What’s new at Häagen-Daz?

The company is rolling out a line of alcohol-infused ice cream treats this month, called Häagen-Dazs Spirits Collection (photo #1).

With flavors made variously with bourbon, rum and liqueurs, each pint contains less than 0.5% alcohol by volume.

Federal law does not consider any beverage that contains less than 0.5% alcohol by volume to be alcoholic. But laws regulating alcohol in food can vary state by state.

Thus, it’s unclear if the collection will be available in all 50 states, but ask your grocer. Or better yet, see our tip below.

The boozy ice cream flavors include:

 
Boozy milkshake, anyone?

There are also Irish Cream Cookie Squares, chocolate cookies topped with Irish Cream ice cream and dipped in dark chocolate (photo #3). Here’s more information about all the flavors.
 
Häagen-Dazs isn’t the first national brand to add alcohol to its ice creams.

 
 
HERE’S THE TIP: MAKE YOUR OWN

Each pint in the Spirits Collection contains less than 0.5% alcohol per volume. That’s just half a teaspoon in the whole pint!

THe line is more marketing than alcohol flavor. So if you want the boozy ice cream experience…

Make your own!

We’re not suggesting that you take out your ice cream machine and make a batch from scratch, although you certainly could.

The easy ways to create boozy ice cream are:

 
Feel like a spirited float? Check out these recipes.

You don’t need to make boozy ice cream first. Just pour the booze into the glass, on top of the ice cream!

[1] Two of the flavors in the Häagen-Dazs Spirits Collection (photo courtesy Häagen-Dazs).

[2] Make your own: Pour spirits over regular ice cream (photo courtesy Häagen-Dazs Canada).

[3] Irish Cream Cookie Squares (photo courtesy Häagen-Dazs).

[1] The narrow footprint of the Aquasana Clean Water Machine fits on most kitchen counters. This style, which dispenses from the unit, is available in black (photo courtesy Aquasana).

[2] This style, which we have, dispenses filtered water into a removable half-gallon pitcher. It is available in black or white (photo courtesy Aquasana).

[3] We pour our water from the Aquasana dispenser (photo #1) into reusable plastic bottles (photo courtesy FreeImagesLive.co.uk | Gratuit).

April 22nd is Earth Day, and each year we take a few minutes to think about what else we can [easily] do to help save the planet.

An alternative to buying and tossing plastic water bottles is a good way to start.

Last week we recommended SodaStream as a way to do the same with soft drinks and sparkling water. Today, we present the Aquasana Clean Water Dispenser, a countertop filtration system.

If you prefer filtering your tap water to purchasing water—whether to please your palate or to eliminate contaminants—you may have tried a Britta or ZeroWater pitcher filtration device, or even a larger countertop unit.

But if you’re kitchen-space-challenged as we are, you have neither space in the fridge nor on the counter top for one—without sacrificing something else.

THE AQUASANA CLEAN WATER MACHINE

Thanks to Aquasana, we no longer have that limitation. The company, which specializes in water filters for sinks and showers—plus handsome individual water bottles with built-in filters—has come up with a space saver countertop unit that nicely hugs the side of the kitchen counter next to our fridge (photo #1).

Plus, truth to tell, the filter yields better-tasting water (i.e., flavorless water) than other brands we’ve tried. Often, guests think we’re serving Fiji Water.

The Clean Water Machine has the same Aquasana professional filtration system that keeps the good minerals dissolved in your tap water (calcium, magnesium, potassium).

 
 
IT FITS INTO TIGHT SPACES

Just 4.5 inches wide and 17 inches long, the Aquasana Clean Water Machine dispenses a half gallon of filtered water by the glassful or the pitcherful. Choose from the self-dispensing model that holds a gallon (photo #1), or the model with a removable pitcher that holds a half gallon (photo #2).

The device is electric, and claims to remove “10x more contaminants than leading gravity pitchers.”

Instead of slowly trickling through the filter via gravity, Aquasana’s electricity-driven motor filters a half gallon in a minute.

Two filters, each making 320 gallons of clean, flavorless water, are included with each machine.

 
Aquasana Clean Water Machine is available in black or white, and is sold at retailers including Costco, e-tailers and from the company website.

The list price is $129.99 ($124.99 at Costco).

*PFOA/PFOS are two contaminants of emerging concern, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid. (1) Here’s are more about them.

We were admiring this dessert from Caviar Russe in New York City. It’s art on a plate.

Then we realized: This is relatively easy to put together.

We love artistic food, so we set out to make our version of this cake-and-ice cream dessert.

If you buy the loaf cake instead of baking it, the only time-consuming parts are making mini meringues and cream cheese frosting.

You can combine any flavors, use fruit purée instead of frosting, and add your own signature garnishes.

Here’s what we did.
 
 
RECIPE: CAKE ART

1. Cake

To save time, we purchased a dense carrot cake—the same type used by Caviar Russe.

Instead of cutting a square-ish slice, cut something more stylish, like the slim rectangle in photo #1.

Don’t worry about “wasted” cake trimmings. In our book, cake is never wasted. At the least, you can toss it into the freezer to serve later, with a bowl of ice cream or an ad hoc trifle.

2. Meringues

It’s easier to pipe meringue cookies, especially the mini meringues used in this recipe. There are three on the plate.

You can buy them from Miss Meringue, although homemade meringues, without preservatives, taste better.

Here’s the recipe for the mini meringues in photo #3.

You may also know a local bakery that sells them.

Or, if you can only find large or jumbo meringues, cut them and serve the rough pieces—“rustic art.”

Whatever you choose, make them all one color. Different colors are distracting on an already-diverse plate.

You’ll note that there’s a dab of something white on the top right of the carrot cake. That’s crème fraîche, not a meringue.

While we love it, we omitted it. There’s enough going on.

3. Cookie Crumbles

These serve as a bed for the scoop of ice cream (top left of cake), and are a crunchy textural addition.

We bought, instead of baked, the cookies; and chose oatmeal cookies for their homey flavor pairing with carrot cake (we bought cookies without raisins, for ease in crumbling).

Use the cookies of your choice, from chocolate wafers to shortbread. It’s all about flavor pairing.

4. Ice Cream

[1] Simple ingredients like carrot cake are put together to look spectacular: a work of art from Caviar Russe.

[2] A close-up.

[3] Mini meringues colored in pastels. Here’s the recipe from Taste | Australia.

5. Swirl

You can create your swirl from fruit purée or frosting. Since we chose carrot cake, we used cream cheese frosting, which also holds its shape better then purée.

We added lemon zest and yellow food color, and copied the swirl pattern in the photo.

If you like canned frosting, you can buy it and add the zest and color.

6. Garnish

Lastly, a color counterpoint to perk up the plate.

Caviar Russe used herb fronds (the spots of green), but we didn’t want anything on the plate that people wouldn’t eat. We like mint with chocolate and other flavors, for example, but we didn’t want it as an edible with carrot cake.

So we bought pomegranate arils, and they looked great. We could have used raspberries (or pastel candy lentils), but wanted a more delicate touch.
 
 
That’s our version of this artistic dessert. Now it’s your turn!