about chestnuts and includes a recipes section.

Lots of great reasons to make yours a chestnut Christmas this year!

Ice Cream Maker For Me!

Thinking of what to buy your husband, wife or partner for Christmas? You could do worse than to buy an ice cream maker.

It's the ideal gift for anyone who loves preparing homemade food and there are some great deals around this time of year.

I have 2 ice cream makers - no I'm not greedy, I just have a different machine for different kinds of ice cream (one for general ice cream making, the other for soft serve ice cream that you can dispense straight into ice cream cones).

The main thing about an ice cream maker is that it gives you a great sense of satisfaction - producing your own homemade ice cream that friends and family can enjoy is a great experience and one I wholeheartedly recommend!