Here’s a new way to enjoy brownies à la mode: brownie sundae bowls.

Made by Chicago Metallic, one of our favorite manufacturers of baking equipment, they add pizzazz to an already delightful dessert.

Beyond brownies, you can make other cake recipes in the molds as well. Just pour the batter into the molds, bake, cool and fill the bowls with:

 
One regular batter recipe or box of brownie mix produces four brownie bowls.

Enjoy the sundae, then eat the [brownie] bowl. Photo courtesy Chicago Metallic.

A set of two large silicone brownie molds is $10.99.The non-stick, easy release bowls measure 5.1/4-inches in diameter and are dishwasher safe.

How can you resist?

Get your brownie bowl molds now.

What can you do to turn a scoop of vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt into a sophisticated dessert?

Drizzle it with balsamic glaze and add some strawberries. And if you prefer, use strawberry ice cream or yogurt.

Plain strawberries with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar or a balsamic glaze is a classic Italian dessert. We’re not sure whether Italians or Americans added ice cream to the recipe, but it’s a winning combination.

WHAT IS BALSAMIC GLAZE?

Balsamic glaze is balsamic vinegar that has been reduced into a syrup equivalent to 25% of the original volume. The difference from just drizzling vinegar from the bottle is a thicker sauce, but you can certainly skip the reduction and use balsamic from the bottle.

Balsamic on vanilla ice cream with strawberries. Photo courtesy Leonardi.

 
You can make balsamic glaze or buy it; in addition to a plain glaze, you can find it in blood orange, fig, pomegranate and strawberry. You can also make or buy a white balsamic glaze.

The simple addition of a balsamic glaze adds wonderful flavor to simple dishes, both sweet and savory (berries, grilled chicken, fish and other proteins; crudites, steamed vegetables, whipped cream and so on).

Balsamic glaze on strawberry frozen yogurt with fresh strawberries: a summer flavor from Pinkberry. Photo courtesy Pinkberry.

MAKE YOUR OWN BALSAMIC GLAZE

You can make a batch and keep it in the fridge, on call whenever you need some culinary magic. The refreshing sweet-and-tangy taste perks up just about anything (if it’s too tangy for you, add some sugar to your reduction).

Two cups of vinegar reduces to a half cup of glaze.

Ingredients

2. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the vinegar is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

3. Remove from heat; allow to cool. Store in the fridge, in a jar with a tight lid, for up to a month.

Find more of our favorite ice cream recipes.

Gelato is the original ice cream, invented in Florence in the 16th century. The key differences vis-à-vis ice cream are less cream/more milk and less air (overrun). This combination enables a more intense showcasing of the fruits, nuts and other flavors.

Talenti Gelato is named for Bernardo Buontalenti, the impressario who first created gelato for a Medici banquet. We think the Tahitian Vanilla is the best vanilla gelato or ice cream out there.

Five new flavors launched this month include Banana Chocolate Swirl gelato with chocolate flecks and a dulce de leche swirl, and Black Raspberry Chocolate gelato, a heartbreaking raspberry with chocolate flecks. The heartbreak comes when your store doesn’t carry it.

Peanut butter lovers can dig into Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Gelato, PB ice cream with an organic peanut butter swirl and chopped miniature chocolate peanut butter cups. It’s not gimmicky, just great.

Talenti: a great gelato experience in 19 flavors (plus 3 sorbetti). Image courtesy Talenti Gelato.

The Joy Of Gelato

Affogato: an Italian sundae. Photo courtesy Talenti Gelato.

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When it gives you gelato, make affogato (ah-foe-GOT-toe).

We’re perplexed as to why this quickie Italian sundae—a scoop of gelato topped with a shot of espresso—is rarely found on Italian restaurant menus in the U.S. Most of them serve both gelato and espresso. Did someone lose the affogato recipe?

The next time you’re at an Italian restaurant, order an affogato for dessert. If they won’t make it for you, unleash your inner Robert Eroica Dupea—the character played by Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces”: 

Order an espresso and a dish of gelato and combine them yourself.

Affogato means “drowned” in Italian. You can further drown the gelato with a flavored syrup or a shot of liqueur. Consider amaretto, chocolate, coffee, hazelnut or vanilla syrups or liqueurs—or go fusion with some Irish cream liqueur.

Make Affogato At Home

It’s easy to make affogato at home—as a treat for yourself or a surprise for family and friends. While vanilla is the traditional gelato flavor, chocolate, coffee and hazelnut gelato are even more delicious. (While it goes without saying, we’ll say it: You can substitute ice cream for gelato.)

In this cooking video, Giada Di Laurentiis tops vanilla gelato with syrup and and then adds a shot of hazelnut liqueur before topping the “sundae” with with hot espresso.

You can re-concept affogato from a sundae to a beverage by adding a scoop of gelato to a glass of iced espresso.

Check out all the different types of espresso drinks.

The difference between gelato and ice cream.

We became overly fond of Ben & Jerry’s new Banana Greek Frozen Yogurt with Peanut Buttery Swirls. But after we finished the two pints sent to us by Ben & Jerry’s, we couldn’t find the flavor locally.

Necessity being the mother of invention, we experimented with making our own PB swirl ice cream. To please our friend Rose, we also made some pints with Nutella.

It’s easy to do, just by softening a plain pint of your favorite ice cream or frozen yogurt, and adding the swirl.

PEANUT BUTTER OR NUTELLA SWIRL
ICE CREAM

Ingredients

When life gives you peanut butter, make PB swirl ice cream. Photo courtesy NuttysPeanutButter.com.

*If you tend to like things on the sweet side, you may want to bring the peanut butter closer to the sweetness of the ice cream. We prefer the contrast, without the sugar.

Preparation

1. Combine the peanut butter, cream and corn syrup in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until smooth. Chill the mixture for an hour or longer.

2. After the mixture is chilled, soften the ice cream on the kitchen counter until you can slide the contents out (use a knife to loosen the edges). Slice the ice cream horizontally into five circles.

3. Repack the ice cream into the container, alternating the slices with spoonfuls of the peanut butter or Nutella mixture, along with a sprinkling of the optional nuts. Return to the freezer until ready to eat.

How Many Frozen Desserts Have You Tried?

Check out our Ice Cream Glossary to see what you’ve been missing.

Some of Ben & Jerry’s frozen yogurt flavors rank among the company’s Top 10 sellers.

But with the current consumer love* for Greek yogurt—a style that is triple-strained into a thicker form—the new product line took form. The inspiration was a staff member who ate regular Greek yogurt every day for lunch.

This week, the company introduced four new pints made from Greek yogurt:

 
Plus, plain vanilla frozen Greek yogurt will be available at Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops.

Ben & Jerry’s mascot, Woody the cow (named after the artist who drew her), decked out in a laurel wreath and Greek duds. Image courtesy Ben & Jerry’s.

Creamy and rich-tasting with a soft, lilting tang, the frozen yogurts have another bonus: fewer calories than Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (from 180 calories/serving for Strawberry Shortcake to 210 for the Peanut Butter Banana, with Blueberry Vanilla Graham and Raspberry Fudge Chunk weighing in at 200 calories).

The line is certified kosher (dairy) by KOF-K.
 
*In the $4 billion yogurt category, Greek yogurt has gone from almost nothing 10 years ago to 25% of the category.

The new fab four frozen Greek yogurts.
Photo courtesy Ben & Jerry’s.

When you’re an employee of Ben & Jerry’s, you get to take home three pints of ice cream, sorbet or frozen yogurt every day. (The company also has a gym on the premises, but we wouldn’t fit into our desk chair if we worked for Ben & Jerry’s.)

When you’re a food writer, you get invited to events to taste new products—and although we took home four pints, it’s a once-a-year temptation at best.

We had the time of our life trying the four new pint flavors plus two scoop shop items:

“It’s really Greekin’ good,” says Woody, the Ben & Jerry’s cow. We agree.
 
Can You Name All The Different Frozen Desserts?

Check out our Ice Cream Glossary.

Find more of our favorite ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet: products and recipes.

Celebrate National Strawberry Ice Cream
Day by tasting 4-6 different brands. Your
favorite may surprise you. Photo courtesy
Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Today is National Strawberry Ice Cream Day, a good excuse to have an ice cream tasting.

Most of us keep buying Brand 1 out of habit; but perhaps we’d prefer Brand 2, 3 or 4. Manufacturers can change their recipes over time, and new brands pop up. Your own tastes change, as well.

Pick up different brands of strawberry ice cream and treat family or friends to an ice cream tasting. Analyze the different components: creaminess, berryness, density, mouthfeel, texture, sweetness.

Take notes and rank your favorites. The results may surprise you.

For Your Ice Cream Tasting

While we’re happy with just the ice cream, we wouldn’t turn down some shortbread or butter cookies on the side. You want a simple cookie that complements the ice cream.
 
Also feel free to set up a toppings bar: chocolate chips, fruits, nuts, granola and other favorites.

Another tip about ice cream: Don’t serve it rock-hard. A good part of the flavor will be frozen solid as well. If your freezer has hardened the ice cream to the max, set the pints on the counter for 15 minutes before scooping and serving.

WHY IS IT CALLED “ICE CREAM?”

The original frozen desserts were fruit ices, or sherbets, which date back to China, as early as 3000 B.C.E.

Ice cream as we know it was most likely created in Florence in the 1500s for a Medici banquet (details). While no details survive of the creation, according to FoodTimeline.org, cooks began to make summer desserts by taking the richest part of the milk, the cream, flavoring it with seasonal fruits—like strawberries—and cooling it down with ice. The chillier the cream, the more solid the product.

Thus, the dessert’s name was a description of the process by which it was made. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “iced cream” first appeared in print in 1688; “ice cream” appeared in 1744.

Before modern refrigeration, ice cream was a rich man’s treat. Only wealthy people had access to ice in the summer (it was cut from lakes in the winter and stored in cellars and caves).

And wealthy people had the staff needed to make ice cream: those to hold down the ice-filled bowl and those to hand churn the bowl of cream set in it, until it solidified—constant stirring for up to an hour!

It was not until the late 19th century that commercially-manufactured ice cream was accessible to people across socioeconomic levels.

Check out the history of ice cream, which began with flavored ices in China, as early as 3000 B.C.E.

Peach Melba (its original title was in French, Pêche Melba) was created in the summer of 1892 at the Savoy Hotel, London by the the great French chef Auguste Escoffier. It honored the renowned Australian soprano, Dame Nellie Melba (Escoffier also created Melba toast for her).

The dish combined two summer fruits, peaches and raspberries, with vanilla ice cream. Escoffier poached the peach and topped it with ice cream and raspberry purée. Essentially, it’s an ice cream sundae with poached peaches.

But the original Pêche Melba was a bit more elaborate. At the time, Dame Nellie was performing in Wagner’s opera, Lohengrin, at Covent Garden. She was the guest of honor at a dinner party hosted by the Duke of Orléans at the Savoy.

For the party, Escoffier displayed the dessert in a swan ice sculpture. In the opera, the knight Lohengrin arrives and departs in a boat pulled by swans. Here, the ice swan held a bed of vanilla ice cream topped with peaches and spun sugar.

Needless to say, the dessert was the talk of the town—or at least, that portion of town interested in opera and Escoffier.

In 1900, for the opening of the Carlton Hotel in London, Escoffier created an easier version of the dessert. He ditched the ice swan and topped the peaches with raspberry purée.

Peach Melba, an ice cream sundae. Photo © Unpict | Fotolia.

Light yet delicious, Pêche Melba became a classic dessert.

The question is, why is National Peach Melba Day in January, when fresh peaches are out of season? Fresh raspberries are almost always available and you can use canned or frozen peaches, although to do so counters the wisdom of eating seasonally.

But celebrate we will, by poaching some Dole frozen peach slices. We actually prefer the slices to Escoffier’s half-peach “cap” atop the ice cream.

PEACH MELBA RECIPE

FOR THE POACHED PEACHES

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. Wash, dry and halve the peaches and discard the pits.
2. Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Cover, bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
3. Simmer until peaches are slightly softened but not mushy. Frozen peach slices may be there already; whole, less ripe fresh peaches may take 7-10 minutes.

FOR THE RASPBERRY PUREÉ

Ingredients

 
Preparation: Wash raspberries, pat dry and purée with other ingredients.

FOR THE ASSEMBLY

Ingredients

 
TO ASSEMBLE
1. To serve, place a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a bowl—or better yet, make it a glass dessert bowl, a Champagne coupe, a round wine goblet, or a parfait or sundae glass.

2. Top with a peach half or sliced peaches.

3. Drizzle with raspberry purée. Garnish as desired.

Ice cream that smells and tastes like
gingerbread. Photo courtesy
KitchenKonfidential.com.

Ice cream is one of our favorite desserts—heck, it’s our favorite food, period.

For New Year’s Eve, we like to make a special flavor. Last year it was lavender. Prior years included anise, chipotle chocolate, chocolate pretzel, peppermint schnapps and white chocolate with edible gold flakes. For the Millennium, we splurged on black truffle ice cream.

This year, we’re making Gingerbread-Trappist Ale Ice Cream, to serve with an apple tart. Those who have no room left for the tart can enjoy a spoonful or two of easy-to-down sweetness. (Note: Trappist ale is one type of Belgian ale, and should be used in this recipe. See the footnote* at the bottom of this post for the difference Belgian beers and ales.)

In addition to serving it as a glammed-up version of apple pie à la mode, you can make ice cream sandwiches by toasting slices of gingerbread loaf or other favorite loaf: banana cake, carrot cake or chocolate or regular pound cake.

This recipe, from Brandon Matzek’s blog, KitchenKonfidence.com, was adapted from a recipe created by Ethan Frisch and Max Falkowitz, and sent to us from the Craft Beer Association.

Made with candied ginger, cinnamon, clove, allspice and Belgian-style ale, the ice cream smells and tastes like gingerbread. The Trappist ale (we used Duvel, one of our favorites) adds a delicious depth of flavor. Brandon Matzek’s serving suggestion is to scoop the ice cream over a warm slice of gingerbread, topped with sautéed apples.

You can serve a glass of Belgian ale along with the dessert. Or a cup of spice tea.

GINGERBREAD-ALE ICE CREAM RECIPE

Ingredients

Serves: 8 – 10

 
Preparation
1. In a large saucepan, add heavy cream, whole milk, 1-1/3 cups ale and molasses, stirring to combine.

2. Add allspice, black peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fresh ginger, nutmeg and star anise.

3. Cook mixture over a medium-low heat until just below a simmer, stirring frequently for about 15 minutes (you want to see steam rising from the surface, but minimal to no bubbles).

4. Whisk the egg yolks and brown sugar in a bowl until slightly thickened. Slowly, while whisking, add 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture to the yolks. Take your time here so you don’t scramble the yolks. Repeat this process with another 1/2 cup of the hot cream, then return everything to the saucepan.

5. Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl. Set a medium sized bowl in the ice bath and have a strainer ready.

6. Return the saucepan to a medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. You will know the custard is thick enough when you see steam rise from the surface and the custard coats the spoon.

7. Add the chocolate, lemon zest and the last 1/3 cup ale. Continue to cook for another minute or two, until the proper thickness is achieved again.

8. Strain the custard into the medium sized bowl sitting in the ice bath. Stir in the vanilla extract and salt. Stir occasionally until the mixture has cooled. Refrigerate until cold (preferably overnight).

9. Freeze custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When the ice cream is three quarters of the way done, add candied ginger and continue to freeze until frozen.

10. Serve to delighted guests.

*Trappist ale is one of nine categories of Belgian beer and ale. Others include everyday Belgian ale, brown ale, golden ale, lambic, red beer, saison, specialty ales and wheat beer (witbier). Under an official designation established by the International Trappist Association in 1997, only beer brewed under the direct supervision of Trappist monks may be called Trappist. There are currently seven such breweries in the world: six in Belgium and one in the Netherlands. Abbey beer—which originally referred to any monastic or monastic-style beer—is the designation of products similar in style or presentation to Trappist beers, such as beers brewed in non-Trappist monasteries, commercial breweries that license the name from an extant Trappist monastery, beers named for a defunct or fictitious monastery, and so on.

Given how many people enjoy PB, there’s a paucity of peanut butter ice cream out there.

We could make it, of course. But for instant gratification, we buy Reese’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cups: peanut butter ice cream in a chocolate cup.

Or, to be accurate, it’s milk chocolate flavored coating,* made with vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter, so the coating will adhere better to the ice cream. Some “coatings” don’t taste like real chocolate. This one is so good, we didn’t notice the difference.

Most PB ice creams have a lighter PB flavor. The peanut butter flavor in Reese’s† ice cream is intense and satisfying, a replication of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

Look for the bright orange box in your grocer’s ice cream freezer.

The product is certified kosher (dairy) by KOF-K.

Ways To Enjoy Peanut Butter Ice Cream
If you can find a quart of peanut butter ice cream—or want to make your own—here are some of our favorite serving suggestions:

Intense peanut butter ice cream in a chocolate cup. Photo courtesy Reese’s.

 
Love to create complex desserts? Try this cutting edge peanut butter cake and ice cream recipe—an award winner.

*To be called “chocolate,” the product must be made with cocoa butter. When the less expensive vegetable oil is substituted for cocoa butter—whether to save money or to make the product function better, as in the case of chocolate-coated ice cream bars—the product must be referred to as a coating, and as chocolate-flavored instead of “chocolate.”

†Reese’s candy is made by Hershey. The ice cream is made by license to Unilever.