Welcome to the Ice Cream Social!

I'm so happy you stopped by for the Ice Cream Social on National Ice Cream Day 2010! Come into the parlor....I"m flipping the sign from closed to open! I've got the sprinkles, whipped cream, and toppings ready. The ice cream scoops are warmed...now its time to make our cool treats and spend some time visiting!



I used the image above last year, but its such a sweet beautiful perfectly pink little place that I think you will be seeing it every year! I'd love to know where this place is. Anybody have a clue?



Last year I shared my love of and history with ice cream. This year I would like to share a little history OF ice cream.


Haven't you ever wondered how in the days before electricity and refrigeration they ever invented such a thing. And did they have to eat it in the winter when ice was readily available? Questions Questions.

Wikipedia answered the last question with this statement,
"ice was cut from lakes and ponds during the winter and stored in holes in the ground, or in wood-frame or brick ice houses insulated by straw." Who knew?! I've heard of ice houses but never knew where they got the ice to begin with. I still don't know how they got ice in the south. The lakes never freeze over!



It's really hard to get a straight answer on the internet on who was the first to create what we know as ice cream. The Chinese, Arabs, and Italians have all been credited with the invention. I found two different references to Italian origins and since I love Italian gelato better than any other ice cream I will give the credit to them. Nero is said to have ordered servants to fetch him ice from the mountains to make icy desserts.


And when Catherine de Medici married into French royalty in 1533 she is known to have brought with her, from Italy to France, a recipe for ice milk or maybe it was fruit ice. Depends on the source! Her dress kind of looks like an ice cream cone don't you think?

King Charles of England was served a cool creamy dessert on a visit to France and brought it back to Britain. The first recipes for ice cream started appearing in print in the early 1700s. This 1718 cookbook Mrs. Mary Eales's Receipts, which was first published in London, contains the first printed recipe for an iced dessert based on cream.

Here's the recipe as it appeared in the 1733 edition:

To ice CREAM.
Take Tin Ice-Pots, fill them with any Sort of Cream you like, either plain or sweeten'd, or Fruit in it; shut your Pots very close; to six Pots you must allow eighteen or twenty Pound of Ice, breaking the Ice very small; there will be some great Pieces, which lay at the Bottom and Top: You must have a Pail, and lay some Straw at the Bottom; then lay in your Ice, and put in amongst it a Pound of Bay-Salt; set in your Pots of Cream, and lay Ice and Salt between every Pot, that they may not touch; but the Ice must lie round them on every Side; lay a good deal of Ice on the Top, cover the Pail with Straw, set it in a Cellar where no Sun or Light comes, it will be froze in four Hours, but it may stand longer; than take it out just as you use it; hold it in your Hand and it will slip out. When you wou'd freeze any Sort of Fruit, either Cherries, Rasberries, Currants, or Strawberries, fill your Tin-Pots with the Fruit, but as hollow as you can; put to them Lemmonade, made with Spring-Water and Lemmon-Juice sweeten'd; put enough in the Pots to make the Fruit hang together, and put them in Ice as you do Cream.

Kind of hard to follow, but you get the idea!



By the time Thomas Jefferson was around he had his very own ice cream recipe. How cool is this? Click on it to get a bigger picture and read the recipe. It's in the Library of Congress!


You know the old hand crank ice cream machine...a Nancy Johnson got a patent on that in 1843! Nice to know that all the great inventors weren't men :-)



And that brings us to the ice cream cone, rumored to have its beginnings at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Ice cream stands and waffle stands some how collided. Young fair goers enjoying some ice cream...


It tastes just as good in the bed of a pickup


In 1921, the Commissioner of Ellis Island issued a delicious
decree: all immigrants arriving in this country would receive a free
scoop of ice cream with their first American meal.


Soda fountains became all the rage around the country.



And Drive Ins soon followed. Here's a neat one I visited the other day in a little town called Buckley and sampled the shake of the month.


And the rest is...well...history! Now days ice cream is not just for royalty...we can have it any day of the week. So lets get right down to it! There are so many varieties of ice cream in the stores these days its mind boggling. I decided to try something different in the name of research for the Ice Cream Social. As I've gotten older, I've also gotten somewhat lactose intolerant and it turns out there are quite a few lactose free products on the market right now. Purely Decadent Mocha Almond Fudge made with Coconut Milk tastes as good as it sounds. After dished out into a bowl I don't think anyone would have a clue its dairy free.


When I think about an ice cream social, I think of a little something for everyone. So when I picked my recipes for today I wanted to cover all my bases at my house. First up is Randy's choice, Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream with requested chocolate shavings.



I used this no cook recipe from Cooking Light and it came out nice and creamy. I would cut back on the amount of vanilla if I made this again because it kind of over powers the chocolate. It will be great in a chocolate shake which Randy request from time to time!

Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream

Cooking Light, JULY 2003

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk, divided
• 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
• 1 cup fat-free sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated low-fat milk
• Dash of salt

Preparation

Heat 1 cup whole milk in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat to 180° or until tiny bubbles form around edge (do not boil). Remove from heat, and add the cocoa, stirring with a whisk until cocoa dissolves. Cool to room temperature.

Combine 1 cup whole milk, condensed milk, vanilla, evaporated milk, and salt in a blender, and process until smooth. Add cocoa mixture; blend well. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

So my pick was a recipe in the July issue of Southern Living. I already know that my friend Marsha picked a recipe for the social from this same issue. They all looked and sounded to yummy. The original recipe was called Peach and Toasted Pecan Ice cream. I tweaked that a little to fit what I had on hand and my sweet tooth. This turned out awesome! I'd make this again in a heartbeat.



Nectarine and Praline Pecan Ice Cream
Inspired by recipe from Southern Living, JULY 2010

Yield: Makes about 1 qt.

3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste* (I used the insides of 1 vanilla bean.)
1 cup peeled and coarsely chopped nectarines
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1. Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a large heavy saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk and whipping cream. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 10 to 12 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat.

2. Whisk egg yolk until slightly thickened. Gradually whisk about 1 cup hot cream mixture into yolk. Add yolk mixture to remaining cream mixture, whisking constantly. Whisk in vanilla bean paste. Cool 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

3. Meanwhile, cook nectarines and corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring often, 4 to 5 minutes. Coarsely mash, and let cool 30 minutes. Stir nectarine mixture into cooled cream mixture.

4. Place plastic wrap directly on cream mixture, and chill 8 to 24 hours.

5. Meanwhile, melt butter in a small skillet over medium heat; add pecans, brown sugar and cook, stirring constantly, until sugar has cooked down and thickened a bit. Remove from heat, and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp. kosher salt. Cool completely (about 30 minutes).

6. Pour chilled cream mixture into freezer container of a 1 1/2-qt. electric ice-cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. (Instructions and time may vary.) Before transferring ice cream to an airtight container for further freezing, stir in pecan mixture.

*Vanilla extract may be substituted.

And last but certainly not least in my little family, Jig also LOVES ice cream. We always give him a spoonful out of our bowls on his own little plate. When I saw a recipe that a food editor friend posted on Facebook this week I knew I had to try it for my boy.




Aint Nuttin But a Houndog Frozen Treats
Doug Gruse, who writes for the Post Star in Glen Falls New York - A link to his food blog at the newspaper, Eat My Words. Thanks Doug!

32 ounces vanilla yogurt

1 banana

2 tablespoons peanut butter

2 tablespoons honey

Peel the banana and mash, then add all the ingredients to a blender. Mix thoroughly until you get the consistency of a smoothie. Pour into mini cupcake wrappers and freeze.

Jigs thinks they're great!



I have to interject a sad story here...I had a casualty while preparing for the social. At some point in the past year I found the cutest little ice cream dish that I knew would be perfect for my ice cream social. It was perched on the highest shelf in my kitchen...and for those who don't know, I'm not even 5'1, so I have trouble.... It came tumbling down along with another little dish and shattered all over the kitchen. Its still too cute, even broken to not show what remains of it! Maybe I'll find another...


So now for the grand finale! At least year's social, my friend Barb made individual baked alaskas that had me itching to try them. And at around the same time, Food Network Magazine featured on its cover this beautiful baked Alaska


that I dogeared and have gone back to ogle over many times in the last year, so I knew I had to give it a shot. Mine isn't nearly so perfect but I was really happy with how it turned out!



Baked Alaska

Recipe courtesy Food Network Magazine

Ingredients

For the Ice Cream Cake:

• Vegetable oil, for brushing
• 1 pint raspberry, passion fruit or other sorbet, softened(I used Pomegranate flavored)
  
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened (I used honey flavored)
  
• 1 quart chocolate ice cream, softened(I used Green Tea Flavored)
  
• 1 cup chocolate wafer crumbs (about 17 crushed wafers) (I used Oreos)
  
• 1 loaf pound cake( I used brownies
  
• 
  

For the Meringue:

• 1 cup egg whites (about 6 large), at room temperature
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• 1 cup sugar

Directions

Make the ice cream cake: Brush a 3-quart metal bowl with vegetable oil; line with plastic wrap. Fill the bowl with scoops of the sorbet, vanilla ice cream and half of the chocolate ice cream, alternating small and large scoops to create a mosaic of colors and shapes. Place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the ice cream; press down to close the gaps between scoops and even out the surface. Remove the plastic wrap, sprinkle the ice cream with the wafer crumbs and re-cover with the plastic wrap, pressing gently. Freeze until set, about 30 minutes.

Remove the wrap and spread the remaining chocolate ice cream in an even layer on top of the crumbs. Cut the pound cake into 1/2-inch-thick slices; completely cover the ice cream with the slices, trimming as needed (you'll use about two-thirds of the cake). Cover with fresh plastic wrap and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Make the meringue: Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the sugar on high speed until the whites are glossy and hold stiff peaks.

Remove the top layer of plastic wrap, then invert the cake onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. (If necessary, let the cake stand overturned until it slips out.) Remove the rest of the plastic wrap and cover the ice cream completely with the meringue, making the dome-shaped top slightly thicker than the sides. Form swirly peaks in the meringue using the back of a spoon. Freeze for at least 3 more hours.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. (I put it on broil) Bake the cake until the meringue peaks are golden, about 4 minutes, or brown the meringue with a blowtorch. Let the cake soften at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Freeze any leftovers.

Here are the ice creams I used for the inside! The Green Tea is my favorite of the bunch.


And for the Oreo crumbs...how fitting!


Please have a slice! I have enough to feed a huge crowd :-)


I'm so happy you joined me for the social. Hope you had fun! If you've got a link to share please add it below! The party is going on all weekend so don't worry if your a little late. Even if its days after the party..join up anyways if you've got something to shared. Thanks so much for stopping by :-)

I''m joining in over at Bargain Hunting With Laurie's My Favorite Things because Ice Cream is certainly one of them!