Christmas Ice Cream Ideas

Christmas is almost upon us and many 'stay at home' cooks will be conjuring up ideas for a little Christmas magic with homemade cakes, cookies and desserts.

Amongst their choice of options will be things like Christmas Florentines, Christmas Pudding with brandy sauce, Cinammon Spiced Apple Pie with cream or at the more adventurous end of the scale a Cupcake Christmas Tree!

(recipe is here) 

For me, it wouldn't be Christmas without making some homemade ice cream. Visit my Christmas ice cream page to check out no less than 9 ice cream recipes suitable for this special time of year.

What's my favorite? Coffee rum and walnut flavor - wow! Fancy making some? Click here for the recipe. It's a real winter warmer :-)

Taste, Texture & Tone - Ice Cream Has It All!

Ice cream has to be one of the best foods in the world. There are so many colors, flavors and indeed textures to ice cream that it's virtually impossible to run out of ideas for ice cream recipes! Words cannot adequately describe what I'm trying to say here but my photographs can. Here are 2 fabulous examples of ice cream with vastly varying taste, texture and tone.

Marshmallow Ice Cream

Cherry & Pistachio Ice Cream

Ice Cream Cones & Sundaes On National Ice Cream Day

Celebrate National Ice Cream Day by enjoying some of your favorite ice cream. If you make ice cream then here are some popular ice cream recipes as well as a few unusual ice cream recipes you might like to try.

If you don't have the time to make your own ice cream then you could visit one of the many ice cream parlors that will no doubt be open on National Ice Cream Day and enjoy a great ice cream sundae. 

If an ice cream sundae is too much for you then a simple ice cream cone is always a great option. Take a friend along and buy 2 ice cream cones .... or even 3 ice cream cones!

Celebrating National Ice Cream Month In Pictures

National Ice Cream Month is here again with National Ice Cream Day just around the corner. Here's a list of all my previous ice cream blog posts on the subject of National Ice Cream Month.

Making ice cream is an obvious way to celebrate and you can find lots of ice cream recipes to have fun with.

Another way to celebrate the fun of ice cream is to enjoy great ice cream photographs - and I have thousands that I have taken over the years! So between now and the end of July I'm going to post a succession of some of the most mouth-watering ice cream pictures you'll ever see! Here's the first.

New Ice Cream Website To Celebrate New Year

The celebrate the New Year, I have today launched my new ice cream recipes website. Many months in the making and with an improved layout, more space for content, new photos, new recipes and special features, I hope it will serve my readership as well as the last site did.

Here's a taster of what's new in the site ....

Special feature - an exclusive interview with a French master ice cream maker or artisan glacier as he's called in France.

New ice cream sundae gallery - featuring everything from a vanilla sundae to the Eton Mess. See if you can spot Chloe the Bengal cat!

There really is so much more to ice cream than you ever thought possible!

Ice Cream For Christmas

Making ice cream is lots of fun and this Christmas there will be another group of lucky people who join the ranks of homemade ice cream lovers like myself. Santa will doubtless deliver a new ice cream maker to many homes - and long may that be the case!

For those of you to whom this applies, a piece of advice .... don't be afraid when you take the machine out of the box and the rest of the family look at you with excitement in their eyes, heavy in expectation of the wonderous ice creams you will now feel pressured to make for them. No, stay calm and casual. Remove the instruction manual and recipe booklet from inside the box and set time aside for yourself (perhaps with a glass of sherry) one evening when everyone's busy with other things and immerse yourself in reading them. It shouldn't take long - it's not rocket science after all  :)

Understand the basics of how to use your ice cream maker first and try just one simple recipe. Be patient - it may not work out perfectly the first time but the more recipes you try, the easier it will all become. Some ice cream recipes are simpler and quicker to make than others but dont be put off from trying the more time-consuming recipes, such as those that require a custard base.

My all time favourite is real vanilla ice cream made with a custard base, vanilla pod, fresh heavy/double cream and full cream milk. There's nothing quite like it! I have made all kinds of unusual ice cream and sorbets but I always come back to good old vanilla. Hopefully, when you've made plenty of your own ice cream you will understand what I'm talking about here.

In the meantime, good luck - may the joy of making your own ice cream lighten up your Christmas!

Footnote: If you want to interact with others about ice cream making, visit Ice Cream Recipes on Facebook where you can also view some of my ice cream photos and videos.

Celebrate Halloween With Pumpkin Ice Cream

Well, Halloween is just around the corner. There's lots to prepare and look forward to so I'll make this blog post short!

Having got the costumes, pumpkins etc ready, you might want to treat everyone to something a little special .... pumpkin ice cream. This recipe also has maple syrup in it which gives it extra sweetness and texture. A little ground nutmeg also adds to the spice.

If you are in a hurry and forget about a dessert until almost the last minute, don't worry - there is always the option of trying one of these easy ice cream recipes.

Whatever you do this Halloween, have FUN!

Recipes & Videos Including Ice Cream Videos

We all like to learn new things and it depends upon our interests and natural inclinations as to which direction we go in. For anyone interested in homemade food, it's got to be learning how to cook or bake something new - in other words ... RECIPES.

However, once you've got your recipe together, it's not always easy to know exactly how to go about it. I suppose that's why TV cook series have become so popular ... watch the tv chef at work, record it if you like and learn exactly how the recipe should be followed through. That's fine if you're happy to go with the tv chef's own recipes.

But what about recipes you download from the Web? Well, thanks to the wonderful, continual development of web resources we can all now view video clips of how to do things, including how to follow through with a recipe. Here are 2 examples ....

BBC Interactive Recipe Videos

Gourmandia Catalog of Cooking Videos

And of course if you want to watch a video of how to make homemade ice cream ... you can watch my very own ice cream videos
Note: filmed using an ice cream maker

Presidential Ice Cream

The inauguration of President Barack Obama this last week saw millions of people rejoicing around the world in celebration of what is hoped will be a new era of world politics.

Almost 38 million Americans tuned in for the whole day's coverage on tv and many more millions watched the ceremonial part from their workplace, bars or on giant tv screens which had been set up in New York's Times Square and other major US cities. The global tv audience has, as yet, not been calculated but it's likely to be a world-record figure for a presidential inauguration.

Celebrations in the White House of course involved the traditional inaugural dinner. My first thought .... was ice cream on the menu? Not a crazy question actually because previous presidential inaugural dinners have featured ice cream.

For example, it was the 4th President of the United States, James Madison, who broke with his predecessors’ tradition of hosting simple affairs for their inaugural dinner. Madison decided to celebrate with a midnight ball for 400 guests and although there appears to be no copy of the original menu still in existence, it is believed that ice cream was served at the dinner.

The next noteworthy inaugural dinner was that of James Buchanan where, amongst many other wonderful items of food, guests were served no less than 1,200 quarts of ice cream!

So what dessert was on the 44th President’s inaugural dinner menu?
From what I have read it appears to have been apple-cinnamon sponge cake and sweet cream. Pity really because a rich vanilla ice cream would, in my opinion, have been a perfect accompaniment to the sponge cake and they could have at least offered it as an option to the sweet cream!

One thing is for sure, President Obama would have enjoyed it. We know he enjoys an ice cream cone occasionally, such as he was photographed doing on the campaign trail in August 2008 when he and his vice-presidential running mate Joe Biden took an 'ice cream break'.
See the article and photo.

It's a great photo showing two hard working politicians genuinely at ease in front of the cameras whilst they unashamedly enjoy an ice cream cone in the heat of the day.

I'm not the only one to notice President Obama's fondness for ice cream - Ben & Jerry have too. Their latest ice cream creation is called "Yes Pecan!" (a take on 'Yes We Can!"). As a flavor it's nothing new and exotic, just basically a butter pecan ice cream but B&J are calling it the unofficial Obama ice cream. Available in some of their Scoop shops during the month of January, the proceeds are to go to the Common Cause Education Fund.

If you can't get your hands on a "Yes Pecan!" don't worry - you can always make your own Butter Pecan Ice cream. It's one of my favorite all time ice cream recipes and was the 7th most popular downloaded from my website in 2008.

See the top 10 ice cream recipes list if you would like to know what the others were.

Connecting the idea of US Presidents and ice cream may not seem an obvious thing to do but I have done a little research and found it fascinating reading! The result is a new web page I have dedicated to Ice Cream and US Presidents. If nothing else, reading it will make you realise that they are just human like the rest of us.

Celebrate Thanksgiving With A Gourmet Gift Basket

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and as it's such a special time of year, many people give great thought to planning their Thanksgiving meal or, if being invited to eat with others, perhaps they're thinking of buying an appropriate gift for the host. If you are one of the latter, then here's a great idea for a Thanksgiving gift - a gourmet gift basket.

Giving thanks for our blessings with a gift of food in any shape or form is always going to be a winner and if you know what your host and their family like to eat, then it's not that difficult to find just the right gift. There are many gourmet gift baskets to choose from. Check them out now! Photo: 5 star rated gourmet gift basket available through the Ice Cream Recipes Online Store.

If, on the other hand, you are the host and have a Thanksgiving meal to prepare, have you thought about making your own homemade ice cream for Thanksgiving? Check out my Thanksgiving ice cream recipes page for ideas.

Rise Of The Ice Cream Machines

Making ice cream is big business - yes, of course for the commercial ice cream producers such as Ben & Jerry's, Baskin-Robbins or Dreyers but also for the manufacturers and retailers of the type of ice cream maker that you can buy for home use.

Ice cream has been popular for as long as I can remember, starting with the simple ice cream cone you could buy as a child from the ice cream truck when it came round through to today when supermarkets stock a wonderful, wide range of ice cream flavors you can just put in your trolley, check out and take home to enjoy at your leisure.

Over recent years, however, there's been a significant increase in the number of people interested in home cooking and recipes. In line with that, manufacturers have recognised the need to supply these people with more machines and gadgets to help them with their homemade foods. From juicers to smoothie makers to bread makers ... the list goes on.

When it comes to ice cream makers we are almost spoilt for choice. There are the larger sized, 'professional' type ice cream makers that retail for around $700 in the USA such as the Lello 4080 Musso Lussino 1.5-Quart Ice Cream Maker (via Amazon) and in the UK there's the incredibly popular Gaggia Geletiera 74500N Ice Cream Maker that retails for around £260. There's also a good range of less expensive ice cream makers of course that are still really quick and efficient as they have their own built-in freezers so you can freeze the ice cream as it mixes and batches (ready in about 20 minutes from when you put your mixture in the machine). At the 'value for money' end of the range there are ice cream makers which require the use of a freezer before the ice cream is ready, hence it takes longer to produce the ice cream.

If you have never made ice cream before don't worry about getting the best ice cream maker that money can buy - get what you can afford and just have a go. The important thing is to have some good ice cream recipes to follow and to make your ice cream with enthusiasm! Don't be afraid to try out new ideas too. Like any other food, when ice cream is made properly, it's wonderful.

Looking at the statistics of visitors to my website, it's clear that year upon year there is an increase in the number of people searching for ice cream maker recipes. The rise of the ice cream machines goes on!