Image: Italian Ice Cream in Rome
What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
I can’t even venture a guess as to the number of flavors of ice cream that is or has been in existence. We don’t just eat ice cream plain either, we add toppings and we use it in desserts from the plain to the exotic. Ice cream recipes first appear in 18th century England and America. A recipe for ice cream was published in Mrs. Mary Eales’s Receipts in London 1718. It read:
To ice CREAM.
Take Tin Ice-Pots, fill them with any Sort of Cream you like, either plain or sweeten’d, or Fruit in it; shut your Pots very close; to six Pots you must allow eighteen or twenty Pound of Ice, breaking the Ice very small; there will be some great Pieces, which lay at the Bottom and Top: You must have a Pail, and lay some Straw at the Bottom; then lay in your Ice, and put in amongst it a Pound of Bay-Salt; set in your Pots of Cream, and lay Ice and Salt between every Pot, that they may not touch; but the Ice must lie round them on every Side; lay a good deal of Ice on the Top, cover the Pail with Straw, set it in a Cellar where no Sun or Light comes, it will be froze in four Hours, but it may stand longer; than take it out just as you use it; hold it in your Hand and it will slip out. When you wou’d freeze any Sort of Fruit, either Cherries, Rasberries, Currants, or Strawberries, fill your Tin-Pots with the Fruit, but as hollow as you can; put to them Lemmonade, made with Spring-Water and Lemmon-Juice sweeten’d; put enough in the Pots to make the Fruit hang together, and put them in Ice as you do Cream.
Ice cream or ice-cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavors. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners.
I can not believe the amount of ice cream eaten each year. Below is listed the consumption of ice cream per country:
| Country | Liters per capita | Country | Liters per capita |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | 22-23 (2006) | Ireland | 9.0 |
| United States | 18.3 (2007) | Denmark | 8.7 |
| Australia | ~18.0 (2007) | United Kingdom | ~ 6.0 (2007) |
| Finland | ~14.0 (2006) | Chile | 5.6 |
| Sweden | 11.9 | Malaysia | 2.0 |
| Canada | 8.7 (2007) | China | 1.9 |
| Italy | 9.2 | Japan | 0.01 |
Image: Japanese Mochi ice cream
Image: Japanese Green Tea ice cream with anko sauce
There are so many toppings that you can add to ice cream:
- Sauces and syrups
- Nuts (whole, chopped or flaked) – hazelnuts, walnuts, pecan nuts, almonds, etc.
- Fruit – chopped or dried such as banana or pineapple; also fresh fruit such as sliced kiwi, whole strawberries, cherries, blueberries, wedges of apple, etc.
- Chocolate – strands, flakes (especially popular in the UK!), also chocolate buttons and chocolate chips
- Fudge – small, square pieces
- Shredded coconut
- Marshmallows – packs of mini marshmallows are available from most supermarkets
- Hundreds and thousands – multi-colored sprinkles
- Whipped cream (there are also low-fat ‘squirter’ creams whipped toppings in tubs)
- Chocolate dipped fruit – just melt some chocolate (white, milk or dark it’s up to you) and half dip your chosen fruit into it. Place to one side to set (on a sheet of foil). This works well with strawberries and grapes and looks and tastes great on top of ice cream.
Most Popular:
The most popular flavor of ice cream is Vanilla. That wasn’t really a shock to me because Vanilla is so Vanilla! Vanilla comes from the vanilla planifolia plant which is a member of the orchid family which is grown mainly in Madagascar. The most popular topping for ice cream is none other than chocolate syrup.
After looking at all that ice cream, it is rather hard to pick a favorite!
Sources:
Wikipedia
Ice-Cream-Recipes.com
My Recipes
Sunset
Eggs On Sunday
Woman’s Day
Howling Winds
Chef’s Diary
International Dairy Foods Association
this is your ole mom!!!!! it is 1:25 in the morning and i am getting ready to go nite nite. how in the heck am i going to go to sleep with my very favorite of all desserts on my brain!!!!!!!!!! Strawberry is the best, hmmmmmmmmmmm
Well Mom, I'm supposed to be in the bed too and the reason I can't sleep is because I have been looking at ice cream pictures that have driven me crazy. We actually have some ice cream in the freezer, but I am trying REALLY HARD to resist it. The best way is to go to bed and that is exactly where I am finally going now.
I've been working on the October 10th "birth" and I am getting so excited!
Did someone say ice cream?! Oh man, it's my favorite thing ever! I've always been an ice cream lover, so much so my Mom got me an ice cream cake for my birthday a few years running. (back when I liked Unicorns…loooong ago) Still I can't resist if it's on offer.
Also my birthday is coming up Sunday, perhaps I'll ask for a few really nice luxury ice creams for the day! x
Not hard for me! Pumpkin all the way! And it's almost time…
Oh – and Salty Caramel. Mmmmmm – salty caramel…..
You can never go wrong with ice cream.
what a delicious post… I make my own ice cream…my favorite so far is blueberry mascarpone. It is so easy with the new Cuisinart machine.
But I love love LOVE gelato and took our 2.5 year old for his first gelato this weekend. Straciatella….YUM.
I {heart} ice cream…my fave is from Brewsters…Chocolate Raspberry Truffle…my birthday cake had that in the center last year! Yum!
vanilla…it really is just "vanilla". i like stuff added to my ice cream. i'm a little sad that i read this at 930am…bc now i will want ice cream all day!
I could eat Rocky Road by the gallons or liters. And really I could eat pretty much any ice cream that much. I love it.
I was never a huge fan of ice cream, until my husband made Milky Way ice cream. The most delicious food ever. Ingredients include 12 Milky Way candy bars. YUM!
Delish!!! Send a few gallons my way and I'll add to the tally!
Thanks for stopping by today!
I've yet to find anyone that doesn't like some sort of ice cream. My personal fave is chocolate….chocolate and more chocolate!
Ahhhhhhhh, I'm trying to diet. I think I'll take the night off. Ah ha
Not very fair of you to tantalize us with ice cream we can't reach through the screen to eat! I am a fanatic for it! Stopping by from SITS, come by and visit me too.
I love chocolate ice creams with chunks of brownie or chocolate in there! 🙂
I only eat low-fat, sugar free ice cream now,—but it is still divine!
I always like cookie dough—but banana is a close second—yummy!
I LOVE ice cream. It's one of my favorite sweets. I love most flavors with chocolate in them, but I don't think there are any flavors (or forms) of ice cream that I DON'T like.
A post to inspire my taste buds and stomach! I ? ice cream! When we went to Italy last summer I ate gelato for breakfast, lunch and dinner! I like the fruit kind the best (lemon, orange and strawberry) but I also tried tiramisu and cheesecake.
…now I have to run to the grocery store!
Yummy, I love ice-cream and they all look so good
I haven't had dinner yet, and looking at this post makes me want to drive down to Friendly's and get dinner in the form of a banana split. 🙂
Have you ever tried fried green tea ice cream? I know it sounds odd, but the hubs and got it (for free, I might add!) at a sushi place on our anniversary. It sounds like the oddest thing you'll ever eat — especially since I *loathe* green tea — and it was absolutely delicious.
When I got married, one of the things we HAD to register for was a Cuisinart ice cream/sorbet maker. So worth it. 🙂
I may be boring, but I rarely like toppings on my ice cream. That said, I love butterscotch syrup on vanilla ice cream. I also like oreo cookies, cookie dough, and M&M bits in my chocolate Wendy's Frosties.
My favorite flavors are: Rainbow Sherbet (the type with raspberry, NOT the type with pineapple), Mint Chocolate Chip, Chocolate, and Cookie Dough. I usually do NOT want toppings. They ruin it for me with the exceptions listed above.
That Milky Way ice cream sounds pretty good – I'll have to try that. I used to love Milky Ways as a kid.
Earlier tonight I had a fat free fudge bar, so I got my chocolate ice cream fix without being too bad.
Honestly, I rarely eat ice cream anymore – *trying* to diet.
That Japanese green tea ice cream looks tempting to me, although it's 1 AM, my kids are sleeping, and I'm up reading blogs – any ice cream will do!