by Meeta Khurana from What’s For Lunch, Honey?

Summer spells out ICE CREAM and SORBET in huge capital letters. Summer break has started in several countries across the world and the ice cream cafÈs are packed with people young and old enjoying a cool-down with a scoop or two of the creamy coolness. Whether it’s gelato, creamy ice cream or sorbet - the variety is huge and while it is great to go out and enjoy your favorite scoop at the local ice cream joint, eventually everyone learns the benefits of making ice cream at home.

As a mother of a 7-year old boy and a house full of friends during the break, I’d like to offer the kids a guilt free treat. Not necessarily low in calories but certainly light, refreshing and with pure healthy ingredients.

Surfing through the food blogs one thing I noticed is that there are no limitations to the flavors and ingredient combinations one can use to make interesting and unusual flavored ice creams. Bloggers are being creative and using spices, fruit and flavor combination not often found in your local ice cream place. Summer also offers us a huge bounty of beautiful ripe fruit and berries all screaming to be used in the next ice cream creation.

You do not always need an ice cream maker to make perfect ice cream. However, if you love ice cream, sorbets and frozen yogurt desserts then it would be a great idea to invest in one.

July is National Ice Cream month and while no one needs a specific month to make ice cream it’s a great excuse to dedicate a whole round up just to ice cream!

Three simple ingredients make this exciting gluten free tropical semifreddo - coconut and mango are flavors that evoke pictures of palm trees, white beaches and turquoise ocean. With Carol’s refreshing semifreddo the fantasy is perfect.

Rebecca makes a dreamy banana pudding ice cream - for all those who love banana flavors a must. The bananas are caramelized in butter and sugar then soaked in rum, purÈed and finally added to the custard. This gives the ice cream a decadent rich and intense flavor.

Over at Bake List you can drool over pecan praline caramel brownie ice cream then hurry into the kitchen and make it for yourself. A vanilla based custard with a chocolaty twist of soft chocolate brownie and a swirl of pecan praline in one very immoral but truly luscious ice cream.

Gelato is a traditional Italian technique often used by using cornstarch to thicken the custard rather than egg yolks. Brown Eyed Baker makes a creamy, flavorful and crunchy pistachio gelato, an all time favorite nut flavor. I add fresh apricots to my apricot and pistachio ice cream to give a crunchy bite of pistachio here and a fruity nibble of apricots there.

If you are on a vegan diet there is no reason you cannot enjoy a frozen treat. Very Small Anna makes a creative matcha soy milk ice cream, using the delicate flavoring of matcha green tea powder and plain soy milk. Similar to slushes this frozen refreshment is perfect for hot summer days. Mac & Cheese gives us another exciting vegan ice cream. The fun Chick-O-Stick ice cream is flavored with coconut milk and crunchy crushed Chick-O-stick bits give it texture.

Succulent slow roasted peaches highlighted by deep honey flavor makes this honey peach ice cream a true summer fruity favorite. Chez Us took up the notch on a custard based ice cream by slow roasting and caramelizing peaches in amber honey to give it a more complex and intense flavor combination. WOW!

Olive Oil and Pepper Melange Ice Cream with Fig Balsamic Syrup Drizzle - the name says it all! This ice cream is indeed "inspired by greatness". Olive oil and a mix of peppercorn give the ice cream a silky bite and to complement the combination it is drizzled with a sweet fig balsamic vinegar. A luxurious dessert!

If you have a surplus of blueberries here is a flavor combination my son and I created: a delicious wild blueberry lime coconut ice cream to tantalize each tastebud! 

Tramie of Tramie’s Kitchen combines mangoes and avocados to produce a thick mango avocado ice cream. Instead of using cream Tramie uses whole milk and allows the avocado to give it it’s creamy texture.

Patricia takes one of my favorite desserts and turns it into an ice cream! Her Creme brulÈe ice cream includes sensational bits of toffee to a vanilla flavored custard, giving this a simple yet delicious touch.

Being an Indian I love using spices and ingredients from my country. For my saffron coconut ice cream I use luxurious saffron strands not only for color but for the subtle saffron aroma, which is paired with creamy coconut milk. One of my favorite Indian style ice creams is kulfi. Unlike other ice creams, kulfi is not whipped, which results in a dense and solid frozen dessert. Often the kulfi is spiced with a variety of Indian spices like cardamom and often includes nuts and fruity. Batter Sugar Flour makes an aromatic cardamom and pistachio kulfi, which will satisfy any kulfi craving. Innovative and truly creative is Emily’s pumpkin spiced kulfi with caramel popcorn, which uses pumpkin purÈe and is flavored with nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon. Finally it is topped with popcorn which have been drizzled with a thick layer of sweet caramel.

Nothing could be easier to prepare than fruity sorbets. Kids love licking the several varieties of frozen fruit purÈe during the hot days and with all the fantastic plethora of summer fruit one is rewarded with a great frozen fruit desserts.

Berries are widely available at this time of year and The Wind Attacks makes best use of strawberries, blackberries and raspberries to make a triple berry sorbet. I particularly like the fact that the sorbet is sweetened with agave nectar.

Cindy over at Hungry Girl makes an exquisite cantaloupe melon sorbet with a twist of lime and Kiss My Spatula makes a fresh pineapple sorbet both are perfect ways to enjoy fresh ripe fruit at this time of year. Besides the fabulous red of this pomegranate sorbet from CafÈ Fernando you’ll love the exotic flavor of freshly squeezed sweet pomegranates.

Gelato, sorbet, semifreddo or ice cream - whatever you are craving for this summer you’ll certainly find it on the FoodieView Recipe Search Engine, so browse around and find your favorite ice cream recipe.

Meeta is a passionate food writer, cook and photographer. She experiments in her kitchen and presents her flavor combinations in exciting new dishes. To beat the heat this summer she suggests you try her crËme fraÓche strawberry basil ice cream, the tangy lemon and ginger ice cream or any of her frozen ice cream treats! Her blog What’s For Lunch, Honey? was selected as one of the Top 50 Best Food Blogs by Times Online UK and offers over 500 recipes all peppered with a good dose of life.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 at 8:46 pm and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.