Ice Cream Flavors

List-in-Progress

made with the one-quart Lello Gelato machine I bought in May 2003 or the two-quart Lello Gelato Pro I bought in October 2008

Where are the recipes? In lots of places. These flavors are adapted from recipes in books and online. I am gradually footnoting the flavors to my sources.

E-mail me if you have a question or comment—but I don't have precise recipes available. I do have pages of recipes for other foods, however! And some of the ice cream links at the bottom of this page have ice cream recipes.

May 2003

June 2003

    1. Chocolate sorbetto
    2. Mild plain chocolate frozen custard
    3. Vegan peanut butter Rice Dream with Amaretto ripple
    4. Coffee with chocolate ripple
    5. Kentucky (bourbon) rhubarb peach pie ice cream2
    6. Brie ice cream with walnut liqueur ripple
    7. Coffee ice cream with Vana Tallinn (Estonian liqueur) ripple

July 2003

    1. Garden-spearmint with bittersweet chocolate chunks
    2. Hershey’s chocolate almond
    3. Sabra (Israeli chocolate-orange liqueur) fudge ice cream
    4. White fudge ice cream
    5. Dark chocolate truffle with bittersweet chips
    6. Cabernet chocolate truffle crunch2
    7. Quadruple raspberry chocolate truffle2
    8. PluNectIcot gelato
    9. Cherry-brandy fudge ice cream

August 2003

    1. Garden chocolate-mint spearmint gelato with Ghirardelli mint chocolate
    2. Nectarine gelato
    3. Blueberry yogurt
    4. Almond-butter amaretto ice cream with bittersweet-chocolate-rum ripple
    5. Beer ice cream
    6. Quintuple chocolate with M&Ms, chunks, brownies, and ripple
    7. Chocolate cherry ice cream with fresh cherries and Cherry-Heering-fudge ripple
    8. Kalamata olive oil gelato3
    9. Light chocolate4 with Kahlua-Sabra chocolate ripple

September 2003

    1. Banana gelato (milk and cornstarch base)
    2. Lemon cheesecake ice cream

November 2003

    1. Vanilla-bean semi-dulce de leche ice cream with tarte-tatin ripple
    2. Very dark chocolate ice cream with brandied dried cherries
    3. Chocolate mint ice cream with chocolate mint chunks and white-chocolate crème-de-menthe ripple
    4. Bittersweet chocolate ice cream5 with white-chocolate blobs5
    5. Pumpkin cheesecake ice cream with dulce de leche6 ripple

December 2003

    1. Vanilla-bean cream-cheese ice cream with dulce de leche ripple6 and Oreos
    2. Vanilla-bean cream-cheese ice cream with dulce de leche ripple6
    3. Triple-Port chocolate truffle2 with port-white-chocolate ripple and port-black-chocolate chips5
    4. Guinness Stout ice cream with honey dark-chocolate cream sauce
    5. Unsqueakable vanilla-bean bittersweet chocolate

January 2004

    1. Milk chocolate5
    2. Blueberry
    3. Decaf coffee with dulce de leche6 ripple

March 2004

    1. Raspberry-blackberry sorbet
    2. Vana Tallinn (Estonian liqueur) caramel sorbet
    3. Dark chocolate fudge with Grand Marnier white chocolate ripple
    4. Dark chocolate fudge with Blue Curaçao white chocolate ripple
    5. Coconut lemongrass7
    6. Romantic Mestizo Modernist:  Ibarra chocolate and cinnamon with dulce de leche ripple and cacao nibs, for College Music Society talk on Mexican music history
    7. China and the West:  kumquat with Kahlua fudge ripple, for College Music Society talk on Chen Yi
    8. Sicilian Chocolate Gelato5
    9. Chocolate kumquat with dulce de leche ripple*

April 2004

    1. Chocolate truffle2 with apricot-white-chocolate ripple, cacao nibs, and macadamias
    2. Vanilla ice milk (sweetened condensed milk and powdered skim) with orange-juice-concentrate ripple

May 2004

    1. Black & Tan (beer) ice cream
    2. Dulce de leche ice cream with coffee-white-chocolate-rum ripple
    3. Orange-Grand-Marnier buttermilk custard with Sabra-Valrhona ripple
    4. Mascarpone Vanilla Bean
    5. Creamsicle (mix of orange custard and mascarpone vanilla)*
    6. Coca-Cola ice cream7
    7. Strawberries and cream ice cream7 with dulce de leche ripple
    8. Brie ice cream with apricot brandy ripple
    9. Bittersweet chocolate truffle ice cream with marshmallow ripple8

June 2004

    1. Strawberry ice cream with cherry brandy chocolate sauce

July 2004

    1. Nectarine sorbet
    2. Homemade lemon curd cheesecake ice cream
    3. Cardamom kulfi (still-frozen in cups)
    4. Saffron-pistachio kulfi (still-frozen in cups)
    5. Peanut butter s’more truffle
    6. Galliano caramel sorbet8
    7. Yuengling Lager ice cream with Yuengling Lager bittersweet fudge ripple
    8. Yuengling Lager ice cream (no ripple)
    9. Dulce de leche6 with triple-raspberry ripple (Hrazberry Hrazanek)
    10. Harvey Wallbanger sorbet
    11. White Chocolate with Kahlúa fudge ripple
    12. Cherry with toasted pecans
    13. Cherry chocolate wallbanger with cacao nibs*

August 2004

    1. Butterscotch
    2. Butterscotch brownie (butterscotch with brownie crumbles)
    3. Toothpaste:  crème de menthe with Blue-Curaçao-white-chocolate ripple (that is, it looked like Aquafresh)
    4. Doublemint crunch: crème de menthe with peppermint candy
    5. Spearmint chocolate with Guaranda, Ocumare, and white chocolate chunks
    6. Mint Chocolate Chowder:  Mint-infused chocolate with double chocolate chips, peanut butter cups, cookie dough, Raisinets, mint Oreos, 3 Musketeers, Milky Way, Snickers, Milky Way Midnight, and Twix (invented by Choir Campers)
    7. Dulce de leche6
    8. Banana gelato
    9. Caramel banana mint chocolate chip
    10. Stilton9

September 2004

    1. Bittersweet cocoa fudge with cacao nibs
    2. Pistachio with toasted pistachios
    3. Green tea
    4. Extreme lemon:  lemon custard with Limoncello liqueur
    5. Double-chocolate double-mint crunch:  spearmint-infused cocoa with peppermint candies and bittersweet chunks

November 2004

    1. Roasted sweet potato with marshmallow-rum ripple
    2. Velvet fudge with dulce de leche ripple and Kahlua fudge blobs
    3. Roasted sweet potato
    4. Roasted sweet potato with dulce de leche ripple
    5. Cherry ice cream with chopped cherries and Hershey syrup ripple
    6. Coffee with dulce de leche ripple, coconut, and cacao nibs

December 2004

    1. Mulled wine sorbet
    2. Eggnog ice cream with white chocolate rum ripple

January 2005

    1. Blueberry cheesecake
    2. Chocolate fudge chunk cheesecake (milk chocolate with orange)

February 2005

    1. Ruby-Port Chambord sorbet
    2. Ruby-Port Chambord caramel sorbet

March 2005

    1. Cabernet ice cream
    2. Cabernet ice cream with walnut-fudge chunks
    3. Cabernet ice cream with honey-fudge ripple
    4. Milk chocolate5 with peanut-butter ripple and semi-sweet chunks
    5. Sesame-halvah ice cream10
    6. Chocolate halvah ice cream*
    7. Milk chocolate with black and white cinnamon-soft-fudge chunks5
    8. Milk chocolate with green-tea-white-chocolate soft fudge chunks5

April 2005

    1. Milk chocolate with almond-butter ripple and marshmallows
    2. Fresh pineapple gelato7 with maple-rum ripple

May 2005

    1. Coconut sorbet8
    2. Classic chocolate
    3. Chocolate with Grand Marnier chips and Blue Curaçao chips
    4. Fresh cherry Rice Dream with semi-sweet chocolate ripple
    5. Green & Black’s milk chocolate sorbet11
    6. Saffron kulfi
    7. Apricot ice cream10
    8. Dijon mustard ice cream, a/k/a frozen mustard custard (to scoop onto grilled vegetables and into gazpacho; no sugar)12

June 2005

    1. Caramelized orange with dark Toblerone ripple
    2. Amaretto cream with dark Toblerone ripple
    3. Fresh cherry with large semisweet Scharffen Berger chocolate chunks

August 2005

    1. Vanilla with crunchy-peanut-butter ripple and Oreos10, with hot buttered banana topping2 (Choir Camp invention)
    2. Eggy vanilla
    3. Maple syrup ice cream with Lucky Charms (Choir Camp invention)
    4. Maple Syrup ice cream13
    5. Nutella ice cream (Choir Camp invention)
    6. Cocoa chocolate chunk “vice cream” based on cashew purée14

September 2005

    1. Nutella with white-chocolate-Frangelico fudge chunks
    2. Dulce de leche with bittersweet chocolate ripple
    3. Honey-yogurt stracciatella
    4. Espresso9 with Nutella-Frangelico ripple
    5. Vegan pecan-date14 with non-vegan white chocolate nutmeg truffle ripple

October 2005

    1. Lindt milk chocolate sorbet11
    2. Banana sorbet •

December 2005

    1. Nutmeg ice cream 2
    2. Candied pumpkin sorbet
    3. Maple cider sorbet 2
    4. Rich chocolate sorbet 2

May 2006 (all for choir Commencement rehearsal party)

    1. Grasshopper ice cream with mint Oreos
    2. Grasshopper ice cream without Oreos
    3. Watermelon sorbet
    4. Dark chocolate fudge ice cream with sticky caramel ripple

June 2006

    1. Coconut ice cream with caramel-rum sticky-sauce ripple and Kahlúa fudge chunks

July 2006

    1. Green tea ice cream with green-tea-white-chocolate ripple and Sabra fudge chunks

August 2006

    1. Banana-rum sorbet with blueberry-grappa-sorbet ripple
    2. Blueberry grappa sorbet

October 2006

    1. Pumpkin pie ice cream with sautéed-caramelized-apple ripple

December 2006

    1. Fresh ginger sorbet
    2. Vanilla bean with eleven egg yolks

January 2007

    1. Strong decaf coffee (Trader Joe’s Bay Blend)

June 2007

    1. Scharffen Berger sorbet — screamingly rich, easy recipe where you start with excellent ingredients and stay out of their way
    2. French vanilla with Framboise fudge chunks

September 2007

    1. Sam Adams Cream Stout (of the handful of beer/stout ice cream recipes online, here is my favorite)

November 2007

    1. Lemongrass custard9
    2. White chocolate5 with coconut-rum-infused dried cranberries
    3. White chocolate5

January 2008

    1. Tupelo honey15
    2. Intense dulce de leche6 with fudgy chocolate chunks

February 2008

    1. Inside-out Melba: intense double-raspberry ripple with caramelized peach swirl2

April 2008

    1. Manischewitz fudge sorbet—rich chocolate sorbet2 with Passover wine substituted for about half the water

May 2008

    1. Chocolate truffle2 with decaf espresso ripple (4 oz. Green & Black's white chocolate melted in about 6 tablespoons triple-strength Illy espresso)

July 2008

    1. Blueberry sorbet
    2. Pistachio with fudgy bittersweet chunks and Icoa-cassis blobs (extra-soft chunks of Icoa white chocolate with crème de cassis)
    3. Mango sorbet
    4. Watermelon-lemon sorbet
    5. Vanilla
    6. Vanilla with Amaretto-bittersweet-chocolate ripple

August 2008

    1. Fresh-cherry-Kirsch sorbet

September 2008

    1. Dairy-free chocolate gelato with Rice Dream and Tofutti cream cheese instead of milk and cream
    2. Amazing chocolate gelato, apparently from Esquire magazine

October 2008

    1. Caramel Appleby:  dulce de leche6 with apple-tart ripple and Oreos, for Appleby Dorm
    2. Dulce de leche6 with honey-vanilla ripple and chocolate chip cookie dough
    3. Oreo cheesecake with chunky peanut butter ripple
    4. Dulce de leche6 with melting white-chocolate-cheesecake blobs and pumpkin-butter ripple
    5. Double chocolate Rocky Road with marshmallow ripple
    6. Fruitcake ice cream with date ripple

November 2008

    1. S'more ice cream:  strong Hershey chocolate gelato with marshmallow ripple
    2. Pumpkin pie ice cream

January 2009

    1. Dried pear sorbet, based on dried apricot sorbet recipe
    2. Chocolate fudge sorbet

May 2009

    1. Dulce de leche with mini-chocolate chips and mini-M&Ms
    2. Dulce de leche with mini-chocolate chips, mini-M&Ms, and a Nutella ripple

July 2009

    1. RED:  Strawberry Cabernet ice cream
    2. WHITE:  Sour cream ice cream
    3. BLUE:  Blueberry sherbet

August 2009

    1. Rhubarb-cherry ice cream
    2. Pineapple ice cream
    3. Peruvian chocolate lactose-free double fudge ripple, with Rice Dream and Tofutti cream cheese
    4. Banana custard gelato with chocolate rum fudge ripple

September 2009

    1. Double strawberry ripple
    2. Cocoa custard
    3. Cocoa custard with Nutella ripple

October 2009

    1. Blood orange sorbet (Webb Affiliates auction winner)

For more ideas: go to amazon.com, type “ice cream” in the book search box, and “search inside” the indexes of the books that come up.

Ripple/Swirl Recipe

Since I couldn't find a recipe like this and had to invent it, here is my generic ripple formula for about a quart of ice cream.
That is, this makes enough sauce to ripple into a quart. This doesn’t make ice cream!

In a small, heavy saucepan, bring to a simmer:
3 or 4 ounces of chocolate (see NOTE below)
about 6 tablespoons of liquid (see NOTE below)
about 2 tablespoons of sugar (less if your chocolate or liquid is already very sweet, but you need some for structure)
Simmer for several minutes. Chill before layering-and-swirling into ice cream.
TO PUT THE RIPPLE INTO ICE CREAM: Freeze your ice cream mix. Put about a quarter of the finished ice cream into the container you’ll be keeping or serving it in. Spoon or pour about a third of the ripple mix over that ice cream. Alternate layers of ice cream and ripple until you’re out of both. Stir with a few broad strokes up and down and around with a large spoon—just enough to swirl the ripple, not enough to blend it in.
 
NOTE: Invent your own combination of chocolate and liquid. Plain dark chocolate and water is lovely. Try white chocolate and a liqueur—Blue Curaçao is especially astonishing. Bittersweet chocolate and Kahlúa. Raspberry wine and raspberry chocolate. White chocolate and heavy cream with a generous grating of nutmeg.

Fudge Chunk Recipe

This starts out with two brilliant ideas from Alice Medrich, Bittersweet5: (1) Instead of putting chocolate chips into ice cream, make your own chips by melting chocolate, re-solidifying it, and then chopping it; and (2) For fudgier chunks, add water while the chocolate is melted. This is a play-it-by-ear recipe: use your own ideas. Quantity is up to you: how chunky do you want your ice cream? This recipe makes enough for a quart of pretty chunky ice cream. Size and shape of chunks are also your choice.

Melt (microwave is fine):
about 5 ounces of chocolate (any strength: bittersweet, semisweet, milk, white)
Stir in, hoping it doesn’t seize:
about 2-3 tablespoons of liquid: water, liqueur, juice, coffee, tea, syrup
The trick to not getting it to seize seems to be adding enough liquid. A few drops, and you end up with an unworkable stiff mass. But a few tablespoons, and you’re safer.
Pour the mixture onto a large piece of baking parchment—at least twice the area of the poured chocolate mixture—and put the parchment on a tray. (You can do that in that order, because the mixture is thick enough that you can lift it without spilling.) Fold the parchment over the chocolate and press it to the thickness you want. Cool and chill. Once it’s solid (could be the next day), chop into chunks. Freeze the chunks, and keep them frozen until you add them to your ice cream mix.
WHEN TO ADD CHUNKS TO ICE CREAM: Aha! You need an ice cream freezer that lets you add ingredients while it’s working. Add the chunks during the last minute or so of freezing, and let the machine stir them into the ice cream.
 
NOTE: You can also do this without added liquid. You’ll end up with extra-good chocolate chips. What’s extra-good about them is that they melt faster than commercial chocolate chips (because you’ve removed their temper by melting and re-solidifying), so you get a burst of flavor in your mouth.

 

Ice Cream Bibliography

How are these books selected? I own them. That means I found them worth buying! This list is alphabetical by author.

Disclaimer on my footnotes: flavors are not necessarily found verbatim in these books, but you can find similar flavors and adapt them. Kumquat Kahlúa ripple, for example, is based on orange marmalade ice cream.

*Flavors marked with * are combinations of leftover mix from the two or three flavors before them.

 • Links marked with • go to recipes on other sites.

Joseph Aimar, Alain Berne, and Jacques Joubert, translated by Anne Sterling, Frozen Desserts (Paris: CICEM and New York: Wiley, 1997). “Prestige des Grands Chefs” series. Worth getting if you can find a deep discount, just so you can admire the breathtaking architectural constructions of ice cream, cake, and other items. Many of the recipes are not very appealing, and are based on formulas legislated for professional glaciers in France, using such ingredients as trimoline, stabilizer, butterfat, and powdered glucose.

3Mario Batali, The Babbo Cookbook (Clarkson Potter, 2002). Not an ice cream book, but includes honey vanilla gelato and olive oil gelato.

11Fran Bigelow with Helene Siegel, Pure Chocolate: Divine Desserts and Sweets from the Creator of Fran’s Chocolates (New York: Broadway Books, 2004). A chocolate book, not an ice cream book. Intense, voluptuous, and virtuosic. Milk chocolate sorbet is stunning.

6Lora Brody, Slow Cooker Cooking (Morrow, 2001). Not an ice cream book, but my source for dulce de leche that makes people exclaim in ecstasy. I make my dulce de leche ice cream with about five or six times as much dulce de leche as Brody recommends. And I use straight dulce de leche as a ripple or swirl.

13Linda Burum, Frozen Delights (Scribner, 1987). Exceptionally imaginative. Chocolate paté with cognac and macaroon crumbs! Cucumber-mint sorbet! Includes cake constructions, frozen pies, frozen cheesecakes, and other creations as well as ice cream.

10Melissa Clark, The Ice Cream Machine Cookbook (Berkley, 1999). I bought this because it’s the only source I’ve found with a peanut butter ripple. When the ripple didn’t work (I may have used the wrong kind of peanut butter, namely natural), I ended up inventing my own. But this book is still worthwhile for such adventures as sesame-halvah ice cream (shockingly good), pignoli nut ice cream, grapefruit ice cream, and others.

4Ben Cohen, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book (Workman, 1987). Useful variety of ice cream bases. Important practical reminders, such as pre-chilling or freezing your mix-ins. Only get this book if you’re not scared of raw eggs.

EDIMEDIA, Gelati: Sorbetti, Yogurt & Frappé (Florence: Giunti/Demetra, 2003). In Italian! Well-organized, beautifully photographed. Basic, down-to-earth, and thorough. It is charming to learn that whipping cream is panna da montare.

8Peggy Fallon, The Best Ice Cream Maker Cookbook Ever (HarperCollins, 1998). Best marshmallow swirl! Exceptionally good strawberry too. Intense coconut-milk sorbet.

Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis, Ice Cream and Iced Desserts (Lorenz Books, 2000). Stunning. Excellent in everything: brief introduction to the history, science, and culture of ice cream, plus recipes for dozens of ice creams (some normal, some imspired, some exotic—not just kulfi, but dondurma kaymakli, which she spells kaymalki, and which seems to be Greek or Turkish—and some weird), ice cream accessories (cones, shells, etc.), and voluptuous-looking constructions. Most of the custard-based recipes include cornstarch as a stabilizer. Sara Lewis seems to have several overlapping books with “Ice” in the title. This may be the most complete.

Lonnie Gandara, Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts (California Culinary Academy, 1988). Beautiful and adventurous. Includes recipes and explanations for waffles, edible ice cream containers, fountain phenomena (now I know precisely what coupes and floats are), and other items. Many of the actual ice cream recipes are just vanilla with other flavors and ingredients added, but there is still enough variety to make this book impressive. This book has a garlic ice cream recipe. Also tomato ice cream, avocado ice cream, and ice cream “spaghetti” (extruded through a ricer). Incredibly, Amazon Marketplace has this for $1.

Paul Gayler, A Passion for Cheese and A Passion for Vegetables (St. Martin's Press and Lyons Press). Not ice cream books, but Cheese has a goat cheese ice cream that can also be made with brie (result tastes like buttery marshmallowy vanilla), and Vegetables has some wonderfully weird flavors (caramelized onion and balsamic vinegar).

1 Pamela Sheldon Johns, Gelato! Italian Ice Cream, Sorbetti, and Granite (Ten Speed Press, 2000). Specialized and excellent. Good balance of simple and fancy; the grape gelato is intense and special.

Malvina Kinard, The Best of Ice Cream (HarperCollins, 1994). Apparently about to be reissued, August 2005.

Matthew Klein, The Joy of Ice Cream (Barron’s, 1990). Great recipes by an award-winning photographer. I like cookbooks with voluptuous photos!

9Caroline Liddell and Robin Weir, Frozen Desserts: The definitive guide to making ice creams, ices, sorbets, gelati, and other frozen delights (St. Martin’s, 1996). Has a charming British accent. Authoritative information, thorough and thoughtful.

7Marilyn Linton, 125 Best Ice Cream Recipes (Robert Rose, 2003). Inspiring recipes and variations, easy to read. You could survive with this as your only ice cream book, or with this and the Weinstein Ultimate book (below). Features a promising-looking recipe for roast garlic ice cream (which, as you can see from my list above, I haven’t tried yet).

5Alice Medrich, Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate (Artisan, 2003). Not exclusively an ice cream book by any means, but fantastic recipes and serious expert advice on how to get the best results with various types of chocolate—white, milk, various darknesses, and cacao nibs. Includes a Sicilian gelato that tastes like an idealized Fudgesicle.

15Alice Medrich, Pure Dessert (Artisan, 2007). Brilliant, gentle, respectful treatment of ingredients. Her "Heavenly Honey Ice Cream" preserves the flavor and character of the honey.

8Shona Crawford Poole, Iced Delights (London: Conran Octopus, 1986; New York: Doubleday, 1987). Sophisticated and sensuous. This is the book that started me on caramel sorbets. Includes such extras as tuiles and brandy-snap baskets.

14Jeff Rogers, Vice Cream (Ten Speed Press, 2004). Lots of nut purées. His “chocoholic's delight,” with puréed cashews, maple syrup, and cocoa, is exquisite. For vegans I’ve also made sorbets or used Rice Dream (nondairy beverage; rice cooks into a fine custard!) as a base (my own improvisation, not from this book).

Coleen Simmons, From Your Ice Cream Maker (Nitty Gritty Cookbooks, 2003). I think this is the revised book that has “egg substitute” throughout; once you figure out that you can use two eggs instead of four ounces of “egg substitute,” you have a grand old-fashioned recipe collection.

2Bruce Weinstein, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book: Over 500 Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, Drinks, and More (Morrow Cookbooks, 1999). Smart, systematic, and sensuous. Imaginative variations, such as chocolate cabernet truffle with biscotti. Chocolate truffle ice cream, a combination of cocoa custard and chocolate ganache, is the first screamingly good flavor I made. You could survive with this as your only ice cream book. What’s special about this book: Weinstein takes every flavor seriously, devising the best base for each. His toppings and sauces make great ripples.

12Patricia Wells, The Paris Cookbook (HarperCollins, 2001). Not an ice cream book, but some inspired, distinctive ice creams: honey ice cream, truffle ice cream (with real truffles, not chocolate!), and the brilliant mustard ice cream, good for serving on top of vegetables.

Ice Cream Links

Doc Wilson’s Ice Cream Page

Stephen Mann’s Ice Cream Page

 

 

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