Category: Ice Cream (Page 2 of 2)

I’m a little late with this posting but better late than ever, right?
Last April was Mika’s 4th birthday. We had a party for her the day after her birthday, but I wanted to celebrate the actual anniversary of her birth – so I invited our friends Desiree and Grant, and their kids Trent and Kali, as well as our friends Regina and Boris to meet us for ice cream at the Ice Creamery. The Ice Creamery is an old-fashioned ice cream parlor in downtown Castro Valley, which serves Fenton ice cream in more informal surroundings.
We’ve been to the Ice Creamery many times before, when we want to treat ourselves or the kids, and this time it was a real treat.
I don’t know if they take reservations, we certainly hadn’t made any, and when we got there around 6 PM or so on a Saturday evening the place was hopping. There were no tables to be found. The hostess/waitress (it’s not clear who is whom there), however, tried very hard to accomodate us and was able to put some tables together as people left them so that we all got to sit together by the window. They were very efficient with the service, getting us menus and our orders in and out quite quickly, considering how busy the place was, and making a special effort to bring the kids ice cream first. Considering how antsy they were – 4 yo’s are not known for the patience – this was very welcomed. They even put a candle on Mika’s ice cream and everyone sang her “happy birthday”. At her age this was thrilling rather than embarrazing.
The kids were able to run around and play around and all in all had the most wonderful time. I think we will make going to the Ice Creamery a yearly birthday tradition.

This recipe for a “base” for ice cream contains 2 ingredients and 1 preparation step. Still, I managed to mess it up on all counts. The results, however, where very interesting. This has to be the smoothest, richest ice cream I’ve ever tasted. There isn’t even a hint of iciness, it’s all velvety softness. It reminds me of the ice creams that are served in tiny scoops accompanying other sweets at fancy restaurants. Indeed, I think it would go superbly with something crunchy – perhaps toffee crumbs -, though given how sweet it is, something non-sweet may be a good idea. The taste was quite nice, though a bit too sweet. But if you like condensed milk, you’ll like this ice cream.
The original recipe called for combining 2 cups of light cream with 1 cup sweetened condensed milk, mixing it well and putting it into the ice cream machine.
I couldn’t find light cream, so I used 2 cups of heavy cream instead (thus the richness of the ice cream), and I didn’t read the instructions well so I used 1 can of sweetened condensed milk. Finally I poured each ingredient into the ice cream machine, but realized my mistake and stopped to mix them. The original recipe is supposed to turn a very light ice cream base, clearly mine didn’t.

We love dulce de leche ice cream. Real dulce de leche ice cream, that made with dulce de leche itself, not the vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls which Haagen Daz tries to pass on as dulce de leche ice cream. Unfortunately, the real stuff is not easy to get.
There is an Argentine ice cream store, Tango Gelato, in San Francisco (they used to be in Fruitvale but they moved!) and their version is pretty good though not as delicious as the stuff in Argentina. Of course, given how different milk tastes in the US I know it’d be impossible to make the real thing, but I’d like to approximate it.
So my new project consits in trying different recipes until I find one I really like. I started with a very simple one – Ben & Jerry’s sweet cream recipe substituting dulce de leche ice cream for some of the cream. Didn’t work well. It doesn’t taste enough like dulce de leche, which doesn’t surprise me as it’s very heavy in cream. Supposedly, cream dulls the taste buds.
Tomorrow I’ll try something else.
Meanwhile, here is the recipe for this one:
Dulce de Leche Granizado
-2 eggs
-1/3 cup sugar
-2 cups cream
-1 cup milk
-1 cup dulce de leche
-1/2 cup shredded dark chocolate
Whisk eggs until fluffy, whisk in the sugar until disolved, whisk in cream and milk. In a separate bowl, whisk dulce de leche with 1 cup of the cream mixture until well blended. Add dulce de leche mixture to milk mixture. Freeze according to manufacturers instructions. Two minutes before it’s done add the shredded chocolate. Put in a sealed container and freeze until it hardens.