If you asked me what my favorite ice cream of all time was, my answer might surprise you.  Sure, I’m a fan of chocolate and vanilla.  I love pralines and creme, chocolate chip cookie dough and moose tracks but my one go-to frozen dessert has always been fruit sherbets and lime is at the top of my favorite list for a long time.

So for the second use of the fabulous ice cream maker attachment my wife bought me for my birthday this year I decided to whip up a batch of Lime Sherbet.  The search for a recipe led me to Elle’s new England Kitchen and her recipe for Lemon Lime Crush Sherbet.  Just a few modifications to the base sherbet recipe and we were off!

I chose Elle’s recipe because it didn’t sound too sweet and could be adapted to work with what i already had on hand.  It was the perfect choice.  This sherbet is tart, tangy and wonderfully refreshing. It is now my official go-to recipe for all things sherbet and since it uses equal amounts of milk and cream, can easily be made with half-and-half, which tends to be less expensive.

This recipe was an insane hit with the kids.  It makes about 1 quart of sherbet, which is the perfect amount for Dad and three kids at two scoops each.  The kids loved it and have already requested more.

They can have it when They can squeeze ten limes, which can be a bit of a tedious process, even with a juicer.  I think I burned all of the calories needed to work off the sherbet while I was making it…  But it was worth it!

If you’ve been looking for the perfect fruit sherbet base, this is it.  My thanks to Elle and her delicious recipe.  I’ll be making more sherbets with this base soon.

Very, very soon.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

It’s summer and it’s hot.  In my part of the country this means weeks of 100-plus degree weather.  It’s the perfect time for ice cream… And to play with the brand-spanking-new ice cream maker attachment that my wife bought me for my birthday.  The timing couldn’t be better.

I searched the bloggosphere for a few days trying to decide what I wanted to make first.  I really couldn’t decide if I wanted to make ice cream, sorbet or sherbet and it wasn’t easy narrowing down the choices.  There are a ton of great ice cream recipes out there.

Did I want to make this coffee ice cream from Elise at Simply Recipes or should I make David Lebovitz’s Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream?  Was I more in the mood for something lighter like the Very Berry Sherbet from comfy belly or this amazing sounding lime sorbet from Eating Cleveland?  This was going to be no easy decision, but a decision had to be made.

One thing that has kept me from diving headlong into making even basic vanilla ice cream is the custard base.  It’s time consuming and can be difficult. Custard bases also require a lot of attention, which can be difficult in a house full of rowdy kids and a dog who is usually underfoot.

This fear has been lessened by the discovery of a no cook custard base from Kitchen Mage, but I still wanted to start off with something a little less involved and that’s when I came across the recipe for peanut butter ice cream you see here.  Cream, yes! Custard, No.  Perfection.

The recipe was a breeze to make, works well and ends up tasting somewhat like peanut butter sugar cookie dough.  The peanut flavor is pretty intense, even using bargain brand peanut butter.  If you are making ice cream for the first time, this recipe might just be what you’re looking for.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Margarine
• 1 cup Cocoa
• 2 cups Sugar
• 4 Eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp Vanilla
• 1 cup Nuts, chopped
• 4 cups Strawberry Ice Cream, soft
• Chocolate Sauce (for serving)

Method:

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

Melt margarine in a large saucepan. Remove from heat. Stir in cocoa. Blend in sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Blend in dry ingredients and nuts, if desired.

Pour batter into foil-lined and lightly greased 15x10x3/4-inch(2L) jelly roll pan. Bake in 350F(180C) oven 15 to 17 minutes or until done. Cool. Invert pan; peel off foil. Cut brownie crosswise into 3 equal pieces. Place one piece of brownie on plate; spread with half the ice cream. Layer the second piece of brownie and remaining ice cream. Top with remaining piece of brownie. Wrap and freeze until firm.

Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving. Slice and serve with Chocolate Sauce. Store leftovers in freezer.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Ingredients:

• 5 ounces Unsweetened chocolate
• 14 ounces Sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)
• 4 Egg yolks
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 2 cups Half-and-half
• 2 cups Whipping cream, unwhipped
• 1 cup Chopped nuts, optional

Method:

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. In a large bowl, beat the chocolate, milk, egg yolks and vanilla. Stir in the half-and- half, whipping cream, and nuts if desired. Pour into ice cream freezer container and prepare as normal. Store leftovers in freezer. Makes about 1.5 quarts.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Ingredients:

• 2 pints coffee ice cream
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 3 Tbsp whipping cream (or condensed Milk)
• 1-1/2 sleeves of Girl Scout Thin Mint Cookies (crushed)

Method:

Heavily grease sides and bottom of a 9 inch pie pan with regular (not light) stick margarine. Crumb cookies in food processor and press into pie pan.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Soften ice cream in refrigerator for four hours (or 1 hour room temperature).

Fill baked cool pie shell with ice cream and cover with wax paper. Freeze. Melt chocolate chips and whipping cream over lowest heat and spread over pie. Refreeze.

Popularity: 1% [?]