The Boozy Ice Cream Season

For many of us this time of year is when we have to wrap up warm and keep out the cold. Hence why so many people like a little 'tipple' of alcohol to warm them up. It's a well known fact that alcohol raises the body temperature, as evidenced in the amazing story of Titanic survivor Charles Joughin which you can read here.

Returning to the present day and the inclination of many to enjoy an alcoholic beverage, have you ever tried boozy ice cream? I'm not talking about an ice cream that gets you drunk, no .... I'm referring to the many delicious recipes out there for making ice cream with an alcoholic content.

Take for example rum. I have a fabulous recipe for coffee rum and walnut ice cream. It only requires 4 tablespoons of rum which, when diluted into a mix of 1/2 pint cream and 1/2 pint milk really isn't enough to get you tipsy! However, it's the taste .... oh and what a taste! It's a perfect ice cream for after dinner on a winter's evening. And if your guests want a little more rum, just serve a tot alongside their after dinner coffee. Now there's an idea :)

Tip: Getting the measure of how much alcohol to put into an ice cream mix can be tricky. Too much alcoholic content will stop the mixture from freezing sufficiently and so risk spoiling the texture. Too little of course and you don't get enough of the flavor coming through. So it's great to have tried and tested recipes to follow - like mine! Good luck and I hope you enjoy your boozy ice cream.

Extra Tip: This recipe makes for a great homemade ice cream to serve over the Thanksgiving holiday. You can read more about ideas for Thanksgiving ice cream on my main site. Enjoy!

A Christmas Story - Of The More Unusual Kind

Christmas is synomous with tradition. Perhaps you will have a traditional Christmas tree in your house or sing traditional Christmas carols or eat traditional Christmas food and drink such as traditional mulled wine (if you like mulled wine try my mulled wine sorbet!).

There are also many traditional Christmas stories of course - from the definitive nativity story itself right through to Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'. Well, for those of you who enjoy Christmas stories - and that's adults and children alike - here is a new one. I just found it on this wonderful Letters From London Blog.

Full of the sentiments that Christmas is really all about, it's a super little story and I was so grateful for having found it, I wanted to share it with my ice cream blog readers.

It's called The Christmas Rock Maker - follow the link to read it in full. I hope you enjoy it and pass on the link to others - sharing the true spirit of Christmas is possibly one of the best gifts you will give this year.

Christmas Parties - Mulled Wine Sorbet

Many people give or go to Christmas parties - they can be for friends, family or colleagues from work or college. They can be big parties or small gatherings but whatever the type of party, the host is usually under pressure to offer something traditional yet different - a difficult task! So how about this idea .... mulled wine sorbet

Mulled wine has a long tradition, being heated up with spices to offer something revitalising. Indeed, many countries around the world have their own word for their type of traditional mulled wine - in France it's vin chaud and in Russia it's glintwein (глинтвейн) for example. My favorite is the German term Glühwein which I remember very fondly from a trip to Austria many years ago!

If you'd like to read more about mulled wine here is an interesting web page I found: The history of mulled wine

The other thing you always need at a Christmas party is plenty of ice because no matter what the weather - snow in the Rockies, rain in Scotland or sunshine in Australia - there will be people who want ice in their drinks ... and it needs to be in good supply. You can't afford to run out of what you've frozen in trays in the icebox (they're so fiddly anyway!) so this is where one of the latest kitchen/home appliances comes in - the ice maker. You can buy one of these at most department stores nowadays or online and they're great - I have one and wouldn't be without it. You don't have to plumb it in so it's portable and it's really easy to use. When Christmas has passed you then can look forward to using it for any other celebrations, bbqs etc - it really comes into its own in the summer.