Last night I had a phenomenal topping on my vanilla ice cream—Bailey’s Irish Cream.   I wanted ice cream but wanted something more than just vanilla.  We had some Bailey’s in our fridge and I went for it.  It was amazing.  Just a few tablespoons full and you’ve got yourself an adult dessert.  I let the ice cream melt a little bit and mixed the two together; I suppose I could have blended it into a shake.  Maybe next time…

Today’s review is possibly more about the dessert I made tonight than the ice cream I served with it.  Molten lava cake with vanilla ice cream was possibly the most amazing thing I’ve eaten in a long time.  We had some friends over for dinner and made Gorgonzola and spinach risotto and chocolate molten cake for dessert.  I have had cakes like this in restaurants and made one once a number of years ago.  The idea recently came back to me and I decided to give it a shot. Only a few ingredients comprise this cake; you severely under cook it and serve it up a few scoops of ice cream and viola– absolutely amazing.  The vanilla ice cream I used (Breyers Natural Vanilla) complemented it well.  The chocolate and melted ice cream swirl together to cream perfectly balanced creamy, vanilla and chocolaty, hot and cold bites.  The ice cream melts almost entirely because of the temperature of the cake and only a few solid chunks of ice cream remain.  This is a must for any dinner party, especially since it can be made ahead of time and cooked while coffee is being made and dishes being cleared.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 5
• Ease to make: 2.5

Today I have another review of a mix and match ice cream recipe: Chocolate Pecan Brownie. I used Stonyfield Farms After Dark Chocolate frozen yogurt as the base ice cream. (I taste tested this several days ago and the review is forthcoming.) I then added some about a 2 x 2 inch homemade brownie with pecans to the 1/2 cup of frozen yogurt. Finally, I threw in a few extra chopped pecans for an added texture. I blended the mixture for just a few seconds so the brownies didn’t get too chopped up and it still remained thick (I didn’t want a shake but more of a “mix-in”).

All in all, I enjoyed this a lot. I think the homemade brownies were really what did it. It just goes to show that the quality of the ingredients is what’s important.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 3.5
• Texture: 3.5
• Originality: 3
• Overall: 3.5
• Ease to Make: 1.5

Alright, I’m back to posting. Sorry I’ve gotten a bit behind. In the next few days I’ll get all my ice cream reviews from the past week listed (yes, I’ve still been trying something new each day!).

As I have enormous amounts of unconsumed ice cream in my freezer, I have decided to do some more “homemade” ice cream recipes, using store bought ice cream and other commonly found ingredients. (Oh, and I’ve realized buying new ice cream each day isn’t very economically feasible for someone who has recently returned to grad school…). Since not everyone has an ice cream maker or the time to make homemade ice cream, I’ll experiment and review these pseudo-homemade recipes.
Today’s choice was a raspberry shake. I blended:

• 1/3 cup unsweetened frozen raspberries
• ¾ cup Turkey Hill Vanilla Ice Cream
• A few tablespoons of skim milk.

It was delicious. I like my shakes a little on the thin side (malts should be thick, not shakes) and so I used a little more milk than some might. I think the quality of the vanilla ice cream was what made this recipe so good. It was sweet and fruity, but not overwhelmingly so.

As you can see from the picture, my cat was a big fan of this dessert!

• Flavor: 4.5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 2.5
• Overall: 4.5
• Ease to make: 1.5

Today’s recipe of choice was a Williams Sonoma Recipe for dark chocolate gelato. It wasn’t terribly difficult to make, much easier than the basil recipe I made two days ago, but it still required some cooking and straining (I did discover that we do have a metal strainer which came in handy for this recipe). The flavor was extremely chocolaty. Not very sweet like most commercial ice creams. The texture was really thick, almost fudgey. I’m not sure if I did something wrong or if it was supposed to be the fudey consistency that it was. I didn’t really care for the texture. Also, I should have added the cocoa powder more gradually since it ended up clumping together. For a dark chocolate ice cream this was a good choice—if I made it again I would definitely add the powder more gradually and I would probably freeze in it the freezer after using the ice cream maker to see if it would get to be a harder and less fudgey consistency.

• Flavor: 4.5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 3
• Originality: 1.5
• Overall: 4
• Ease to make: 3.5

I’m going to start reviewing some homemade ice cream recipes again and today I wanted to try a lemon ice cream. I found a few recipes online and a recipe in “The Ultimate Ice Cream Book” but all of them looked too complicated. A lot of cooking, lemon zesting, and whipping involved. I couldn’t find a single recipe for just mix-it-together-and-freeze-it ice cream Well, I did find one or two but neither used an ice cream machine! Someone commented that it tasted sorbet-like—of course it would if you don’t freeze it gradually and mix it (as an ice cream machine does). So, I kind of made up my own recipe tonight. I used the recipes previously mentioned as my base ingredients but also used Cool Whip (I had it in the freezer from a previous ice cream recipe and wanted to use it up) and used lemon juice from a bottle (not fresh lemon juice). I’m not sure what the exact measurements were, I just did it to taste. It was my first time not following a recipe and it turned out pretty well. The flavor was fairly tart, but it was incredibly smooth. Next time I would use fresh lemon juice (and add some lemon zest), but other than that it was fun to mix my own recipe. Try it sometime.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 4
• Ease to make: 1

There is nothing like being home from a trip and being able to make ice cream again. Unfortunately the hot weather followed me back to DC. So it sounded like Key lime would hit the spot.
This recipe sounds a little odd, takes some work, and has few strange ingredients; but trust me, it tastes wonderful. The best thing about this ice cream is it is so creamy and smooth. I think it’s the Cool Whip that adds the smoothness. Even with the gelatin and Cool Whip, it is still fairly sour. But, I like sour things. And what’s better than sweet and sour? (As a kid I used to eat a lot of Sour Patch Kids.) No tricks to this recipe. Just follow it and it will taste amazing. (I did put it in the freezer for a little while as it needed more time to freeze after the ice cream maker.)

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 5
• Ease to make: 3

This ice cream is awesome.  It’s everything you’d want in an ice cream: rich, creamy, dense, intense.  It doesn’t get much better than this.  But, it does.  It’s extremely easy to make.  There are only a few ingredients, it’s quick and it’s difficult to mess up.  This recipe comes from Hershey, though I actually used Ghirardelli.  I will make this ice cream again and again.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 1.5
• Overall: 5
• Ease to make: 2

German chocolate cake has always been a favorite of mine. Chocolate, coconut, pecan; what else do you need? Take those ingredients and put them in ice cream and it’s just as good (if not better) than the cake. This recipe from Spaghetti Ice Cream was not as easy to make as some other recipes since it requires melting chocolate and cooking the mixture. But, it was worth the extra effort. I liked the hint of cinnamon and the chunks of coconut and pecan. The ice cream came out of the ice cream maker smooth and creamy. After hardening in the freezer it was even smoother. The only thing I would do differently? Have some German chocolate cake to put the ice cream on top of.

• Flavor: 4.5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 4
• Overall: 4.5
• Ease to make: 4

When you take the two fattiest fruits and use them both in homemade ice cream what do you get? A tasty treat that makes you extremely happy there isn’t a carton to tell you the caloric content. I was a little skeptical when I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. Avocado and coconut ice cream? It sounds interesting; I usually don’t mean that in a good way. But, I had both avocados and coconut sitting around my house and I decided to give it a try.

First, the recipe is really easy to make. There are few ingredients and there isn’t any cooking. Removing the pit from the avocado is the most difficult part (which should give you an idea of how easy the recipe is). The one modification I made was adding about 3/4 cup sweetened coconut flakes during the blending process. The ice cream is a pale green flavor that looks a lot like pistachio ice cream. It’s very pretty.

The flavor is amazing. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. It is not a sweet ice cream, but sweet enough. The avocado flavor is clearly defined, but not overpowering. And I like the added flavor and texture of the additional coconut. This is something I will make again.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 5
• Overall: 5
• Ease to make: 1

Nothing says 4th of July like ice cream. Add angel food cake and it’s even better! Using a recipe from Spaghetti Ice Cream Company I made the best dessert ever. For the recipe I used unsweetened frozen raspberries instead of fresh raspberries to save on costs. So, I didn’t use the lemon juice but did still add the sugar. Let me say, this is the best ice cream I’ve made yet. It was so creamy. It was sweet, but not too sweet. And it was very raspberry without being overly fruity. I will definitely make it again!

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 2.5
• Overall: 5
• Ease to make: 2

Another recipe modified from allrecipes.com. This one was much more complicated than the coconut, but not all the complicated. I modified this recipe by adding 1/2 cup unsweetened coco powder to make the base ice cream flavor chocolate peanut butter and not just peanut butter. I also didn’t use quite as many Reece’s peanut butter cups and instead added some chopped peanut butter chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Overall, I thought this was a good recipe, but a little too peanut buttery. I think I would cut the peanut butter by a quarter. Also, I wouldn’t add the chocolate and peanut butter chips, they didn’t add much for flavor and took away from the creamy texture.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 5
• Texture: 3.5
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 3.5
• Ease to Make: 3

I went to the grocery store today and purchased ice cream making supplies so I can start making several different flavors of ice cream this week. Today I modified a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. The original recipe called for “coconut cream.” Of course, before I went to the store I didn’t read the note at the bottom of the recipe that says that coconut cream is different from coconut milk. So, I didn’t buy coconut cream. But, I managed to successfully modify the recipe by adding sweetened condensed milk. My recipe looked something more like this:

• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 a can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut toasted and chopped
• 1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

This recipe is really easy because all you do is combine all ingredients in a food processor. There is no cooking involved. (I added the second 1/2 cup of (untoasted) coconut after everything else had been blended, that way there were also large pieces of coconut in the ice cream.) After about an hour cooling in the fridge and another 20 minutes in the ice cream machine, the ice cream was done. It was well worth the little amount of effort put into it. The flavor was very intensely coconut. A sweet coconut. If you don’t like extremely sweet ice cream then this recipe isn’t for you. The texture was dominated by the pieces of coconut. I would definitely make this ice cream again. It was easy and delicious. I think it would be excellent on German chocolate cake.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 3
• Overall: 4.5
• Ease to Make: 1