Summer of Ice Cream

I made a pact with myself this summer that the only dessert I would have would be ice cream. (Okay, I cheated and had cake on my birthday...) In addition, it wouldn't be "ice cream parlour" ice cream, just whatever ice cream was in the house or the kitchen. So far, I have had some great ice cream this summer and though I would post a little recap. If you have any favorite ice cream desserts at a favorite neighborhood spot, let me know.

1). Malted Milk Chocolate Ice Cream at Sola: This was very creamy with a milk chocolate base and just enough malt that it wasn't overpowering.

2). Almond Praline Ice Cream and Cardamom Ice Cream at West Town Tavern: The almond praline was great. It was creamy and richly flavored with a bit of caramel. The cardamom ice cream was good at the first bite, but overpowering after that. The dessert also came with two cookies which were very good (moist, chewy and flavorful). (Have been back for almond praline ice cream two more times.)

3). Milk Chocolate Ice Cream with Mint at Green City Market Event/Hot Chocolate: This was easily my favorite as the ice cream had a great creamy texture and the mint was very strong tasting and fresh. Of course, the brownie bits at the bottom didn't hurt either!

4). Hudsonville Ice Cream-Store Bought in Holland, Michigan: I tried two flavors, black cherry with fudge and chocolate chip cookie dough. For store bought ice cream, I was very favorably impressed with the creamy texture. Even after thawing for scooping, refreezing and rethawing the texture stayed pretty good.

5). Make Your Own Sundae at Firm Ice Cream Social: I chose Blue Bunny "Rabbit Tracks" ice cream which was a vanilla base with a fudge swirl and chunks of chocolate. I used traditional Hershey's syrup, canned whip cream, nuts and cherry for the toppings. This brought me back to childhood, especially the Hershey's syrup. It was also fun to see the firm bigwigs dishing up ice cream from those big commercial containers.

6). M&M Cafe-Blue Star Highway Saugatuk/Douglas: One small hand-dipped sundae with black cherry ice cream, hot fudge, whip cream and cherry. The hand dipped ice cream tasted fresh and sweet with the right texture. Best of all, the small was enough to quell a sweet tooth without adding tons of guilt.

7). Dairy Queen: Medium vanilla cone dipped in chocolate. What can I say? This is a classic and technically breaks my ice cream parlor rule. No DQ near me in the city, so I took advantage of this while I could.


Hmmm, only 7? I guess I will just have to step-up my ice cream quotient for the rest of August.

I love to make my own ice cream in the summer. It allows you to bwe so much more creative than the purveyors of ice creamm will allow you to be. in my own hand cranker, some of my favorites made in past summers are:

White chocolate custard with chopped dried cherries rehydrated in kirsch. This is my personal fave.

Chocolate malt and praline flavored ice cream with tiny shavings of dark chocolate throughout.

"After Eight" Vanilla Mint ice cream with dark chocolate shavings

"Frango" milk chocolate custard flavored with a hit of peppermint.

Banana Cream Pie flavored custard with bits of vanilla wafer and banana taffy in the mix.

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An accidental discovery, my current favorite is a root beer float made with the ginger ice cream from the Village Creamery on Oakton. You taste the root beer first, then the vanilla, and finally, the preserved ginger, which surprisingly, just continues the root beer flavor rather than fighting with it, and gives a bit of bite as well. Recommended!

Like YourPalWill, I've also had a DIY ice cream summer; first up was dark chocolate ice cream with white chocolate chips, next strawberry, and a few days ago coffee with cinnamon chips and homemade chocolate syrup (I still have plenty of the Hershey's Dark Chocolate powder...). I've tentatively penciled in the lemon cheesecake ice cream recipe I posted recently next, depending on feedback from coworkers.

Why no "ice cream parlor" ice cream? What constitutes an ice cream parlor?