Ice Cream Photos - Rhubarb Crumble & Vanilla Ice Cream

Continuing with the theme of sharing some of the photos I've taken over the years relating to all things ice cream, this post is takes 'rhubarb and custard' as its theme.

For some reason the rhubarb in our garden flourishes annually beyond all our expectations. Needless to say I have become adept at making rhubarb crumble :)

PHOTO 1 - RHUBARB CRUMBLE
This picture was taken literally seconds after it came out of the oven. It was still bubbling around the edges. So what do you serve with rhubarb crumble? Custard perhaps or cream .... maybe .... but what about vanilla ice cream?

PHOTO 2 - FRESH VANILLA ICE CREAM
Here is a batch of homemade vanilla ice cream that I made with my favorite ice cream maker at home - photographed just as it came out of the machine.

Imagine a scoop of it on top of freshly made, hot, homemade rhubarb crumble. Now that's what I call a (n)ice dessert!

Read about rhubarb on BBC Good Food.

Valentine's Day History, Romance & Ice Cream

Valentine's Day is celebrated in numerous countries around the world - the United States, UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia and France for example. Despite its popularity, however, if you ask anyone about the history of Valentine's Day, few people will be able to give you an answer. An interesting fact really, especially given the fact that it's the second largest card-sending day of the year (after Christmas). Yes, around 1 billion cards will be sent for Valentine's Day this year with a staggering 85% being sent by women!

So what is the history? Well, as with many things that have been handed down over centuries, there is a degree of mystery about the subject, so rather than delve into that I'll give you a link to a great web page that goes into serious and fascinating detail on the history of Valentine's Day.

Let's move on to what Valentine's Day is all about - romance. This photo was kindly furnished by Sarah who works in an English castle, popular for romantic weddings. It's a special cheesecake dessert made for a wedding breakfast. She told me that many people choose Valentine's Day not only to offer/accept a marriage proposal but as their actual wedding day and the castle has seen many happy couples 'tie the knot' within its walls on February 14. Who said romance was dead?!

So what about a special dessert for Valentine's Day? Well, having talked about cheesecake it seems appropriate to suggest a cheesecake ice cream recipe. Smooth, rich and toally indulgent ... it sounds the perfect dessert to end a romantic dinner for two. (The grated chocolate in the recipe is optional by the way - it's just a topping for the ice cream)

My Valentine's Day ice cream blog post in 2009
My Valentine's Day ice cream blog post in 2008

Bread & Ice Cream

I was reading about bread today; it's a fascinating subject. Bread is a staple food that we have enjoyed for generations. Everyone has their own preference of bread - white bread, brown bread, black bread, wholemeal or rye bread, french bread, the list goes on.

If I think of the countries that I have visited over the years, the one thing I have noticed is that the bread differs from one country to the next. Just compare France, Italy and Germany for example; the bread in those countries varies enormously as does when it's eaten and what it's eaten with.

In England, bread is most commonly eaten in sandwiches - though ice cream sandwiches don't have bread in them! There's a popular, traditional English dessert called bread and butter pudding. It may not sound exotic but, cooked with the right recipe, it's delicious!

When it comes to traditional foods, bread has to be one of the classics - let's take medieval bread for example. The baking of bread around 600 years ago was taken very seriously and medieval bread recipes were surprisingly varied producing some wonderful sounding breads like pandemain, wastel and clapbread. Back to modern day bread, however ... if you like bread and butter pudding and want to try something a little different, Nigella Lawson has a super ginger jam bread and butter pudding recipe.

If that doesn't get your tastebuds going, then you can always try my recipe for brown bread ice cream. One thing I used to love as a child was eating the occasional strawberry jam sandwich ... I might just try that in a new ice cream recipe! Watch this space :)

Ice Cream Photos - Dutch Sundae & Polar Bear Ice Cream

Here are 2 photos that bring back great holiday memories ...

PHOTO 1 - ICE CREAM SUNDAE

After a warm summer's day on holiday in Zandvoort we called in to a local ice cream parlour where they served this great ice cream sundae.

It never ceases to amaze me how inventive ice cream parlors can be when it comes to concocting ice cream sundaes.

This sundae was particularly delicious as it had one of the parlour's own 'special' ice cream recipes in it called "Dolce Vita" (a superb chocolate ice cream).

PHOTO 2 - POLAR BEAR ICE CREAM

This wonderful bear with the ice cream cone was standing right next to our table at the ice cream parlour as we sat and ate our ice cream sundaes.

He looked as happy as we felt!

If the photo is to be believed then at least we now know what ice cream polar bears like to eat ... chocolate and mint choc chip, not forgetting the whipped cream on top of course :)