Valentine's Day Ice Cream: Alcoholic Sorbet

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and there's no reason why you shouldn't celebrate the romance of the day with ice cream. Of course some people celebrate by getting married in a really romantic setting on Valentine's Day - one reason, apparently, why stately home weddings are becoming more popular!

Getting back to a slightly less expensive way of celebrating Valentine's Day :) let's look at homemade ice cream. Offering some specially made ice cream as a surprise to a loved one on Valentine's Day always goes down well. You could choose to make an alcoholic sorbet as a light dessert after a home-cooked meal or just go for your loved one's favorite ice cream and serve it as a surprise after dinner when you've sat down to listen to music or watch a movie together.

If you don't plan to stay home on Valentine's Day, you can still include ice cream as part of the romance. Just find a great ice cream parlor and order a fabulous ice cream sundae, grab 2 spoons and dig in to share! Romance and ice cream were meant for each other :)

Enjoy your Valentine's ice cream.

Ice Cream Video - Sloe Gin Sorbet

Ice cream is always popular at this time of year. It may be cold with snow on the way but I find few people are deterred from enjoying an ice cream treat. That is why I regularly make a batch of homemade ice cream for my family, whatever the time of year!

Last week was one such occasion - I decided to make 4 batches of ice cream using my own ice cream recipes.

Recipe 1 - Sloe Gin Sorbet

Recipe 2 - Mulled Wine Sorbet

Recipe 3 - White Chocolate and Banana Ice Cream

Recipe 4 - Coffee, Rum and Walnut Ice Cream

All of these make ideal Christmas ice cream and the sheer variety means that there should be something for everyone - including adults partial to a little alcohol in their dessert!

Here is my sloe gin sorbet churning in the ice cream maker - within 20 minutes it was ready to serve.

Alcoholic ice cream has been in the news recently with one or two commercial ice cream producers launching some what they call "alcohol-infused" ice creams. Perhaps I'm becoming cynical as the years go on but I'm not so sure that commercially produced ice cream should be taking this route. After all, ice cream's predominant value has always been perceived as 'family' orientated. My own childhood memories of ice cream all relate to simple and innocent, fun-related things - from the first Mr. Whippy ice cream truck that came down our street to the first vanilla ice cream cone I enjoyed with a chocolate flake stuck in it - yum! If I were a child today, being confronted with the myriad of marketing techniques now available to commercial ice cream producers, I'm not so sure I'd be growing up with the same, wonderfully warm and innocent conception of the real fun of ice cream. My view? When a product is on a 'big stage' keep it simple and fun. If you want something more complicated, get into the kitchen and make it yourself at home - there are plenty of recipes out there!