Ice Cream Dreams

Just for fun today….What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a dessert recipe that I wanted to share with you. The recipe that I ended up making were these shortcakes with corn ice cream (sorry, couldn't find the recipe online, but here are scanned copies from the magazine) and honestly, the real standout of the dish WAS in fact, the homemade corn ice cream. Yes, I know, corn ice cream – it sounds weird, but it was TOTALLY delicious especially paired with the sweet shortbread and the tart berries (I ended up making a blueberry AND strawberry sauce).

I simply followed the directions on the recipe and used what has to be one of my favorite “fun” wedding gifts, our Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. I’ve always loved the idea of making homemade ice creams and stocking the freezer with all sorts of fun flavors and things that I rarely treat myself to.

Lately, I’ve been craving the Baskin-Robbins June flavor, and arguably one of my top five favorite ice cream flavors, Baseball Nut (which is kind of funny, since I absolutely hate the sport of baseball in general, but adore an ice cream called "Baseball Nut". In case you’ve never had the opportunity to try this outstanding flavor, it is a vanilla ice cream base with a swirled black raspberry ribbon and crunchy salted cashews. It sounds weird (and it sort of is), but it’s SO delicious. Since New York City is full of those half and half Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin-Robbins stores, I figured I would stop in one the other day to enjoy a scoop. Turns out Baseball Nut isn’t the official flavor of the month in NYC (I guess NYC is “spppppeeeeecial”) so I walked out empty handed and to be quite honest, a little disappointed.

Luckily though, I picked up the ingredients for a homemade version of this flavor, albeit plain old red raspberry jam since “black raspberry” doesn’t appear to be a popular jam flavor in our local grocery store. I plan on starting the ice cream process this evening so that I’ll have a wonderful homemade batch stored safely in my freezer for future cravings (July 4th celebrations anyone?!). I’ll let you know how it turns out and of course post the recipe if it’s worth it!

Maybe it’s the official start of summer that has got me in the ice cream spirit, but in the last few days every time I see a frozen treat I get pretty excited about it. In fact, I was super excited when I saw this article from New York Magazine (image to the right from the online version of the article). All of the best ice cream treats in NYC voted on by two little girls and their dad? – It must be fate because while I enjoy my “odd”, adult ice cream flavors every once in a while, my inner-little-girl often comes out in my dessert choices too. I can’t wait to try out some of these AWESOME dessert spots. Check it out, you won’t be sorry!

So here’s to hoping my ice cream batch turns out just as good as Baskin-Robbin’s version!

Do you make homemade ice cream?! Any homemade recipes that I MUST try out?!