Rocky Road Ice Cream

When it comes to popular ice cream flavors, particularly in the USA, then Rocky Road has to be on the list. Perhaps because it's chocolatey or perhaps because it's chunky or perhaps because it's chewy, I don't know exactly what makes it so special and popular but it's a great fun ice cream for adults and children alike. 

Homemade rocky road ice cream ready to eat!

I think rocky road ice cream one of the best homemade flavors you could choose for parties and family get-togethers; also makes a great choice for Halloween ice cream too.

I made some homemade Rocky Road ice cream in the summer (photo above) and my family loved it! If you'd like to make your own, here are the ingredients to put on your shopping list ....

To make the chocolate custard
1/2 pint (250ml) full cream milk
3 oz (75g) milk chocolate
3 egg yolks
3 oz (75g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
1/2 pint (250ml) whipping cream (to fold into the cold chocolate custard)

Ingredients to add towards end of ice cream cyle
2 oz (50g) dark chocolate
2 oz (50g) glace cherries
2 oz (50g) almonds
2 oz (50g) small marshmallows

With your shopping done and your ice cream maker at the ready you'll need to know how to make your rocky road ice cream. Just click here to view full step-by-step instructions and photos. Enjoy!

Avalanche Experts Try To Improve Ice Cream

Just when you thought that ice cream couldn't get any better, a new idea comes along .... they bring in the avalanche experts!

Studying the formation of ice crystals clearly carries a worth when understanding avalanches but it seems that the very same knowledge may hold the key to perfecting the texture and taste of ice cream. This bbc news article gives more detail.

For my part, having made lots of homemade ice cream over the years, I have long known that the texture of ice cream can vary enormously and as the texture varies so does the taste. If you get too many ice crytals in an ice cream mix it simply doesn't taste tood; difficult to describe, it has something of a 'metallic' taste. Today in fact was a great example of what I'm trying to explain here .... I made some licorice ice cream and the moment it came out of my ice cream maker it was a wonderful texture - smooth yet sticky and solid enough and it scooped really easily. There was no need to pop it in the freezer for a short time as can sometimes be necessary.

It's not always like this with ice cream recipes which is why I often try out a recipe then refine it several times, changing the balance of ingredients. Often it's the sugar content that has to be changed to give a better texture/taste.

So 'Good Luck' to the avalanche experts. I await news of their efforts with great interest - if they're successful we'll all be the happier for it!

Easter Ice Cream Treats

Homemade ice cream is a special treat any time but particularly so on special holidays. Easter is a good example. Families and friends get together and often celebrate Easter by sharing a home-cooked meal.

"What's for dessert?" is a common question from the children sat at the dinner table and if the answer by any chance is "Ice cream!" then you can be sure there will be shrieks of glee. Such is the appeal of ice cream.

So what's a good ice cream to make for Easter? Well, it depends upon whether you want to stick with standard favorites or be more adventurous. So I'm going to make a suggestion in each direction ....

A top 10 favorite and usually a safe bet to be popular amongst guests is banana ice cream; it appeals to children and adults alike and is an easy ice cream to make.

Being more adventurous and if you have a little extra time to devote to your ice cream making, you could go for rhubarb and vanilla custard ice cream. My family loves it!

If neither of the above appeals to you as an Easter ice cream then there's a wider selection of ice cream recipes available on the following pages - popular ice cream and unusual ice cream.

Whatever ice cream you choose, make it a Happy Easter!

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.

Multifunctional Ice Cream - A Recipe For Success?

I have tried countless ice cream recipes in my time but the 'recipe' I read about today was something I've never encountered before - multifunctional ice cream.

Apparently, food scientists from the University of Missouri have been busy trying to create a healthier ice cream by adding four key ingredients: antioxidants, dietary fibre, prebiotics and probiotics. It all sounds fine in theory but apparently each of these 4 ingredients has its own impact on the texture and/or taste of the ice cream.

Given that the texture and taste of ice cream lies at the very heart of what makes ice cream so appealing (in my view anyway!), it looks like the scientists have quite a challenge on their hands.

Hats off to them for trying to make us all that little bit healthier of course but I still think that ice cream is like many things in life - a little of what you fancy now and then does you good. So for now I'll stick to my occasional rich homemade ice cream full of taste and texture :)

2011 - A Great Year For Ice Cream

Another New Year comes around and what, I wonder, will it hold for the fortunes of ice cream?

Every year the commercial ice cream makers seem to come up with new ice cream ideas, novel ice cream flavors or new ways in which to present them.

For my part, I always try to conjur up some new ice cream recipes. I remember well when I got my hands on some strasberries .... no I haven't mispelled strawberries! I made some strasberry ice cream and published the first ever strasberry ice cream recipe on the web. Not only was I proud of that fact but the ice cream was simply glorious! The only problem is that it's incredibly difficult to get hold of fresh strasberries where I live .... but then that perhaps makes the ice cream all the more special because I know I can't make it all year round.

This year I have a completely different and new idea in mind. No clues as to what that might be .... all I suggest is you watch this space for some exciting new ice cream recipe ideas.

Homemade ice cream - there's nothing to beat it!

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 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!

Thanksgiving With An Ice Cream Treat

25 November this year is a day for celebrating the good things in life - it's Thanksgiving.

Every Thanksgiving is something to look forward to and for many families it as important as the celebration of Christmas. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this year you may be looking for some new ideas to feed your family and friends.

Here's my tip for a super Thanksgiving dessert .... make some homemade real vanilla ice cream - like the ice cream in the photograph showing the dark brown little vanilla pod seeds. Serve it on top of hot, homemade apple pie!

On the other hand, if you think no-one will want pie because they've eaten too much turkey, then just make a batch of homemade ice cream to enjoy on its own. My Thanksgiving ice cream page list a couple of delicious ice cream recipes ideal for the occasion - one involving pecan nuts and the other white chocolate.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Toffee Ice Cream - A Treat For Halloween

Here is a recipe for toffee ice cream. It takes longer to make than the average homemade ice cream because you have to make your own toffee by boiling a can of condensed milk BUT it is well worth the effort!

Whenever I have made toffee ice cream or indeed whenever I have been out walking with friends or family and called at an ice cream kiosk, no-one has ever said they don't like toffee ice cream. It seems to have a universal appeal.

Although I enjoy making my own toffee ice cream, I must admit to occasionally enjoying commercially made toffee ice cream. I don't mean the stuff you get from supermarkets, oh no .... I mean the kind of ice cream that you might find produced by a local dairy farm.

Where I live we are fortunate to have a number of dairy farms who produce superb ice cream. Here is a photograph of me having just purchased just such a toffee ice cream in a cone whilst on a walk with my family earlier this year. Notice the wonderful texture and marbling effect .... delicious!

Read more about ice cream recipes ahead of Halloween.

Looking for Halloween food ideas? See previous Halloween posts from my ice cream blog

The Best Vanilla Ice Cream

Like many people, I love vanilla ice cream. I have done ever since I was a child. So it's no surprise that it's the one ice cream recipe that I enjoy making above all others. The interesting thing is that even with the same recipe, the results are never 100% identical. Most people probably wouldn't notice the difference but when you've made and tasted as much vanilla ice cream as I have, even a tiny difference can stand out.

My most recent batch of homemade vanilla ice cream was one of the best I've ever made. No, I'm not being conceited ... ask my family, they all said it before I did :)

Here are 2 pictures of it.

The first (above) was taken after serving a couple of scoops into my favorite penny lick glass and the second (outside in the garden, hence the light) after I put a scoop into an ice cream cone and sprinkled some hundreds and thousands on top. Delicious!

I've tried to work out why it was so good and the only thing I can come up with is that perhaps the quality of the vanilla pod I used was a little bit special in some way. The taste of the vanilla in the ice cream that day just seemed to be stronger and more aromatic.

Well, whatever it was, I hope I can get it to repeat next time!

Fresh Fruit For Homemade Ice Cream

There is nothing like using fresh fruit to make your own homemade ice cream and it is one of the reasons why I have developed my own little fruit garden at home. It's taken a few years but the effort is well worth it.

I have planted and grown a wide variety of fruits and used most of them in my ice cream recipes.

My home fruit includes:

• apples


• strawberries


• blueberries


• raspberries


• pears


• plums


• gooseberries


• cherries


• blackcurrants


• rhubarb

The most popular ice cream recipe in our house using our own homegrown fruit has to be strawberry ice cream followed closely by blueberry ice cream.

However, my recent rhubarb sorbet certainly got the 'thumbs up'.

So on those sultry, hot summer evenings this July, it might just prove the best of all possible homemade ice creams ....

(Please don't let the weather let me down on this one!)

Go Celebrate - It's National Ice Cream Day!

No excuses today .... you MUST celebrate National Ice Cream Day!

Go to one of the many, great ice cream parlors around or buy the family an ice cream cone to enjoy in the park; you could always go to the cinema and enjoy a tub of ice cream whilst watching a great movie like Iron Man 2 or you could stay home and make your own homemade ice cream.

Ice cream is fun. Go get some .... and I dare you not to smile whilst you're eating it!

Don't Forget The Ice Cream Glasses & Spoons!

When making ice cream, it's not just about choosing the right recipe but - and this you have to work out BEFORE you make the ice cream - also about HOW YOU ARE GOING TO SERVE IT.

Fresh, homemade ice cream is always best eaten immediately as I find it can lose quality of texture and taste after being stored in the freezer. Therefore, whenever I make a new batch of ice cream I get all the accessories I'm going to need ready first. That way, the moment the ice cream maker beeps to say the ice cream is ready, I'm all set.

Q: So what are these 'ice cream accessories'?

A: Here's what you need ready to hand to serve your homemade ice cream well ....

• Ice cream scoop - I have used many over the years and nothing beats a quality, stainless steel ice cream scoop. Smooth in its action and easy to handle with consistency of scoop every time.
  


• Ice cream dishes or ice cream glasses - if you are serving ice cream as a dessert at the dinner table or offering party guests a special ice cream sundae, then you will need to have your dishes or glasses washed, dried and ready. Sometimes I opt to chill them for 15 minutes or so in the fridge before serving the ice cream as it stops it melting too fast.
  


• Ice cream spoons - these long-handled spoons are both practical and fun. My late father always enjoyed being handed a 'proper' ice cream spoon to eat his ice cream sundae with. I have plastic ice cream spoons with novelty decorations on the top of the handle which children love to use and also stainless steel ones. Click on the link to see a picture of them.
  


• Ice cream cones - if your homemade ice cream is not going to be a formal dessert but just a quick scoop or two for everyone on a sunny afternoon, then an ice cream cone treat is ideal. So you need to have the cones out of the box and ready to use.
  


• Paper napkins - a MUST to have ready to hand both for dinner guests and for if it's an ice cream cone occasion.

Here is my Special Ice Cream Spoons post for anyone who hasn't read it

Ice Cream Maker Tips - Choosing The Right Machine

If you are looking to buy an ice cream maker for the first time, you will be overwhelmed by the choice now available. Years ago of course it was not the case but today, as with so many other things, it is a very different scenario.

First of all, there is the choice between a manual machine and an electric ice cream maker. The latter, whilst much more expensive, bigger and heavier, actually freezes the ice cream as it churns it so you can go from your ready mixture to edible, servable fresh ice cream within as little as 20 minutes.

Secondly, even with an electric ice cream maker, there are different types and styles to choose from. Gaggia for example have developed their own very distinctive style of machine which you recognise instantly the moment you see one of their ice cream makers and Cuisinart have also developed their own style such as the very popular ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker (see photo left).

Hamilton Beach makes an ice cream maker that looks entirely different again! Indeed, their Hamilton Beach 68330R 4-Quart Automatic Ice-Cream Maker (photo right) actually works in a different way. It requires you to pour your mixture into the canister, insert the dasher into the canister, attach the easy-lock lid and then place the motor over the canister, locking it onto the bucket. Then you add layers of ice and salt to the bucket covering the canister. Your homemade ice cream will then be ready in 20-40 minutes. This particular ice cream maker can also be used for making frozen yogurt and custard. At under $40 it makes a great, affordable gift for a loved one or friend - especially if you know they love ice cream!

So you see ... choosing an ice cream maker is not that easy any more.

A Tangy Sweet Sorbet

When you've made as much homemade ice cream as I have over the years, it can sometimes feel like you've covered pretty much all bases ... but that thought has only ever lingered with me a second or two before a new ice cream idea then enters my head! That's the fun of ice cream and what happened recently when I gathered in the final apples of the season from my garden. I already have an apple sorbet recipe so what else might work?

I thought back to my childhood days when my mother would bake a traditional, English fresh apple and blackberry pie. I can close my eyes and still remember the warm, sweeet smell in the kitchen! We would look forward to it being served, freshly baked and hot from the oven - delicious.

Apple and blackberry pie was one of my father's favourite desserts and he was happy to eat it with custard or cream or ice cream. He loved ice cream in fact and was my "Knickerbocker Glory Champion".

Thinking of that good old, homemade pie gave me the answer .... I could use freshly picked homegrown garden apples with blackberries to make a sorbet.

How did it work out?

Well, as you can see from the photograph, it made a beautifully dark pink, luscious-looking sorbet with a tangy yet sweet taste. A true 'sweet and sour' water ice.

I served it for my family with some fresh fruit and they loved it. It's such a strong tasting sorbet that you only need a single scoop and it positively brings the fresh fruit alive.

Here it is my apple and blackberry sorbet recipe.

There's lots more reading on sorbet recipes on my website.

National Ice Cream Day 2009

If you celebrated National Ice Cream day last year and possibly in the years before, then you might just be looking to do something a little different with your homemade ice cream today. Take a look at my list of unusual ice cream recipes and see what takes your fancy!

Even if you don't make your own ice cream (shame on you!) you can still take part in the fun of National Ice Cream day ....

• you could take the family out for a special treat to an ice cream parlor and try one of the many fabulous ice cream sundaes that are usually on the menu.
  
• you could go to the movies and just enjoy a simple tub of ice cream whilst watching it
  
• you could buy a quality, commercially made ice cream at your local store or supermarket, take it home and make your own Knickerbocker Glory
  
• you could spot your local ice cream truck in a neighboring street and treat yourself (and others!) to a great ice cream cone

The list goes on!

That's the wonderful thing about ice cream as a food/treat - it's not confined to any one place or any one supplier. You can eat it indoors or outdoors and you can buy it made by someone else or yourself. It's almost infinitely variable in taste and methods of presentation and you can add toppings or sauces, fruit or nuts, chocolate flakes or wafers. I could go on all day writing about ice cream - it's a passion with a tradition and perhaps that's why it's worthy of its own national day. Long may it be so .... have a great National Ice Cream Day folks!

Anyone For Tennis? Don't Forget The Ice Cream!

Watching the Wimbledon Tennis Championships on tv is something I have enjoyed since childhood. Over the years great champions have come and gone and the nature of the game has changed radically - everything from what the players wear on court, to racquet technology to the level of fitness and strength required to get to the top of the sport.

My son is an avid Andy Murray fan so we've watched him with fascination this last year and particularly of course during the Wimbledon Championship. Reading about him, it's staggering to discover just how hard he works to maintain peak fitness, from weighted chin-ups to 100m sprints - and that's before he even picks up a raquet! When training for a match he eats a 6,000 calories per day diet! Things like bagels with peanut butter, protein shakes, steak, fruit, cupcakes -and lots of sushi. It's all right being told that you HAVE to eat this if you want to be at the top of your sport but what if you don't like it? I don't know whether Andy enjoys all this food but what I DO KNOW is that one of his favorite foods (when allowed) is ice cream, especially Cookies And Cream ice cream by Haagen-Dazs.

With that in mind, it seems to me that one of the first things Andy should buy for that wonderful, new home of his in Surrey, England is an electric ice cream maker for the kitchen. Then he could have the best possible ice cream - homemade ice cream using his actual favorite cookies and some rich, heavy cream. Game, set and match!

Ice Cream Passion Poll - A Call To Ice Cream Lovers!

Hurrah! July is here - National Ice Cream Month has arrived. A great time to talk about Ice Cream Passion!

Here's the thing .... the number of visitors to ice-cream-recipes.com builds year on year by an average of 33%. I don't think the percentage of people around the world getting connected to the Net every year is as high as that in fact, and if I am right, it can only mean one thing - that the popularity of ice cream is growing. This is backed up by the fact that from the 1.15 million people who visited ice-cream-recipes.com in 2008, 4 out of 5 were new visitors.

People search consistently for "vanilla ice cream", "homemade ice cream", "strawberry ice cream recipe" all clearly indicating a passion for learning more about ice cream making.

So I've been asking myself how I can appease this passion a little more .... how can I make people feel like they are making a contribution to ice cream know-how?

The answer - "The Ice Cream Passion Poll"

I have opened up this blog post to comments and invite anyone with a passion for ice cream to CAST YOUR VOTE. Want to take part?
Sign in via your Google account and just state the following information:

1. The country where you live
2. If you are male or female
3. Your favorite, all time ice cream flavor
4. Your favorite ice cream topping/sauce
5. If you have a favorite ice cream memory

This is an exciting experiment for SERIOUS ice cream fans and if it proves popular (and doesn't get abused with junk posting!) then it will be an endorsement of the good side of the Net - allowing people around the world to share their ice cream thoughts with each other. So climb on board and join the Ice Cream Passion Poll!

Homemade Ice Cream - Great DIY

If you ever thought that DIY (Do It Yourself) was restricted to putting up some new shelves or installing new garage doors think again because DIY also applies to foods that you might never think of making for yourself ... but can!

Let's face it, when most people think of ice cream they think of going out to buy a pack of Ben & Jerry's or Walls (or one of many others depending upon which country you live in). Few people actually stop and think about making their own homemade ice cream. Yet it's not that difficult. Granted, it's easier with an ice cream maker but you can also make ice cream without an ice cream maker. What's more, when you make ice cream yourself it always tastes better and it's such a satisfying experience.

So if you've ever done any DIY around your house or garden but never made ice cream, think of it like this .... just as you get a kick out of seeing those shelves installed and carrying your books or dvds with the satisfying knowledge that you've done it yourself, imagine eating a bowl of delicious, fresh ice cream made by your own fair hand. Now that's what I call 'tasty' DIY!