ice cream

A favorite frozen dessert, thought to have originated in the mountains of ancient China, with snow as the base. Today's ice cream is made with a combination of milk products (usually cream combined with fresh, condensed or dry milk), a sweetening agent (sugar, honey, corn syrup or artificial sweetener) and sometimes nuts, fruit, chocolate, etc. French ice cream has a cooked egg-custard base. Ice milk contains less milk fat and milk solids than ice cream. 'Neapolitan Ice Cream,' refers to a block of ice cream composed of layers of different flavors, usually chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. (The term Neapolitan is also used to refer to any molded dessert that is made with 3 layers.)

Ingredient

Season: available year-round

How to store: Ice cream tends to absorb food odors and form ice crystals. For that reason, it is best not to freeze it for more than 2-3 days. Sealing the carton with a plastic bag will extend storage to a week.

How to prepare: Tips: (1) If the ice cream is very soft, the brine is not cold enough and more salt should be added to reduce the brine temperature. (2) If the ice cream is coarse and ice in less than 20 minutes, the brine became too cold too quickly, meaning too much salt was used. (3) Electric freezing takes longer than hand operated. (4) Make the ice cream mix the day before it is frozen to get a smoother result. (5) Freeze at least 3 hours before serving. (6) Add liquid flavors before freezing, but add fruits/nuts after freezing and before hardening.

Matches well with: apples, apriocts, bananas, caramel, cherries, chocolate, coffee, ginger, honey, maple syrup, mangoes, nuts, oranges, passion fruit, peaches, pecans, persimmons, pistachios, raspberries, rum, strawberries, vanilla, walnuts