Gianduja Chocolate ice cream

Makes 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

* 1 & 1/2 cup full cream
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/4 cup caster sugar
* 50g dark chocolate, chopped
* 3 tbsp Gianduja crème
* 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
* 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Directions:

1. Put the Stainless steel bowl in the freezer at least an hour in advance.

2. Make a water bath: in a pan, bring some water to boil and then keep it simmering at medium heat. Place sugar, cream, milk and chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place in the water bath. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the sugar and chocolate are melted. Remove the bowl from heat and let it cool down slightly.

3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly and add in the vanilla essence. Use a whisker or electric mixer, whisk in the yolk mixture into the cream mixture gradually, keep the mixer on for about a minute or so.

4. Turn the mixture into a saucepan and heat it at medium heat, keep stirring and do not bring to to boil. You will see the mixture gets thicker and foamy quickly. You can stop when the mixture can coat your wooden spoon. This step should only take a minute or two maximum.

5. Now take the stainless steel bowl out of the freezer and pour in the ice cream mixture into the bowl. Return the bowl back to the freezer and allow to chill for about 45 minutes.

6. Take the bowl out from the freezer, you should see the mixture around the edges become solid. Use the wooden spoon stir to mix. Put back to the freezer and repeat this for about 4 times. By this time, you see the creamy ice cream mixture is getting close to ready.

7. You can transfer this to a plastic container, covered and leave it for another 2 hours or until firm.

8. Scoop and enjoy!

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Hemp ice cream anyone?

Australians may have consumed a lot of food over the Christmas weekend but it's unlikely many thought about eating hemp. Products like hemp chocolate and hemp ice cream are available in other countries but they're banned in Australia Now a group of Tasmanian farmers is renewing a push to overturn the ban. The farmers say that industrial hemp won't make you high and has many health benefits.

In Hobart, Jacqueline Street reports. JACQUELINE STREET: The farmers who grow hemp say its similarity to cannabis ends at the leaves. PHIL READER: There's absolutely no drug in it; it's below 0.35 per cent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), so it cannot be confused with marijuana.

JACQUELINE STREET: Phil Reader has been growing industrial hemp in northern Tasmania for five years and says the state has the ideal climate for growing hemp seeds. But his crop is very tightly controlled because under Tasmanian law, hemp is classified as a poison.

PHIL READER: The reason it hasn't taken off is the legislation. In Tasmania we come under the Poisons Act. It's not a poison; there's no reason for that to be called a poison, because of no THC anywhere else in the world it's not regarded as a drug crop, it's only in Tasmania that we have this problem and that means a whole host of issues with regards to licensing, administration and where we can sell the crop.

JACQUELINE STREET: A hemp producer in Hobart, Brandt Teale, says he's frustrated because he believes hemp could be a profitable food product in Tasmania and other states.

BRANDT TEALE: The products being made from it include chocolate bars, food drinks, granola bars, like sesame-seed type bars. It's proven scientifically to have the highest omega-3 and omega-6 levels of any of the oils, leaving fish oil for dead, leaving flax oil for dead.

JACQUELINE STREET: The Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association is taking the issue to the State Government next year.

NICK STEELE: So it's very small at the moment but those farmers certainly want to see it grow and put in within their rotation. So the TFGA are discussing are discussing that with the State Government, to look at changes within the Poisons Act to see if we can assist farmers to grow the hemp industry in Tasmania.

JACQUELINE STREET: A Tasmanian Government spokeswoman says the Government is happy to have those discussions but wouldn't comment further.

The hemp producers are also fighting Federal laws. Food Standards Australia and New Zealand ruled in 2002 that hemp was safe for human consumption, but that ruling was overturned by state and federal health ministers. The health ministers were concerned hemp could be confused with cannabis.

BRANDT TEALE: The strange thing for Australia is that the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand allows New Zealand to produce hemp food for consumption and we're not allowed to do it in Australia. It is really holding back the industry; it's really holding back jobs.

JACQUELINE STREET: Phil Warner operates a hemp production business in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania and is part of a new application before Food Standards to repeal the ban on hemp foods.

PHIL WARNER: Everybody knows there's a significant difference between marijuana and hemp; it's just very lazy politicking and they couldn't be bothered; there's not a big enough lobby out there from an industrial hemp perspective to be able to do anything about it. You know, there's not enough votes in it.

JACQUELINE STREET: Food Standards will put the idea out for public comment next April with a final decision due in July

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Time to Bail on Baileys? This Season's Irish Cream Alternatives

Every holiday has its drink. Cinco de Mayo has tequila. St. Patty's day features Irish whiskey and green beer. And around Christmas time, Baileys Irish Cream starts flying off the shelves, destined to be poured over ice or into sinfully rich coffee or hot chocolate and sipped in front of a roaring fire as stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

Originally introduced in 1971 as the first-ever Irish cream liqueur, Baileys combines cream and whiskey, as well as a fortifying shot of alcohol that brings the mix up to 17 percent alcohol by volume. It's rich and sweet, with chocolaty flavors and a gentle whiskey bite that cuts through the heavy cream to make it far more warming and refreshing than the simple combination would seem to be at first glance. It's an addictive and versatile bottle that's perfect for a cold holiday night when a little indulgence seems in order.

Not surprisingly, Baileys success has helped spawn a host of other cream liqueurs that compete for space in liquor cabinets everywhere come holiday time. These range from other Irish creams that switch up the flavor profile, to bottles that expand on the concept by adding different liquors and spices to the mix to make something entirely different and often just as tasty. So here are a few that could add some variety to the holiday season, or at least make the morning coffee something well worth waking up for:

Voyant Chai Cream – A bit thinner than is typical for cream liqueurs, Voyant uses a dark rum base and stands out pretty clearly on shelves with a blazing orange and red bottle. The contents live up to the colors, with warming black and green tea combined with vanilla and the spices found in a typical mug of chai, such as cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves. It's rich and smooth over ice, though not as heavy as Baileys or other bottles like it. While it doesn't fit in coffee nearly as well as Irish cream, it's a versatile cocktail ingredient, making for a White Russian variant that even The Dude might be able to get behind.

Carolans Irish Cream – Launched not too long after Baileys, Carolans differentiates itself with the addition of honey and what the distiller calls “Irish spirits.” Whatever those spirits are, they make for a tasty bottle. Featuring the same chocolate overtones as Baileys but adding the sweet tang of honey, this is a holiday indulgence. Accentuated by the honey, the whiskey notes come through more clearly, as well. It's best sipped on its own over ice, but a wee dram dropped into a mug of coffee or mixed in equal parts with Kahlua is a sweet way to cap off an evening. Or, if you want to go over the top, blending it into ice cream in a milkshake is a surefire way to get your loved ones of legal drinking age to declare their undying devotion to you.

Dooley's Toffee Cream – A cream liqueur from Germany, Dooley's uses a vodka base and adds buttery toffee to the party. It pours a pale gold, just slightly thinner than Baileys, but coating the palate with deep caramel flavors and a faint burn from what seems to be premium vodka. The sweetest of the bunch, it seems to find its way to a martini glass filled with vanilla vodka and chocolate syrup quite easily, but takes on a little more holiday sophistication when paired up with brandy and maraschino liqueur. Oddly, it's not nearly as filling as other bottles in the tasting, which also makes it the one most likely to inspire Christmas mornings that start off with the phrase “dear Lord, what happened last night?”

Bols Advocaat – Advocaat is a liqueur made throughout Europe by a variety of distillers. It's created from a mixture of brandy, eggs and sugar and is far richer than any of the other cream liqueurs in the tasting. Advocaat is almost custard-like in consistency, pouring languidly out of the bottle like some sinfully delicious boozy dessert topping – in fact, it's even used to top waffles in Holland. It's a striking golden color, primarily due to the egg yolks used to make it, and is similar in flavor to the most perfectly balanced eggnog imaginable. With just enough sweetness to offset the rich warmth of the brandy, it's one of life's little luxuries. Advocaat is traditionally quaffed from a wide-mouthed glass with whipped cream, but in combination with coffee and whiskey it'd be a better part of waking up on Christmas morning than Folgers could ever dream of being.

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Ice cream company takes on Christmas flavour

Ice cream might be a New Zealand dessert staple, but Wanaka manufacturer Richard Bullock has found there is always appetite for more. A year ago, he and wife Tracey launched their artisan brand, Pure New Zealand Ice Cream, and they are now happily up to their eyeballs in sweet frozen goods. Mr Bullock has just released two new flavours - Christmas ice cream and coconut cream gelato - and earlier this year narrowly missed out on three medals at the New Zealand Ice Cream Awards.

"[Making ice cream] is something I've always known I wanted to do since my early 20s. Not long before I met Tracey [in the 1980s], I knew that it would be ice cream. "It was simmering away in the back of my head," he said. According to the New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturers' Association website, New Zealanders are among the largest per capita consumers of ice cream in the world, with each of us taking on board between 22 and 23 litres a year.

While the top three flavours around the world are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, hokey pokey is second in New Zealand, after vanilla and before chocolate and strawberry. Mr Bullock, working on his own from a rented commercial kitchen, has contributed several tonnes of ice cream this year to New Zealand's ice cream mountain range.

He qualified as a chef in Wellington in the mid-'70s before furthering his career in Australia and the United Kingdom. He met his wife in Sydney, and the couple have owned several restaurants. They have two daughters, Tess (18) and Lara (16), who are happy to help with flavour research and development. The Bullocks found their first churn, an Italian Carpigiani, lying in the dirt under a building in Sydney. They cleaned it up and went on to produce thousands of litres of ice cream and sorbet for their restaurants.

When they moved to Wanaka in 2004, the machine came with them. They have since imported a new Frigomat artisan ice cream churn from Italy. Mr Bullock says the ice cream industry is competitive and more consumers are turning to artisan products, which keeps him busy developing new flavours. At least 12 are available through the Wanaka and Arrowtown retailers, while others have been developed exclusively for restaurants. New Zealand products are used wherever possible and Hawea honey ice cream is a product with a local twist.

Some flavours - such as roasted black sesame seed and chilli, or kaffir lime and ginger - are unexpected. The Christmas ice cream was developed two weeks ago from a recipe Mr Bullock invented many years ago. It does not have Christmas cake or pudding crumbled into it, like some other products he has tasted, but uses ingredients common to cakes and puddings.

Cream, milk, egg yolks and sugar form the base, with almonds, brown sugar, dried fruit, mixed peel, glace ginger and spices providing the Christmas flavour. A year after launching his business, Mr Bullock is thrilled with the support from Wanaka and Queenstown restaurants and hotels, and delighted the Wanaka Mediterranean Market is selling about 30 litres a day.

He also sells through Cook's Store and Deli in Arrowtown and, with the support of distributor BIDvest, hopes to continue growing the Dunedin and Central Otago market before moving into the North Island market in two years.

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Ice cream sales soar as big freeze continues

Graham and Chris Daniels opened Archer's Jersey Ice Cream just days before Arctic conditions hit the North-East with several feet of snow and temperatures dipping to a bone-chilling minus 15.

They experienced some of the country's worst blizzards and feared that the last food people would buy in the sub-zero conditions would be ice cream.

58-year-old Graham has seen dozens of families in the parlour and believes ice cream offers a cheap option as people make cutbacks.

He has even seen hungry children grabbing cones and taking them and sampling them while hurtling down ice-covered hills on sledges.

‘It's great to see the kids enjoying themselves with our ice creams. Lots of children have a sweet tooth and that doesn't go away even when it's so cold,’ said Graham.

‘Now they are on their holidays they have been coming in for an ice cream fix with their sledges and it's marvellous, the cold doesn't seem to bother them at all.’

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It's a Michigan thing: December a big month for ice cream

Spartan Stores is rolling out a new line of premium ice cream called Indulgent Creations. Winter might seem like an odd time to introduce a new line of ice cream but the holidays drive up sales of this chilly treat.

“Around the holidays, we see a seasonal hike as people entertain,” said Alan Hartline, executive vice president merchandising and marketing. Earlier this month Hudsonville Creamery & Ice Cream unveiled its new “Lake Affection” ice cream that sells for $4.99. The special edition ice cream – blue mint swirled vanilla – plays off the winter-weather phenomenon that keeps the company's Holland headquarters blanketed in snow for most of the winter.

Playing up to that holiday appetite, the Byron Township grocer debuted White Christmas -- a flavor with bits of peppermint sticks mixed with vanilla ice cream that will only be around until the end of December.

Indulgent Creations' four core year-round flavors include: Double Vanilla, Toasted Butter Pecan, Mint Chip, and Double Dark Chocolate. They'll be supplemented by seasonal flavors like Honey & Caramel, Apple Pie, Michigan Blueberry, Peaches & Cream, Brownies & Fudge and Café Mocha.

The first week they were introduced in early December, Indulgent Creations ice cream sold out, Hartline said.

This week, the ice cream that retails for $4.49 for a 1.5 quart is on sale for 3 for $10. The retailer has also been offering coupons.

Indulgent Creations is carried by Spartan's nearly 97 stores throughout Michigan including D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare, Felpausch, Glen's Market and VG's stores – available at some of the 350 independent grocery stores in Michigan,Ohio and Indiana that are Spartan's wholesale customers.

The premium ice cream line is the latest Michigan-made product Spartan Stores is highlighting on its shelves. The retailer has found sweet success with its Michigan's Best promotion for the past two summers.

The grocer isn't revealing the companies or farms that produce the ingredients or manufacture the ice cream, but says it's all produced in the Mitten State.

“Many of its finest flavorings and ingredients are sourced locally,” Hartline said.

“Supporting Michigan companies and farmers is extremely important to Spartan Stores and we’re very pleased that we have West Michigan connections for this premium line of ice cream.”

Hartline says the costlier ingredients and the “thick and rich” ice cream is comparable to Häagen-Dazs, a top-shelf ice cream sells for $4.49 for a 14-ounce container.

The launch of Indulgent Creations marks Spartan Stores' second effort with a high-end store brand, after introducing premium coffee beans in 2007.

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Mt. Hood Ice Cream Company offers ‘happiness on a spoon’

The clever logo represented the early 1900s company Mt. Hood Ice Cream Company, and the image was captured in an old photo on the wall at Stanford’s. The logo was on a sign at Davidson’s Drug Store, a turn of the century business on the corner of A Avenue and State Street in Lake Oswego. Mt. Hood Ice Cream served ice cream in the Northwest beginning in 1904. In 1921, the company was acquired by a distributor, which went out of business during the Great Depression.

Through the research, the Lubers have found other historical artifacts from the Mt. Hood Ice Cream Company, including a tray with the logo printed onto it and a number of other photos from events or businesses who served the ice cream. In 2008, the Lubers decided to relaunch the company and its logo. The state archives old business logos, which become public domain after a long period of time.

“Let’s have it become a household name again,” said Justin Luber. Justin Luber has a marketing and sales background, while his wife Tasha has an operations background. “We’ve always wanted to own a business together, but we weren’t sure what it would be,” said Tasha Luber. It seems as if that business has found the Lubers. “Using our business skills that we’ve been working in other applications and applying it to our own entity was pretty exciting,” said Tasha Luber.

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Carmela Ice Cream Opening Store, Launching Truck

There will soon be two new ways to get yourself a scoop or two of the delicious artisanal ice cream made by Carmela. The small local company is poised to open a storefront in Pasadena, and are launching a cool retro ice cream truck.

Setting up shop in northeastern Pasadena, the Carmela Ice Cream Artisanal Creamery will not only make and sell their ice cream on site, but also bring in other treats to eat and drink from other local small businesses, like Valerie Confections and Sugarbird Teas & Sweets. On the savory side, Carmela's co-found Jessica Mortarotti says they are talking to Heirloom LA to craft a lunch menu for the Creamery. But if you can't make it up to Pasadena, you might soon spot the newly-acquired vintage 1975 ice cream truck Carmela is taking to the streets, which will be showing up at different spots around town, including farmers' markets and other events.

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Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream, Baskin-Robbins Flavor of the Month

Just in time for the holidays, Baskin-Robbins, the world’s largest chain of ice cream specialty shops, is offering decadent and festive Red Velvet Cake ice cream as its December Flavor of the Month. Featuring a mild, chocolate cake flavor with a sumptuous ribbon of cream cheese frosting, Red Velvet Cake ice cream is an ideal treat during the winter season and the perfect complement to any holiday menu.

“Indulging in rich and comforting desserts is part of the fun of the holidays,” said Brian O’Mara, Baskin Robbins Vice President of Marketing. “Our Red Velvet Cake ice cream, with its delicious chocolate and cream cheese flavors and cheerful red and white coloring, adds a little holiday spirit to any celebration.

In Baskin-Robbins stores nationwide during the month of December, Red Velvet Cake ice cream is available by the scoop – in a cup or cone – or as a Baskin Robbins classic sundae. For at-home entertaining, events or as a host or hostess gift, Baskin-Robbins is also offering a Red Velvet Ice Cream Cake that features a frosted-whipped topping and red velvet cake crumbles. In addition, entertainers who want to create their own special holiday dessert with Red Velvet Cake ice cream can purchase the flavor in hand-packed pints, quarts and half-gallons.*

“Red velvet cake is an American classic that continues to grow in popularity among adults and children alike, especially during the holidays,” adds O’Mara. “The smooth flavor of our Red Velvet Cake ice cream will certainly delight dessert lovers as they celebrate the season with family and friends.”

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Prune and Armagnac ice-cream

Ingredients :

* 500g (1lb 2oz) no-soak prunes
* 275g (9¾oz) double cream
* 275ml (9¾fl oz) single cream
* 4 egg yolks
* 1 dessertspoon cornflour
* 110g (3¾oz) golden caster sugar
* 2 tablespoons Armagnac.

You will need

A food processor and an ice cream maker ( pre-frozen according to the manufacturer's instructions) or an electric whisk.
A small baking tray.

Method :

First place 350g (12oz) of the prunes in a medium-sized saucepan and add 425ml (15fl oz) of cold water. Bring this up to simmering point, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes, then leave to cool. Now whip the double cream until it reaches the floppy stage but isn't too thick then pop it into the fridge to chill. Next make a custard - first pour the single cream into a medium saucepan, then carefully heat it to just below boiling point. Meanwhile, beat together the egg yolks, cornflour and caster sugar in a bowl until absolutely smooth.

Next pour the hot cream on to this mixture, whisking as you pour. Now return the custard to the pan and continue to whisk over a medium heat until it has thickened and come to just below boiling point again (don't worry, it won't curdle - if it does look at all grainy, it will become smooth again when whisked off the heat).

Rinse out the bowl and pour the custard into it. Then place it in another larger bowl of cold water with a few ice cubes, stirring it now and then until it is absolutely cold. While the custard is cooling, drain off the cooking liquid from the prunes and purée them in a food processor with the Armagnac until very smooth. Now roughly chop the remaining prunes into 5mm (¼in) pieces. When the custard is completely cold, stir in the prune and Armagnac purée, then fold in the chilled whipped cream.

Now pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and freeze-churn according to the manufacturer's instructions (you may have to do this in two batches and it will take between 30-60 minutes depending on the capacity of your machine). When the ice cream is soft-set, add the diced prune and churn it until all is incorporated, then transfer to a plastic box and freeze for 2 hours before you serve. If the ice cream is made well in advance and has frozen solid, remove from the freezer for 30 minutes before serving to soften.

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Amaretti with brandy and ice cream

Ingredients:

* 1-2 crushed amaretti
* ½-1 tsp brandy
* 2 scoops ice cream of choice, such as vanilla, chocolate or home-made orange
* cocoa powder for sprinkling

Kitchen Kit

* champagne flutes or wine glasses

Procedure

1. Place half the crushed amaretti in the champagne flutes or wine glasses, then cover with the brandy.
2. Add scoops of ice cream and top with the remaining crushed biscuits and a sprinkling of cocoa powder.

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Low Carb Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

One of the great things about the Atkins Diet is that you can indulge in some fantastic foods that you just can't eat on any other diet. Of course, there are also a bunch of foods you can't eat, but most Atkins Dieters are happy with trading the low-fat, high-carb foods for delicious treats like the ones you can now eat.

That's why this Low Carb Vanilla Ice Cream recipe is such a treat. This recipe yields 2 pints of ice cream (not ice milk!) at only 5.5 grams per 1/2 cup serving. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

7 packets Equal or Sweet'n'Low

Procedure:

Whisk the egg in a bowl till it's fluffy. Should take a couple of minutes. Whisk in the sweetener for another minute. Pour in the cream and vanilla and keep on whisking for another 2 minutes. Pour this concoction into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer.

If you don't own an ice cream maker and really want to make this ice cream from scratch, do this:

Get two clean and empty tin coffee cans with the plastic lids: one a 3 pound can, the other a 1 pound can.

Put the smaller can into the larger one. Remove the small lid, fill with the ice cream mixture, and replace the lid. Pack ice cubes all around the small can, inside the larger can, all the way to the top.

Sprinkle rock salt or Kosher salt liberally on the ice. If you don't have rock salt, try table salt. Put the lid on the larger can, tip it on its side, and roll the can back and forth every minute or so for about 10 minutes. Open both cans to see if the ice cream is solidifying along the edges of the smaller can. Replace the small lid, pack more ice around the small can, sprinkle some more salt, put the large lid on, and keep rolling.

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The Indian ice cream industry

India’s ice cream market is valued at Rs 4,300 crore per annum of which the organised sector accounts for Rs 1700 crore. It has emerged as the fastest growing dairy favourite in the Asia Pacific region. The major players in India are: GCMMF’s Amul, NDDB’s Mother Dairy, Hindustan Lever’s Kwality Walls, Vadilal, Baskin Robbins, Dinshaw and Hatsun’s Arun. The rest of the State Cooperative Dairy Federations in the country are also manufacturing and marketing ice cream under their own brand names. The import of ice cream is permitted unrestricted but attracts duty.

Ahmedabad-based Havmor Ice Cream is considering overseas expansion for its chain of restaurants and ice cream parlours. The largest ice cream manufacturers in Western India are looking at enquiries for setting up franchises in the US and Dubai. The company which has come up with novel ice creams, including the non-alcoholic whisky-flavoured ice cream for premium clientele for parties or weddings last years, is also experimenting on diet ice creams. The company aims to a turnover of Rs 175 crore by manufacturing 1.5 crore litres of ice cream this year. The company is seeing a growth of 25-30 per cent every year.

American ice cream brand Swensen’s has opened its first outlet in Bangalore, at what is purportedly the largest mall in India, The Manti Square. The Swensen’s franchise for South India is held by the Ravi Jaipuria (RJ Group)-owned Devyani International Limited (DIL). On the anvil over the next few months are a Swensen’s outlet at the international airport in New Delhi, three more outlets in malls and one in a high street in Bangalore. DIL is also scouting for suitable locations at malls and streets in other major South Indian towns and cities to bring the count to over 80 during the next five years.

Ice cream is available in various forms such as cones, cups, bars (candy) and party packs. Candy sticks account for about 25 to 30 per cent of total volume, whereas cups and other novelties contribute the rest. Looking at flavours, vanilla, strawberry and chocolate predominate and together account for more than 70 per cent of the market, followed by butterscotch and fruit flavours. Population of thick milk shakes, softy mixes, sherbets, syrups and special toppings for ice creams by ice cream parlours and fast food outlets offers new business prospects. These item’s volume may be limited at present but, measured in terms of value, their contribution is significant to many entrepreneurs’ bottomlines. Industry experts predict a big spurt in their popular appeal in the near future.

The non-organised sector though accounts for 60% pf the Indian ice cream market, it is shrinking considerably in the urban areas. However, in rural areas, kulfis/ice creams made by small/cottage industry are popular. In small towns and villages, there are thousands of small players who produce ice creams/kulfis and cater to the local demand.

The market for the organised sector is restricted to large cities. Eight cities account for 60 per cent of India’s total ice cream consumption. One notable shift in the consumption pattern is from impulse purchase by youngsters as fun food to its regular use as dessert. Thus, the sale of ice cream bricks is increasing.

The share of take-home sector over five years has increased from 50 per cent to 60 per cent.

However, India’s per capita consumption of ice cream is just 750 ml compared to an estimated 30 litres in the US and 1.2 litres in China. So, in India there is enough scope for more growth than the 15% observed over the past few years.

The Government of India dereserved the production of ice cream in 1996-97. Earlier the manufacture of ice cream was reserved for the small-scale sector. This move has encouraged high investment from medium and largescale sector and helped the market grow.

The country’s western region has a much higher consumption than the all-India average. Almost 35 per cent of the ice creams sold in the country are consumed in the western region with Ahmedabad being the main market, followed by 30 per cent in the north, 20 per cent in the south and 15 per cent in the eastern and central India. Delhi and Gujarat together account for 30 per cent of the country’s ice cream market. The Kolkata market is the largest for ice cream in the eastern region.The ice cream prices in India are reported to be three times higher than the prices prevailing in America. One reason is the legal requirement in India stipulating at least 10 per cent milk fat in ice cream. This standard needs to be reviewed to bring down the ice cream prices for increasing its consumption. Another inflationary factor is the high cost of transportation, particularly the refrigerated type. Taxes also contribute to high prices of ice cream. Absence of a nationwide efficient and reliable cold chain distribution restricts the ice cream sales to the bigger cities. A strong distribution network, including retail chain with supporting infrastructure of refrigerated transport, cold storage and freezer cabinets is a must for the healthy growth of the ice cream industry.

Extended season
Though April to June is the peak season for the organised ice cream market, 50 per cent of the sales are taking place during the rest of the year. In fact, October-November festival season is being considered as good season. This festive season contributes 15-20 per cent to annual sales volumes. Manufacturers undertake various brand-building activities through on ground promotions around specific festival events. Winter is not really strong in the western and southern parts of the country. Thus it makes sense to launch aggressive marketing campaigns throughout the year.

Popularisation of thick milk shakes, softy mixes, sherbets, syrups and special toppings for ice creams by the ice cream parlours and fast food joints opens a new business prospect. Presently, their volume may be limited, but by value their contribution is significant to the bottomlines of entrepreneurs. Industry experts predict a big spurt in their popular appeal in the near future.

As is evident from the low per capita consumption level, India’s ice cream market is on the threshold of registering an unprecedented growth. Some essential policy changes by the government, as desired by the industry, would facilitate and accelerate this growth. On their part, the entrepreneurs must bring in the latest technology and launch innovative products to capitalize on the business prospects offered by the ice cream marketing.

Free flowing Ice Cream
An in-house product of Space Dots Foods Pvt. Ltd, Dotz claims to be the next generation ice cream free from the hassle of dripping – free flowing ice cream. It comes in tiny dot-shaped beads and being kept at -40°C and served at -35°C. Dotz is the world’s coldest ice cream. Pune is the second place in the world where Dotz is being manufactured with the other location being USA. To make it appealing, it has been made in the form of dots appropriately called Dotz. Soft and hard ice creams contain an air content of 40 per cent to 100 per cent whereas Dotz has no air content. It’s all ice cream. Also a fat content of 14 per cent makes Dotz one of the richest quality ice creams in the world. The technology that has gone behind this new product is cryogenic technology (used in rockets) and the dots are flash frozen to maintain the individual dot consistency and locks in the flavour.

Take a small ice cream unit with the production capacity of 500 litres of ice cream and 1,000 pieces of water ices per shift of eight hours. The capital investment for such a unit totals Rs 35 lakh. Such a unit can in the first year expect to generate annual sales exceeding Rs 75 lakh, assuming 100 per cent sales for only five months in a year, diminishing sales for five months and no sales for the remaining two months of winter. In the case of a larger unit of 150 litres per hour capacity, the capital investment required would be around 60 lakh. Such a unit can be expected to generate Rs 150 lakh of gross sales, assuming 100 per cent sales for five months in a year and declining sales rest of the year. An ice cream unit includes one pasteurizer, aging vat homogenizer, continuous freezer, cooler, deep freezers, Lolly tanks etc.

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Pumpkin Ice Cream

Ingredients:
* 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree or canned unsweetened pumpkin puree

* 1 tsp. vanilla extract

* 2 cups heavy cream

* 3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

* 5 egg yolks

* 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

* 1/2 tsp. ground ginger

* 1/4 tsp. salt

* Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

* 1 Tbs. bourbon

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 8 hours.

In a heavy 2-quart saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 1/2 cups of the cream and 1/2 cup of the brown sugar. Cook until bubbles form around the edges of the pan, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the egg yolks, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, the remaining 1/2 cup cream and the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar. Whisk until smooth and the sugar begins to dissolve.

Remove the cream mixture from the heat. Gradually whisk about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture until smooth. Pour the egg mixture back into the pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon and keeping the custard at a low simmer, until it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and leaves a clear trail when a finger is drawn through it, 4 to 6 minutes. Do not allow the custard to boil. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

Place the bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice water, stirring occasionally until cool. Whisk the pumpkin mixture into the custard. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours or up to 24 hours.

Transfer the custard to an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Add the bourbon during the last minute of churning. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container. Cover and freeze until firm, at least 3 hours or up to 3 days, before serving. Makes about 1 quart.

For Pumpkin Puree:

To make your own pumpkin puree, use 1 large or 2 medium Sugar Pie or other eating (not field) pumpkins. Cut out the stem and quarter the pumpkin lengthwise. In a preheated 400°F oven, bake the quarters, cut side down, in a shallow roasting pan with a little water in the bottom until tender, about 1 hour. Let cool, scrape out the seeds, cut the flesh from the peels, and force it through a medium-mesh sieve or the medium disk of a food mill. Freeze any leftover puree for up to 2 months.

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How Many Different Ways That There Are to Eat Ice Cream

Ice cream is a good snack for any time of the day. Some people go out to eat ice cream just to have some thing to do. Others eat ice cream as a snack before they go to bed. Ice cream is usually really popular thing only in the summer time. The in the wintertime it is usually too cold to eat ice cream. Many people still eat it in the wintertime though.

There are many ways to eat ice cream. Most people love to eat ice cream, but some people that are not able to eat ice cream because they are lactose intolerant. They are not even allowed to drink milk; there are other ways people get their calcium though.

Ice cream is some thing that a lot of people use as some thing to eat at birthday parties with their cake. They even make them ice cream cakes now. This way you don't need to buy the cake and the ice cream, you can just buy an ice cream cake. They are very delicious, and the prices vary on the size that you get.

There are many different flavors of ice cream, and they keep making more. The three flavors that they started with originally are chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla. Now they got mint chocolate chip, peanut butter, rainbow, butter pecan, strawberry cheesecake, chocolate swirl, orange cream, and many more flavors too. The flavors of the ice cream matters too. If you are not allowed to eat some thing certain, you should not eat that flavor of ice cream either.

You do not like to eat your ice cream with just a bowl and spoon, make it into a milk shake and use a straw. A milk shake is made with the flavor of your ice cream, some milk, put it in a blender to mix it up, and you got your milk shake. You can use any flavor of ice cream that you wanted to.

If you use one that has chunks of stuff in it may be hard to suck it through a straw. Mint chocolate chip would be a good example. The chocolate chips would get stuck in the straw. The milk shake would be excellent though.

There are many other ways to eat ice cream than just in a milk shake. You can get an ice cream sundae too. These are made any way you want them. They have any flavor for them too. Some of the flavors are butterscotch, fudge, peanut butter, and more. You can purchase your ice cream in a cup too. You could pretty much get your ice cream any way you want it.

Getting an ice cream cone is the most common way of getting your ice cream. You can get any flavor that you want in it, how ever many scoops that you want in it too. They also have two types of cones the waffle cones, or just the regular cones, when you get your cone if you like sprinkles, nuts, or any thing like that you can get that on your ice cream cone too.

Vanilla ice cream is used to make other ice cream treats too. Banana splits are common too. That is another way to eat your ice cream. Root beer floats are very good too. They are now making root beer floats out of other flavors of soda too. They are using Choc- Cola, and Dr Pepper also. It may be just as good, but the root beer float is the original float.

Ice cream is such a great snack that they are even making different flavored candy out of ice cream flavors. They have limited edition skittles that have the pink skittle as strawberry flavored. They also have that basket robin's hard candies that are ice cream flavors. If you like ice, cream that much.

You could take ice cream to work without it melting. It is in a hard candy instead of in a bowl. There are a lot of different ways to choose from to eat your ice cream, but it is all up to you and how you may want to try to eat your ice cream next time.

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Baskin-Robbins' 'Happy Weekend' Gaurantee, the launch of chocofest

This festive season Baskin-Robbins gives all Chocoholics a reason to celebrate. Every weekend from October 23 to November 28, Baskin-Robbins celebrates Chocofest - an indulgent escape for the chocolate lovers to treat their taste buds with the best chocolate ice cream flavors of the world. Avail of their scrumptious offer and take home a regular handpack with the purchase of a large handpack on any of your favourite chocolate flavors.

Baskin-Robbins, known for its exotic and mouthwatering flavours, has selected ten assorted chocolate flavours to give its fans a complete chocolate experience. This offer is valid on 10 yummy chocolate ice creams like Choco Chips Mousse, Chocolate Ice Cream, Bavarian Chocolate, Gold Medal Ribbon, Three Cheers Chocolate, Malted Choco Fudge, World Class Chocolate, Mint Milk Chocolate Chips, Milk Chocolate Chips and Mississippi Mud. Take your taste buds on a sinful ride by indulging in these lip smacking delights.

"Ice-cream as a product is mostly consumed collectively. With the festive feel in the air, we thought this would an ideal time for us to launch Chocofest and give our consumers another reason to celebrate with their friends and family. Chocolate flavours being a big hit with our consumers, I am sure that this offer will delight everyone and add to the fun and festivities. And as our campaign tag line goes, it's a 'Happy Weekend' guarantee for all ice-cream lovers", says Mr. Ashwin Uppal, General Manager, Marketing, Graviss Foods Pvt Ltd.

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Ice creams lift Unilever sales

Consumer products giant Unilever has said this summer's dismal European weather failed to dampen sales at its Magnum ice cream business. The ice cream and Lipton beverages division posted a 6.1% jump in sales in the quarter to September 30, the strongest of Unilever's four divisions. It said the launch of Magnum Gold in 29 countries helped trading, while there was an improved market share in the United States due to the performance of Klondike, Ben & Jerry's and new product launches.

"Strong ice cream growth was very encouraging, especially given the unfavourable summer weather in Europe," Unilever added. Across the business, Unilever posted sales growth of 3.6% after a stronger-than-expected rise in volumes of 4.8% offset a 1.2% drop in prices.

The company's personal care division also performed well with sales growth of 4.5% in the quarter, helped by strong sales in the deodorants category following the launch of Dove Men+Care in Europe.

Despite rising commodity prices, Unilever said it had cut prices in those areas where it needed to stay competitive. Overall, it said it expected some underlying growth in prices towards the end of the year. Unilever said the third quarter saw solid progress, particularly given slow economic growth, weak consumer confidence and higher commodity costs.

It added: "Whilst market growth continues to be sluggish in the developed economies, the emerging markets continue to grow strongly albeit more slowly than the levels seen earlier in the year."

Unilever said sales in the savoury, dressings and spreads category held up well after a return to price growth. And although the spreads business remained weak, the Pro-active brand showed improvement on the back of a new campaign. Sales in the division were 1.7% higher in the quarter, while in home care the figure was 2.7% higher.

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Let Everyone Eat Strawberries And Ice Cream

8,700 punnets of fresh Spring strawberries and 2,500 litres of ice cream will be sold by New Zealand Hospices around the country in early November.

New Zealand hospices in Dunedin, Marlborough, Wellington, Lower Hutt, Paraparaumu, Havelock North, Napier, Gisborne, Hamilton and throughout Auckland will be running the second "National Strawberry Festival" to raise funds for Hospice services.

"Summer is almost here; we are enjoying the lighter evenings and we want people to have some fun, enjoy the lovely new season's strawberries and support a very worthwhile cause -their local hospice," says Karen Doucas, Festival spokesperson. "Part of hospice philosophy is about enjoying life and making the most of it.

Among the events, the 2,500 visitors to the "Hospice Holly Trail" in Havelock North will be able to refresh themselves with strawberry sundaes in the town centre. Strawberries and ice cream will be sold to competitors and visitors at the Queen Charlotte Classic Multi Sport Race in Picton where 1,000 competitors are expected along with several thousand spectators.

Fifteen hundred visitors to the "Kumeu Arts in the Garden" event in Auckland can sample strawberry Devonshire teas. Wellington's public servants will be able to scoff strawberry sundaes in Grey Street and Midland Park and a number of Wellington restaurants will be selling strawberry themed desserts. Approximately 50 craft and food stalls will be running in Hamilton for Hospice Waikato during the weekend of World Rowing Championships. Family fun days are being run in Gisborne and Kapiti.

"Our hospices provide a very high standard of care for terminally ill New Zealanders free of charge and funds raised from the Strawberry Festival helps towards keeping those services free," says Karen Doucas. The first "Strawberry Festival" was run in Wellington in 2005 by Mary Potter Hospice and it has since grown to become a national festival in 2009.

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Candied Bacon Ice Cream Recipe

For the candied bacon:

• 5 strips bacon
• about 2 teaspoons light brown sugar

For the ice cream custard:

• 3 tablespoons (45g) salted butter
• ¾ cup (packed) brown sugar (140g), light or dark (you can use either)
• 2¾ (675ml) cup half-and-half
• 5 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons dark rum or whiskey
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Optional:

• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. To candy the bacon, preheat the oven to 400F (200C).

2. Lay the strips of bacon on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or aluminum foil, shiny side down.

3. Sprinkle 1½-2 teaspoons of brown sugar evenly over each strip of bacon, depending on length.

4. Bake for 12-16 minutes. Midway during baking, flip the bacon strips over and drag them through the dark, syrupy liquid that’s collected on the baking sheet. Continue to bake until as dark as mahogany. Remove from oven and cool the strips on a wire rack.

5. Once crisp and cool, chop into little pieces, about the size of grains of rice.

(Bacon bits can be stored in an airtight container and chilled for a day or so, or stored in the freezer a few weeks ahead.)

6. To make the ice cream custard, melt the butter in a heavy, medium-size saucepan. Stir in the brown sugar and half of the half-and-half. Pour the remaining half-and-half into a bowl set in an ice bath and set a mesh strainer over the top.

7. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm brown sugar mixture to them, whisking the yolks constantly as you pour. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

8. Cook over low to moderate heat, constantly stirring and scraping the bottom with a heatproof spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

9. Strain the custard into the half-and-half, stirring over the ice bath, until cool. Add liquor, vanilla and cinnamon, if using.

10. Refrigerate the mixture. Once thoroughly chilled, freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Add the bacon bits during the last moment of churning, or stir them in when you remove the ice cream from the machine.

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Ice cream wars: Baskin lacks freshness; Cold Stone needs fan base

As the weather gets chillier, popular ice cream chains Baskin-Robbins and Cold Stone Creamery are still trying to attract customers with cold treats and hot desserts. Baskin-Robbins introduced the ice cream chain concept to Korea, while Cold Stone Creamery brought its unique concept of ice cream mixed on a cold granite stone.

Baskin-Robbins is perhaps the most popular ice cream chain, attracting a broad base of customers with its wide variety of ice cream and yogurt flavors, ice cream cakes and other desserts. But its franchise is showing signs of wear, as some stores are looking old and worn and the service is quite spotty.

On the other hand, Cold Stone Creamery offers ice cream creations or ice cream mixed with various candy, fruits, nuts and ingredients on a frozen granite slab. This unique concept is catching on, but the Cold Stone franchise has a long way to go to catch up with Baskin-Robbins.

Price-wise, Baskin-Robbins has a more affordable price point starting at 2,500 won for a scoop of ice cream. A small Cold Stone creation is more expensive at 3,800 won but it comes with different mix-ins.

Baskin-Robbins grows complacent

Baskin Robbins was started out as separate ice cream shops by brothers-in-law Burton Baskin and Irvine Robbins in California in 1945, but eventually merged as Baskin-Robbins in 1953. It was considered the pioneer in the franchising business for ice cream shops in the U.S.

The SPC Group, which also owns Paris Croissant and Shany, has grown Baskin-Robbins to become the most popular ice cream franchise in Seoul. You can find it almost everywhere, from the underground shopping areas to a neighborhood store to busy shopping districts.

The Baskin-Robbins store’s facade is typically decked out in bright colors and posters for the month’s new ice cream flavor and ``Hard Rock Yogurt.’’

At the counter, there are dozens of ice cream tubs with flavors ranging from the plain Vanilla to this month’s flavor Wizard’s Halloween. The names of the ice cream flavors are written in Korean and English. The calorie content is also provided for anyone who would like to compare calories of a scoop of Jamoca Almond Fudge (270 calories) versus Rainbow Sherbet (100 calories).

The huge poster of a delicious-looking scoop of yogurt mixed with toppings on a waffle dish was enough to make this reporter want to try it out. The Hard Rock Yogurt looked quite similar to one of those creations offered by Cold Stone Creamery.

But unfortunately, there was no chance to try out the Hard Rock Yogurt dessert. Despite being prominently advertised on the store’s posters, the staff at a branch in northern Seoul informed this reporter that it was ``out-of-stock.’’ Asked why it was no longer available, the staff just gave a shrug and said the other desserts were available.

But when this reporter tried to order a banana split, the staff said it was also unavailable, but no reason was also given.

The menu also featured various desserts, such as parfaits, banana split and ice cream fondue, as well as hot and cold drinks like cappuccino blast and hot chocolate. Running out of options, this reporter chose the brownie & ice cream combination, which was fortunately available but it took 10 minutes before being served.

When the dish came out, it was a disappointing mix of two scoops of ice cream, two slices of dry brownies, a dollop of melting whipped cream sprinkled with chocolate chips and a puddle of cherry sauce.

The Baskin-Robbins store looked slightly old, despite the colorful walls and decorations. Some of the tables had some balled-up pieces of tissue and paper, while some tables still had some plastic cups on it. There was also no available paper or plastic cups, or any pitcher of water for the customers at the counter.

Overall, Baskin-Robbins has seemed to have grown complacent at top of the ice cream chains in Korea. There should be more effort by the franchise to make sure that whatever products they so heavily advertise are actually available at the stores.

Cold Stone lacks fun

Cold Stone Creamery made a name for itself in the U.S., not just for mixing ice cream on a slab of frozen granite, but for its fun-filled atmosphere and good service. The ice cream chain was started in Tempe, Arizona in 1988 by founders Donald and Susan Sutherland, with their desire to serve the ``world’s best ice cream.’’

In Korea, Cold Stone Creamery opened its first outlet in Jongno in 2006. The master franchise for Korea is owned by CJ Foodville, which operates VIPS, Tous Le Jours, A Twosome Place, China Factory and The Place.

At Cold Stone, customers can choose from the ``creations’’ such as Strawberry Banana Rendezvous (strawberry ice cream, bananas, strawberries, pie crust and white chocolate chip) and Cheesecake Fantasy (cheesecake ice cream with blueberry, strawberry and pie crust). Customers can also build their own creation by choosing an ice cream flavor, adding choice of ingredients and mixing it all together. The result is what Cold Stone likes to call ``the ultimate ice cream experience.’’

Cold Stone has both Korean and English menus available, but there are no nutritional or calorie information available for its offerings. Even on the company website, nutritional information is given separately for ice cream and the mix-ins. This makes it hard for customers to find out exactly how much calories are in one bowl of ice cream creation.

This reporter ordered a ``love it’’ or medium-sized Chocolate Devotion. Based on Cold Stone’s nutritional information sheet, chocolate ice cream is 227 calories, chocolate chips are 120 calories, brownie is 170 calories and chocolate fudge is 90 calories, plus waffle bowl is 160 calories. This brings the total to a whopping 767 calories. This is perhaps why the company would rather not place the calorie count on the menu.

In the U.S., Cold Stone Creamery’s crew is known to burst into song whenever a customer puts some money in the tip jar. In Korea where there is practically no tipping culture, this sing-for-tips gimmick falls flat.

Many customers don’t even realize there is a tipping jar next to the cashier, with the sign ``We sing for donations.’’ At the time of this reporter’s visit, the jar was 1/4 full and there was no customer dropping any coins or bills in it.

Usually, the servers also try to spice up their routine by throwing ice cream scoops in the air and other tricks, but none of that was seen.

The only sort of excitement that Cold Stone offered was a spin-a-wheel promotion on the street. Anyone can line up and spin the wheel for a chance to get coupons for free waffle cups and size upgrades.

On its website, Cold Stone Creamery says that the first five words of its mission statement are ``We will make people happy.’’ But somehow the Korean franchise seemed to have missed that part, because there’s a dull and cold (pardon the pun) atmosphere that does not make Cold Stone Creamery any different from the other ice cream chains.

If Cold Stone Creamery wants to challenge Baskin Robbins in Korea, it has to work to make its stores livelier and more attractive for customers to come in and sample its delicious, albeit calorie-laden, ice cream creations.

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Nothing will stop the ice cream van appearing at the Crows Nest Festival

WHEN Alfio Coco’s wife had to go to hospital to have a baby two days before the Crows Nest Festival, he became worried. What if he missed the annual event?

Mr Coco has sold ice cream from his Bar Coco cafe van at the festival for the past 20 years. “My wife’s water broke on the Friday before and she said to me ‘you can’t miss the fair!’,” he said. Luckily, his daughter arrived before the Sunday and the Bar Coco van was in its usual spot on Willoughby Rd at the festival.

“It’s funny because she (his daughter, now five years old) loves the van, she says ‘it’s my van, it’s my business’,” he said. Perhaps in the future she will take over the business, which has been in the family for the past two generations. Mr Coco’s two uncles used to make ice-cream in Leichardt for 50 years.

Mr Coco used to work as a hairdresser in Crows Nest and helped out with the business during his spare time but soon decided to focus entirely on Bar Coco.

“I wanted to put all my attention to it,” he said. The free festival will celebrate its 21st anniversary this Sunday, October 17. Mr Coco missed the first festival because it was on a Saturday and he was working at the hairdresser’s, but the next year it was changed to a Sunday and he has been part of it since.

“I love it,” he said. “The atmosphere, the entertainment, the great stalls.”He said the only change he had noticed at the festival in the past 20 years was that it had grown “bigger and better”.

“I think in particular the entertainment makes people come back year after year. They always have number one entertainment with great bands.”

The festival, which attracts more than 40,000 people every year, will have 200 stalls, street performers, jumping castles, Sumo wrestling displays and four stages with musicians. It runs from 10am to 5pm.

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Ice Pan, the next generation of ice cream

Ice Pan is one of those places where several pop culture trends converge and form a genuinely pleasing little confectionary bubble. It is the current endpoint in a rising line of chain ice cream one-upmanship, the place where they not only mash in your chosen topping, but they also mash the ice cream into existence right in front of your eyes.

This is the Ice Pan experience: First, you select a base flavor from a long list of possibilities, including many fresh fruits, chocolate, green tea and red bean. Let's have strawberries this time. Then you choose a base liquid: whole milk, low-fat milk, skim milk or soy milk. Then, if you wish, you choose a topping — for instance, Reese's peanut butter cup. Your hard-working fresh ice cream masher throws the strawberries and the milk into a blender, whizzes it up and then dumps the liquid into his large, ultra-cold metal pan, and it instantly starts to freeze.

At this point, you realize that you may be, in fact, having a New Culinary Experience.

After about half a minute, once the stuff has gotten most of the way to frozen, your ice cream masher starts scraping up the frozen puddle. Watch closely because this is the really beautiful part of the experience: The frozen puddle breaks up into long, stiff crystals, and it looks sort of like a miniature version of Superman's Fortress of Solitude rising from the ice.

Then your masher really goes to work. He's got two kinds of terrifying implements — like large paint scrapers, but sharper, like what some evil chef-villain would wield in a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie. And he proceeds to chop, flip, pound and mash the heck out of your ice cream until it's utterly smooth.

At some point, he has placed your single whole peanut butter cup on top of the mess and then proceeded to chop and pound it into oblivion with the rest. It's now clear that we need a word for this new job. I suggest cremista.

It looks like brutal, exhausting work. You get the sense that somewhere, in some kung fu movie yet to come, there will be a training montage where the ornery old master forces the arrogant young student to work at an Ice Pan for a year.

Ice Pan either arose from a sincere, Bill Nye-like love of the awesomeness of science or from the world's canniest pitch meeting: "What do people love? They sure love Cold Stone Creamery and that whole mash-in thing. And you know what else people love? Japanese choppy-choppy steakhouses. Let's combine the two!"

But if you look around, you'll start to notice another theme: The huge video displays show close-ups of cremistas pounding ice cream and flash the words "No pain, no gain" over and over again. The tip jars say, "Tipping makes our arms hurt less," which seems to imply that part of the store's pleasure is something akin to medieval entertainment — watching young, healthy workers flail and strain for your benefit — and tips.

What emerges from their labor, though, is quite pleasant — it's fresh, light and quite unlike any other ice cream. It has neither the light body of frozen yogurt, nor the airy fluffiness of churned ice cream. It feels like one of those Mexican frozen pops, the ones with some dairy in them, that's been pounded into submission.

The West Hollywood Ice Pan may be the only place you can experience the cutting edge of culinary technology next to a Target and a BevMo. (Other Ice Pan locations are in Tokyo and Las Vegas.) And here is a prediction: The next step in the high-concept ice cream store arms race will involve teenagers frantically milking dairy cows from an in-store herd.

ICE PAN

LOCATION: 7100 Santa Monica Blvd., No. 135, West Hollywood; (323) 883-0267; http://www.icepanusa.com.

PRICE: Ice cream, $4 to $6 (50 cents per topping).

DETAILS: Open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Credit cards accepted. Lot parking.

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China screams for ice cream

International Dairy Queen Inc., the U.S. fast-food and ice-cream chain owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., plans to increase its outlets in China by more than 60 percent by the end of next year.

The company aims to have more than 500 stores in the world’s most populous nation by December 2011 from more than 300 now, Jean Champagne, chief operating officer of Dairy Queen’s international groups division, said late last month in Shanghai. Dairy Queen, Nestle’s Haagen-Dazs and Allied Domecq’s Baskin-Robbins are setting up more stores in the world’s fastest-growing major economy as consumers in their home countries curtail spending in the wake of a global recession. China is Dairy Queen’s fastest-growing and second-largest market globally, trailing only the U.S.

Champagne said at a briefing, “As the country continues to develop, there will be a whole new customer base that will continue to know about DQ,” CEO John Gainor said at the same news conference. “We’re very excited about our growth in China.”

The Edina, Minn.-based chain plans to introduce 15 new flavors in China next year to cater to local customers, Champagne said. The new flavors will include goji berry, which will be exclusive to China, he said.

Dairy Queen targets 130 to 135 new outlets this year and more than 145 in 2011 in China, Champagne said.

While the company will continue to grow in Beijing and Shanghai, it also plans to expand in smaller cities, Gainor said.

“As China’s disposable income increases, it allows us to penetrate into second- and third-tier cities,” he said. “In the next 10 to 15 years, China will be a very significant part of our portfolio.”

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Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

2 oz Unsweetened chocolate
1/3 c Unsweetened cocoa pwdr
1 1/2 c Milk
2 Large eggs
1 c Sugar
1 c Whipping cream
1 t Vanilla extract

Directions:

Melt the unsweetened chocolate on top of a double boiler over hot, not boiling, water.

Gradually whisk in the cocoa and heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. (The chocolate may “seize” or clump together. Don’t worry, the milk will dissolve it.)

Whisk in the milk, a little at a time, and heat until completely blended. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more.

Pour in the cream and vanilla and whisk to blend. Pour the chocolate mixture into the cream mixture and blend.

Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 1 to 2 hours, depending on your refrigerator.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer’s instructions.

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Who Makes the Best Beer Float in Los Angeles?

Skeptics, you may doubt that beer + ice cream = perfection in a glass, but around town there are plenty of bars and restaurants that make this concoction, and make it damn well. I was a doubter myself at first (you can't help but close your eyes and picture a generic, yellow-gold, frothing beer in what would be an ill-fated match with a scoop of supermarket brand HFCS-loaded ice cream, I know) but then realized the right beer plus the right ice cream is a delight.

So who makes the best Beer Float?

To address this urgent dessert-meets-refreshment issue, Food GPS is presenting the L.A. Beer Float Showdown II on October 10th at the Verdugo Bar, in which four teams meet up for a good old-fashioned beer float smackdown. It's one beer float each for the competitors, and then attendees vote on their favorites, and a winner is chosen. Last year's champ, The Golden State, couldn't make it this year to defend their title, so the field is wide open. And if you're still hungry after slurping down four beer floats, the Manila Machine and Mandoline Grill truck will be there to sell their tasty eats. Speaking of filling bellies, 50% of ticket sales will go to Share Our Strength, which means deserving bellies will get filled with much-needed nourishment.

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Halifax Pumpkin Ice Cream

Maritimers love to make their own ice cream according to Executive Chef Les Stevens of Delta Halifax and Executive Chef Jamie Mullett of Delta Barrington.

The traditional pumpkin pie is usually paired with a heaping scoop of ice-cream, so it seems natural to mix the two ideas into a sweet pumpkin ice cream.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

1 teaspoon freshly-grated ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cinnamon stick

1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

5 large egg yolks

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup of pumpkin puree

Optional: 2 teaspoons Grand Marnier, rum or brandy

Preparation.

Make an ice bath by putting some ice and a little water in a large bowl and nest a smaller metal bowl inside it. Set a mesh strainer over the top.

In a medium saucepan mix the milk, cream, pumpkin, granulated sugar, ginger, ground cinnamon, cinnamon stick, nutmeg and salt.

Warm the mixture until hot and the edges begin to bubble and foam

Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl and gradually whisk in about half of the war spiced milk mixture, stirring constantly.

Scrape the warmed yolks back in to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.

Immediately pour the mixture through the strainer into the bowl nested in the ice bath. Mix in the brown sugar, then stir until cool, then chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.

Whisk in the vanilla, (and the liquor if using,) and pumpkin puree. Press the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer, and then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

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Caramel Ice Cream Sundaes

Nothing says comfort like a bowl of vanilla and dulce de leche ice creams topped with warm, vanilla-scented caramel sauce. If you can't find nut brittle, substitute toasted mixed nuts.

Ingredients

* 1 cup(s) sugar
* 1/4 cup(s) water
* 1/4 cup(s) heavy cream
* 4 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter, cut up
* 1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
* 1 pinch(s) salt
* 1 pint(s) dulce de leche ice cream
* 1 pint(s) vanilla ice cream
* Nut brittle.

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, stir sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook, swirling pan occasionally, until syrup turns amber. Remove pan from heat and carefully add heavy cream (mixture will sputter); stir to combine. Return to heat and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve any hard bits of caramel. Remove pan from heat and let cool 5 minutes. Whisk in butter, vanilla, and salt. Let sauce cool.

2. Scoop ice creams into sundae dishes. Spoon caramel sauce over ice cream and garnish with nut brittle.

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Minden ice cream factory ceases operations

The merciless economy may have claimed its sweetest victim yet. Tahoe Creamery of Minden has shut down operations. On Friday, empty crates lay stacked in front of the manufacturing suite in the Meridian Business Park. Inside, the company's famous filler machine, once used to fill large quantities of paper pints, stood defunct, motionless, half covered in wrapping.

Two Tahoe Creamery pickup trucks remained parked outside, but no employees were in sight. A phone call to the head office ended in a recorded message saying, “Tahoe Creamery is no longer producing ice cream due to the stressful economic climate.

The news came as a shock to fans who have enjoyed the company's 150 homemade recipes in restaurants and stores all over the region, from the most popular flavor, blueberry, to Batters Up, once the official ice cream of the Reno Aces.

The news was especially shocking given the optimistic report from owner Greg Hoch in February. At the time, Hoch said business had quadrupled in the preceding year and that production had increased from 12,000 pints of ice cream to 26,000 pints a month. The product, company executives maintained, was reaching about 50 chain stores throughout Nevada and California.

“We've been blessed,” Hoch said in a previous interview. “We've been growing kind of fast. We don't even have time to sit down and analyze the numbers. They're coming in fast and furious.”

Hoch grew up on Shady Glen Dairy Farm in Manchester, Conn. In 2000, he moved with his family to Nevada and opened the Sierra Glen restaurant in Carson City. In 2004, after starting Tahoe Creamery in the back room of the restaurant, Hoch closed the Sierra Glen and opened the production facility off Airport Road.

The company first sold 2.5-gallon boxes of ice cream to restaurants and hotels before developing the pint-sized product known today.

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Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream to remove ‘all natural’ from labels

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream will no longer call itself "all natural", in response to a request from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (www.cspinet.org), sent a letter to Ben & Jerry's, requesting the removal of the "all natural" label because of the use of things like alkalized cocoa, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, and corn syrup in its products. Ben & Jerry's has complied, and will phase out the labeling. It will not change any ingredients in its ice cream.

Natural, of course, is a slippery term. Models who display the "natural" look have probably spent three hours in hair and makeup and may even have had some plastic surgery. Foods labeled natural can still be bad for you.

Perhaps this is why the FDA has no official definition for natural when it comes to labeling foods. The USDA, which regulates meat and poultry, allows the natural label as long as there are no artificial colors or ingredients, and the product is "minimally processed". The FDA, which regulates all other foods, has yet to define the term natural, so that's why Ben & Jerry's has been able to use the label all these years.

I never liked Ben & Jerry's because it was natural. I liked it because it was deliciously creamy and fattening, and because those little cartons are the perfect size to buy and eat when you're 26, live alone, and have nothing else to do. I doubt the customer base of Ben & Jerry's is overly worried about corn syrup.

I personally feel that natural is overrated. If I let my kids behave according to what comes naturally, we'd eat all our meals with our fingers while squatting 8 inches from the television set. Dogs eating grass and throwing it up 20 minutes later on your living room rug is quite natural. Bed bugs are natural. Just calling something natural isn't necessarily a selling point with me.

Amusingly, there are places where natural food is being taken to a whole new level. At Noma, a prestigious restaurant in Copenhagen, they serve dirt. Edible dirt.

I am not making this up. I don't think like that.

They serve dirt at Gilt in Manhattan, and at Marlowe in San Francisco. Each chef has their own recipe for dirt: Noma's is a mixture of dried malt and beer, and Gilt, already serving mushroom soil, is experimenting with pebbles made from frozen foie gras. Marlowe's dirt is dried olive oil.

Is it just me, or are we all getting really weird about food? The rich people can't just enjoy a plate of delicious food, they have to pretend its dirt. The lower, "starving" classes, are fatter than ever, and the middle class is so busy we just throw processed foods at our kids while we drive them around to after-school activities. And if you finally do decide to get healthy and pay attention to the label, you will find that the label is a mass of contradictions and darn near undecipherable.

Years ago at one of my son's birthday parties, we had "Worms in the Dirt" for dessert instead of cake. The kids make it themselves, which is part of the fun. You take a plastic cup and fill it halfway with instant chocolate pudding, then you crumble up chocolate cookies into crumbs on top of that, and then you put some gummy worms on top. You eat it with a spoon and it's a giant mess. It is anything but natural. But I tell you what, that was some delicious dirt.

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Simple mint choc chip ice cream

Makes 1/2 litre

Ingredients:
300ml whole milk

75g caster sugar

Large handful of fresh mint sprigs

300ml double cream

100g very dark chocolate, preferably at least 70% cocoa solids, finely chopped

Procedure:

1: Place the milk, sugar and mint in a pan over a low heat. Heat, stirring frequently, until steaming hot and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat, stir in the cream and set aside to infuse for at least an hour. You can leave it in the fridge overnight – which is handy if you’ve forgotten to freeze your ice cream maker.

2: Set your ice cream maker going. Remove the mint and pour the milk mixture into the ice cream maker. Once it has begun to thicken, add the chocolate chips. Let it churn until thick, then spoon into a 1/2 litre freezerproof container and freeze until solid.

3: If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make this by removing the mint, stirring in the chocolate and then pouring it all into a freezerproof container. Freeze for 2 hours, then beat with a fork to break the ice crystals, return to the freezer and repeat for about 8 hours or until you give up and go and buy some ice cream.

4: To serve, let the ice cream soften for 10 minutes. It should serve 6 people reasonably, 4 people greedily or 1 person guiltily.

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Ice cream makes wishes come true

Kate's single wish was to create a one-of-a-kind flavor of ice cream. Cold Stone Creamery, in conjunction with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, made it possible for this 11-year-old little girl's wish to come true. The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a charity that gives children with terminal illnesses a chance to fulfill a wish, whether it is to go to Disney World, travel to another country or create their own ice cream flavor.

On Sept. 30, Cold Stone Creameries around the nation will hold their 9th annual ice cream social, known as "The Worlds Largest Ice Cream Social." This event is Cold Stone's way of participating in Make-A-Wish Month. Throughout the month of September, paper stars, which can be signed and hung in the store, were sold for $1 each. Denise Benninghoff, manager of the Dyer branch of Cold Stone, said all of the money raised by the event goes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

"We will likely hit 1,000 stars sold today," Bennninghoff said. However, according to Benninghoff, with a week left in the program there will likely be even more stars purchased before the social.

At the social, free three ounce samples of Kate's Creation will be available. Her creation is a combination of caramel-apple ice cream, chocolate shavings, graham cracker pie crust and apple pie filling.

This flavor was one of three created by Kate, Cold Stone Junior Tastemaster for the day, in February as she visited the Cold Stone Creamery headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz. At the taste test, it was decided the apple-heavy recipe should be the one used for the social.

The social will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at all Cold Stone Creamery locations, including the branch closest to PUC, located at 883 Lincoln Highway in Dyer. Donations will be accepted up to and at the social.

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Western Family Maple Nut Ice Cream Recall – Latest Info

Deluxe Ice Cream, which is a subsidiary of the Matterhorn Group, Inc., recently issued a recall of the Western Family Maple Nut Ice Cream, due to the discovery of the possibility that the ice cream may contain traces of peanuts, although this fact is not indicated on the packaging of the ice cream. Although no complaints or illnesses with regards to this problem have been reported to date, this recall is being treated as serious due to the possibility that the consumption of this product by a person who is allergic to peanuts or has a severe sensitivity to peanuts could lead to a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction. The US food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been informed of this issue, and is cooperating with this recall.

The Western Family Maple Nut Ice Cream (56 fl oz packages) are understood to have been distributed to retail stores throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, California, Alaska and Guam. The product which being recalled reportedly has the UPC code of 15400-22808, in addition to being stamped with the following data “Best By 07-23-11 Plant 41-48,” followed by a four-digit time code. Consumers in possession of these products are requested to return them to the place of purchase, where they will be offered a full refund.

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Any Munchie Mocca? Pot dispensary finds niche in expanding marketplace: ice cream

Smoke a bowl or eat a bowl (of ice cream)? That's the question at a new medical marijuana dispensary, where half pints of Banannabis Foster and Straw-Mari Cheesecake marijuana-infused ice creams sell alongside more run-of-the-mill bags of pot.

There's no consumption on site, of course, but card-carrying marijuana patients have the choice at the new Creme De Canna in Soquel, Calif., of buying and taking their medication home to puff on or enjoy with dessert.

Proprietor Jonathan Kolodinski says it's got three flavors of ice cream now, but others are on the way.

"It's been my passion to make medical marijuana not only highly effective, but deliciously amazing," said Kolodinski, who opened his marijuana collective across the street from Dominican Hospital this week. "I've wanted to bring my product line to the market for a long time."

Marijuana ice cream is not new. Recipes have passed back and forth between pot users since at least the '60s and directions for an untold number of flavors abound on the Internet. But commercial sale of the product is in its infancy, and prospects for this and other marijuana products loom large as California voters decide the legality of pot, beyond just prescription users, this November.

"This is just a drop in the bucket, what we're seeing right now," said Steve Kubby, national director of the American Medical Marijuana Association.

Kubby, who is developing his own pot products like a marijuana lozenge, says legalization of the drug under Proposition 15 would only hasten an already growing marketplace for marijuana.

"A lot of people are coming up with all kinds of ideas about how to get cannabis into the diet," he said.

Before Kolodinski opened his dispensary on Paul Sweet Road, he began selling his pre-packaged ice cream at a handful of other dispensaries and earning positive reviews.

"People like it," said Nancy Black, aka Granny Purps, who carries the ice cream at her namesake collective on 41st Avenue. "First of all, it's ice cream — and who doesn't love ice cream? Secondly, it has a manageable amount of medication in it and you don't taste it."

Black says old-time pot smokers, remembering bad-tasting brownies of the past, have a misconception that marijuana tastes bad. That's no longer the case, she says.

"Everybody knows there are edibles out there. But people are rediscovering them now," she said.

Kolodinski says opening his dispensary was a natural next step for promoting his ice cream.

"We're now in a unique place to share our products," he said, noting that he'll soon add sorbets and vegan options to the ice cream lineup.

The ice cream, which comes in half-pint containers marked by a slick logo and marijuana leaf, sell for $15. According to the label, it contains "2 to 4 doses."

Creme De Canna is just the latest of at least a half dozen marijuana dispensaries and numerous delivery businesses and private collectives that have opened in Santa Cruz County, Calif..

County Supervisor John Leopold, who was not available to comment last week, is pursuing a county ordinance to regulate the marijuana retailers. He hopes to introduce the measure this fall.

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Store sells marijuana-infused ice cream

A pot dispensary near Santa Cruz California is offering a fresh take on your basic banana split. Or you could look at it as a tasty way to smoke a doobie. For medical reasons only, of course.

It's marijuana-infused ice cream. And so far, the ice cream maker says his customers think it's totally dope.

Everybody who's tried it has said they absolutely love it. A lot of people come back for seconds, thirds and fourth," said Jonathan Kolodinski.

Some of the flavors offered include Banannabis Foster, Straw-Mari Cheesecake and triple Chocolate Brownie.

Finishing off a pint of this stuff is about equal to smoking eight joints, the owner says. It'll set you back $15 a pint, and only card-carrying marijuana patients can buy it.

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Häagen DAZE: Medicinal marijuana shop in California offers dope-flavoured ice cream

Here's a new flavour of ice cream that you won't find in the Ben & Jerry's range - a medical marijuana dispensary in California is offering pot-infused ice cream. Perfect for a banana spliff! Crème De Canna on Soquel, LA - one of California's estimated 2,000 medicinal marijuana dispensaries - sells half-pint tubs of ice cream that pack a bigger punch than your average supermarket brand. Jonathan Kolodinski, the owner of Crème De Canna, says customers can choose from Banannabis Foster, Straw-Mari Cheesecake and Triple Chocolate Brownie. Mr Kolodinski added that there are more flavours are in the works.

He said he was offering the ice cream as a healthy alternative to patients who do not want to smoke medical marijuana - and so far, unsurprisingly, business is booming. He said: 'Everybody who's tried it has said they absolutely love it. A lot of people come back for seconds, thirds and fourths.'At $15 (£9.60) a tub, the flavours sound delicious... but they are not for the weak of heart. Mr Kolodinski said there were about two to four 'doses' of cannabis for each tub, the equivalent of smoking eight joints.

He said critics of his pot-laced ice cream shouldn't worry if the concoction was grabbing the wrong sort of attention, because - in the end - his goal was to help his patients. He said: 'We very explicitly label all our products with a marijuana leaf that says "Keep out of reach of children". We have been very mindful.'Mr Kolodinski also said that patients, who have to carry a card given to them by their doctor to buy the medicinal marijuana, cannot eat the ice cream at the dispensary. Fifteen states in the U.S. have legalised medicinal marijuana - including Alaska, Hawaii and Washington DC. California's medical marijuana industry - known as 'cannibusiness' - generates about $2 billion a year. The state has dispensaries, co-operatives, wellness clinics and even taxi delivery services.

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Blanche Vaughan's perfect blackberry ice-cream

Blackberry ice-cream

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients:

1 litre double cream
200ml milk
2 vanilla pods, split in half lengthways
8 egg yolks
200g caster sugar
500g blackberries

Procedure:

In a saucepan mix the milk and cream. Scrape the vanilla pod over this so that the seeds go into the pan, then throw in the pods. Warm to a simmer then take off the heat.

In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar. It's even better if you do this in a mixer so that you can beat them until they become pale and thick. This will make a lighter, creamier ice-cream.

Pour the hot milk and cream mixture over the yolks in a thin dribble, mixing all the time so that the yolks combine without curdling. Then return the mixture to the heat, stirring until it starts to thicken.

In a blender or magimix, blitz the blackberries to a puree and pass through a sieve to remove the seedy bits. Stir this into the custard mixture and taste. Add a little more sugar if necessary. You want it to be sweet so that when it is cold, it still tastes sweet enough.

Churn in an icecream machine until just frozen or put in the freezer and remove ever half hour or so and stir well with a fork to break up the ice crystals. Eat as soon as possible while the flavours are at their freshest.

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