Selecting an ice cream that the whole family likes has always been a bit of a challenge when planning birthday celebrations. Some family members are fans of mix-in laden ice cream, while others are purists, preferring a rich vanilla or delicate mocha. Years ago, I went grocery shopping with my mother to pick up what we needed for my father?s birthday dinner. As I pulled a pint of Brigham?s Cookies and Cream ice cream from the freezer case, my mother stated ?Your brother doesn?t like cookies and cream.? I was not aware of this fact, but she insisted. So, I relented and we selected something different. Years later, upon observing me eating a bowl of cookies and cream ice cream, my brother remarked that he thought I disliked that particular flavor. Apparently, my mother told my brother that I didn?t like cookies and cream. It was totally inadvertent (she was convinced that somebody didn’t like it), but we now joke that it must have been that Mom just didn?t want cookies and cream.

In recent years, Edy?s Fudge Tracks (their version of the more well-known Moose Tracks) has become a family favorite. It has a rich vanilla base to satisfy the purists, and fun mix-ins to please those with slightly more adventurous tastes. To top it all off, the combination of vanilla, chocolate and peanut butter complements most cakes without overpowering them. Since I?ve been on a ice-cream making kick lately, I decided to concoct my own Moose Tracks for my father?s birthday celebration.

I selected a vanilla ice cream base from Proceed with Caution, and used a Fudge Ripple recipe found in David Lebovitz?s The Perfect Scoop. Chopped Reeses Peanut butter cups and chopped semi-sweet Ghiradelli chocolate rounded out the mix. A quick internet search revealed that Trader Joe?s carries miniature peanut butter cups that are roughly the size of a standard chocolate chip. I hope to procure these and try them in future ice cream recipes.

The ice cream was a hit at both my father?s birthday celebration and at a little sundae party later in the week. I love having the ability to get creative and whip up any flavor combination that I desire. I never thought that my Kitchen Aid ice cream maker would get as much use as it already has! If you’re looking for more delicious ice cream recipes, check out Joelen’s Culinary Adventures Tasty Tools blog round-up post for June.

Moose Tracks Ice Cream

1/4 cup Egg Beaters
7 oz. fat free sweetened condensed milk (1/2 can)
3 tbsp white sugar
3 tbsp brown sugar, not packed
4 oz heavy whipping cream
12 oz fat free half and half
8 oz skim milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 cup chopped mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (about 20)
4 oz. chopped semi-sweet chocolate
1-2 cups fudge ripple (see recipe below)

1. Pour half and half into small saucepan and heat, stirring occasionally, until steam rises. Remove from heat.
2. In a separate bowl, use a whisk or electric mixer to beat Egg Beaters, sweetened condensed milk and sugar together. Beat in 1/2 cup of hot half and half and then stir this mixture into the saucepan with the remaining half and half.
3. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly. Continue until the mixture reached 170-180 degrees or is slightly thickened. Do not bring the mixture to a boil.
4. Pour the mixture into a separate bowl and stir in the cream, milk, vanilla extract and salt.
5. Chill the mixture for several hours (overnight is even better). You can speed up the process by placing the bowl containing the mixture in a large bowl filled with ice and water.
6. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer?s directions.
7. Once the ice cream is done, gently fold in the Reeses Peanut Butter cup and chocolate chunks using a rubber spatula.
8. Transfer the ice cream to a storage container, alternating layers of ice cream with general drizzles of fudge ripple. Do not mix the ice cream and the ripple, as it will become muddied.
9. Allow ice cream to cure in freezer and attain desired hardness.

Fudge Ripple
from The Perfect Scoop
Yields about 2 cups

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
6 tbsp unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Combine sugar, corn syrup, water and cocoa powder in a medium sauce pan and whisk until well-combined.
2. Heat over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it comes to a low boil.
3. Continue to cook for one minute, whisking constantly.
4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
5. Chill thoroughly in refrigerator before using.

Fudge ripple, if covered and refrigerated, can be stored for up to 2 weeks.

So may flavors, so little time.

I had heard that David Lebovitz’s book The Perfect Scoop was a good ice cream resource, so I checked it out of the library. I now have a list of nearly two dozen homemade ice creams, sorbets and sherbets that I want to try. I was pleased to find that Lebovitz goes into great detail explaining how to make the perfect ice cream custard and offering suggestions for ingredients and mix-ins. I’m definitely adding this book to my kitchen wish-list.

After perusing the grocery store circulars and seeing that strawberries, oranges and Oreos were on sale, I narrowed my potential recipes down to the following: Strawberry Frozen Yogurt, Strawberry Sorbet, Orange Popsicle and Cookies & Cream. With the start of spring, something fruity and light sounded really good. My husband was particularly intrigued by Orange Popsicle, so I set out to buy a bag of oranges (on sale!). Check back in the future, as I plan to try the other recipes over the next few months.

Zesting the oranges gave me the opportunity to use one of my new favorite kitchen tools: my rasp-style Microplane Grater. I used to zest citrus with a box grater, but that was rather difficult and messy. I always ended up with irregular size chunks of zest, and so much of it would stick to the grater. Lebovitz actually addresses these two tools stating that rasp-style graters (like the Microplane) will extract almost twice as much zest as a box grater! Good to know. Squeezing the oranges was interesting, as the only citrus squeezer I have is sized for a lemon. After three oranges, I gave up and augmented with some orange juice from a carton of Tropicana. I think a manual juicer like this may be in my future.

Since this recipe does not use egg yolks, it doesn’t need to be heated. Once I finished the arduous task of squeezing oranges without the proper tools, the rest of the prep work was completed by my blender.

I only modified the recipe slightly. As mentioned above I used some carton orange juice. I also ignored Lebovitz’s warning and used fat free half and half. Finally, I added an additional tablespoon of sugar and an extra teaspoon of triple sec to the ice cream base. Once the base was mixed, it had a yellow-y cream color. For aesthetic purposes, I added a few drops of food coloring and colored the base a light orange.

After refrigerating the base, running it through my ice cream maker and freezing for several hours, the ice cream was as delicious and refreshing as it looked! It has a smooth, creamy orange-y flavor – a more decadent, grown-up version of the classic creamsicle. This homemade ice cream has the consistency of a sherbet, and the addition of triple sec makes it easy to scoop right out of the freezer. It tastes fantastic on it’s own, or sprinkled with miniature chocolate chips. I’m also looking forward to serving it as a summer dessert, garnished with fresh fruit.

Orange Creamsicle Ice Cream

Yields about 1 Quart

2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 oranges
1 1/4 cups freshly squeezed orange juice (from 4 or 5 large oranges)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup half and half
2 tsp orange liqueur

1. Pulverize sugar and orange zest in blender.
2. Add orange juice, sour cream, half and half and liqueur. Blend until the sugar is completely dissolved.
3. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for several house and then process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.