Nothing can interfere more with a late night ice cream craving than hard ice cream. We’ve all been there. You open the freezer, take a few seconds to ponder your frosty options, grab a spoon, a bowl and a scoop and dig in. But instead of dipping effortlessly into the soon-t0-be-dessert, your scoop meets what appears to be something resembling concrete.

We’re never sure exactly why this happens, especially since, at other times, your ice cream emerges from the freezer soft as a cloud, but it happens (and usually at the worst possible times). But now there’s a solution: the Deni 5111 electric ice cream scoop! According to Amazon.com, where this brilliant invention sells for $18.88, the electric scoop “cuts through the hardest ice cream with no effort” and “heats up in minutes and retains its temperature scoop after scoop.”

Plus it looks kind of cool (that’s it on the right). One comment from all the comments left on the Ice Cream Journal in February will be chosen at random to win this life-saver. Speaking of winners, congrats to Melanie S., Carol T., and Lois S. for being our January prize winners. Each will receive a vintage looking tin ice cream sign personally signed by Turkey Hill President Quintin Frey and our very own Ernie Pinckney!

Only a few more days left until the big game. Hopefully everyone’s got their menus planned. If not, the recipe below from Jessie G. of Falmouth, Maine might come in handy. These tasty morsels are very easy to make and would be fun for the kids to prepare. If anyone makes it, let us know!

PEANUT BUTTER BLISS BITES

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Turkey Hill Chocolate Peanut Butter cup ice cream, softened
24 mini sized peanut butter cups, tucked into mini cupcake liners
½ cup salted peanuts, roughly chopped
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vegetable shortening

DIRECTIONS

Tuck peanut butter cups into mini cupcake liners, flatten slightly to form a base. Mix ice cream with salted peanuts, and scoop ice cream mixture with a melon baller over peanut butter cups, pressing down slightly. Freeze. Melt bittersweet chips and shortening together in pan over simmering water or in microwave. When ice cream is fully frozen, dunk chocolate into slightly cooled but still melted chocolate, or spoon chocolate over domes. Refreeze, if you like, decorate each top with a salted peanut. This sweet and salty treats are delicious indulgent bites that leave us satisfied but not overfull.  (In place of the melted chocolate, you can also use the quick hardening shell, but they’re not as tasty.)

Today’s Super Sundae recipe comes to us from Lisa M. of Chester Springs, PA. We like it because it allows you to use your favorite cereal as a main ingredient. The hard part is trying to decide which of your five favorite cereals to use! To add to the dilemma, you can also use your favorite flavor of Turkey Hill ice cream. This “simple” recipe is beginning to get very difficult.

ICE CREAM CRUNCH BARS

INGREDIENTS

4 cups of your favorite cereal  (we used Cheerios and Rice Krispies)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 gallon of your favorite Turkey Hill Ice cream (we used German Chocolate Cake ice cream)

DIRECTIONS

Combine cereal, brown sugar, walnuts, and butter in a large bowl.  Stir well until blended.  Press 1/2 of the mixture into a 8×8 pyrex pan coated with cooking spray. Let ice cream soften about 20 min.  Spread softened ice cream over cereal mixture.  Top evenly with remaining cereal mixture.  Cover and freeze 8 hours or overnight.  Cut into squares and serve. Endless combinations of cereals and Turkey Hill ice creams can be used for these delicious bars!

Our next recipe to help you get ready for the big game this weekend comes to us from Donna H. and is both brilliant (for its use of Turkey Hill ice cream sandwiches as an ingredient) and easy. Thanks Donna!

DONNA WRITES:

I like to take your ice cream sandwiches and make an ice cream cake. First, I decide if I want chocolate or strawberry (or any other flavor available). Then I put six sandwiches down on a piece of foil and top them with a layer of cool whip, instant pudding, and ice cream topping (mixed together). The ice cream topping depends on the flavor of sandwiches I picked. Then I put another layer of sandwiches and another layer of pudding mixture. Top it with a layer of sandwiches and then icing the rest of the pudding all over it. Freeze it for a couple of hours. My family loves it and I make it different every time!

Like we mentioned last week, each day this week we’ll be featuring a new ice cream-related recipe to help everyone prepare for any Super Bowl parties they may be throwing this Sunday. Speaking of parties, Turkey Hill has a few recipes listed on SpotBowl — a website that helps you plan a big game party and lets you vote for your favorite Super Bowl commercials. Check it out!

Our first recipe was submitted by Barbara Jo M. of Blenheim, NJ during our Ultimate Holiday Recipe contest. It didn’t make the cut as a finalist, but its combination of brownies and ice cream makes it a shoe in for honorable mention here.

BROWNIE ICE CREAM PIZZA

INGREDIENTS

1 box of brownie mix
1 extra egg (in addition to any eggs needed for brownie mix)
2 containers Turkey Hill Vanilla Ice Cream or
Turkey Hill Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream (green)
6 ripe bananas
20 red and green Marachino cherries (without stems)
Chocolate syrup (to drizzle on top)

DIRECTIONS

Bake brownie mix according to directions, but  add the extra egg to the brownie mix. Spray 9 x 13 inch pan with non-stick spray. Pour brownie mix in pan. Bake according to directions. When done, remove from oven. While warm, poke holes in brownie and spread 1 cup of softened Turkey Hill Vanilla Ice Cream over warm brownie. Freeze remainder of Turkey Hill Vanilla Ice Cream and freeze brownie until hard. Remove brownie from freezer along with remaining Turkey Hill Vanilla Ice Cream or Turkey Hill Chocolate Chip Mint Ice Cream. Spread softened ice cream over frozen brownie. Ice cream should be about 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick. Slice bananas, layer on top of ice cream. Slice Red and Green Marachino Cherries, place all over top. Drizzle chocolate syrup over ice cream and bananas. Freeze until ready to serve.

To serve, remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving, cut into squares and enjoy!

NOTE: Variations of Turkey Hill Ice Cream can be used to suit your taste. Other toppings such as coconut (tinted to green or red) and pineapple can be added to top, along with chopped nuts and candy.

Even if you’re not a football fan, you probably know that the Super Bowl is just 10 days away (Sunday, February 7). The reason the game is so well known, even among non-sports fans, is because the even is watched by nearly 100 million Americans, many of whom are watching just for the entertaining commercials (no, Turkey Hill isn’t buying an ad).

To help bring a little sweetness to your Super Bowl party, we’ll be featuring five ice cream-related recipes here on the Ice Cream Journal next week, including some “honorable mention” recipes from last year’s Ultimate Holiday Recipe Contest. Stay tuned!

A big thanks to everyone who took a shot at answering our true and false trivia questions from last week.  As promised, we chose three people at random from those who got all 10 questions correct to win some free Turkey Hill ice cream. Congrats Sheila, Carol and Anna! Below are the answers to the quiz. We promise next month’s edition will be shorter!

1. The most popular and best selling flavor of ice cream in the nation is chocolate.

ANSWER: False. The most popular flavor in the nation is… anyone? That’s right, vanilla!

2. The Turkey Hill Giant Cow lives up to its name by standing 19 feet tall and weighing in at over 5,000 pounds!

ANSWER: False. She’s big, but she’s not that big. In reality, she stands 13 feet tall and weighs 3,500 pounds.

3. Despite the economic recession, national sales of ice cream actually increased in 2009, rising 1.5 percent as Americans found comfort in their favorite dessert.

ANSWER: True. Other comfort foods, like potato chips, also experience sales increases during a recession. No word on whether the macaroni and cheese folks are doing the same. (We also accepted false for this question because some of you thought we were being tricky with the 1.5 percent statistic when you found a source that said ice cream sales were up 2 percent.)

4. Even though they sound alike, sorbet is different from sherbet because sorbet contains no dairy products while sherbet can contain one to two percent milkfat.

ANSWER: True. And remember, it’s pronounced “sher-bit”, not “sher-bert”!

5. National Ice Cream Month in July was created by former president Jimmy Carter in 1976 as part of America’s bicentennial celebration.

ANSWER: False. America owes its month long devotion to ice cream to President Ronald Reagan, who established the celebration in 1984.

6. French vanilla ice cream contains egg yolks, which traditional vanilla ice cream does not.

ANSWER: True. The eggs give the French vanilla its sometimes yellow color and a little extra creaminess.

7. Immigrants at Ellis Island were served ice cream as part of the welcoming to America.

ANSWER: True. We’re not sure what the flavor was. Hopefully not Rocky Road!

8. Pat Bertoletti, a culinary student from Chicago, holds the world record for ice cream consumption by eating 1.75 GALLONS of ice cream in just 8 minutes during a contest in 2006.

ANSWER: True. The resulting brain freeze lasted two years and 237 days.

9. You can purchase all sorts of sports-themed stuff in Turkey Hill’s online store, including golf balls, baseballs, footballs and hockey pucks.

ANSWER: False. There are no hockey pucks in the Turkey Hill store… yet.

10. The first ice cream parlor in America opened in Philadelphia in 1776.

ANSWER: False. The honor of hosting the first ice cream parlor in America goes to New York City (in 1776).

We’re back with some more brain-busters in this month’s edition of Ice Cream Trivia. This time we’re firing 10 true or false questions at you and asking you to separate fact from fiction. Instead of e-mailing your answers to us at icecreamexperts@gmail.com, feel free to leave your answers with a comment. We’re pretty sure no one will copy your answers, since you can’t be sure if the person you’re copying from is right or wrong!

Those of you who get all 10 questions correct will be entered to win some free Turkey Hill ice cream.

1. The most popular and best selling flavor of ice cream in the nation is chocolate.

2. The Turkey Hill Giant Cow lives up to its name by standing 19 feet tall and weighing in at over 5,000 pounds!

3. Despite the economic recession, national sales of ice cream actually increased in 2009, rising 1.5 percent as Americans found comfort in their favorite dessert.

4. Even though they sound alike, sorbet is different from sherbet because sorbet contains no dairy products while sherbet can contain one to two percent milkfat.

5. National Ice Cream Month in July was created by former president Jimmy Carter in 1976 as part of America’s bicentennial celebration.

6. French vanilla ice cream contains egg yolks, which traditional vanilla ice cream does not.

7. Immigrants at Ellis Island were served ice cream as part of the welcoming to America.

8. Pat Bertoletti, a culinary student from Chicago, holds the world record for ice cream consumption by eating 1.75 GALLONS of ice cream in just 8 minutes during a contest in 2006.

9. You can purchase all sorts of sports-themed stuff in Turkey Hill’s online store, including golf balls, baseballs, footballs and hockey pucks.

10. The first ice cream parlor in America opened in Philadelphia in 1776.

The following was posted a long time ago here on the Ice Cream Journal, but we’re bringing it back for one more look. Enjoy!

Jessica E. from Browns Summit, NC asks:

After the ice cream is cut in half with the big knife, does the dissected ice cream then get thrown out, or does someone get to eat it?

What a great question! I assume you are referring to the daily cutting of ice cream that is done to check the quality of the ice cream made the day before.

As each new flavor is made, someone marks the first and last “saleable” package made. Saleable would mean that they felt all the ice cream and ingredients were filling the package in proper amounts. The marked containers then travel through the blast freezer and are set aside by the palletizing crew the next day. This is the product that is tested during the “ice cream cutting” process.

It begins by evaluating the outside of the package, removing the cover, and using the double spoon method to taste the product. The package is then cut in half using a very large and sharp knife. It is then evaluated visually to make sure all the inclusions (fudge, pecans, cherries, cookies, cookie dough, etc.) are dispersed evenly. By now the ice cream is almost nearly destroyed, and is disposed of by placing it into a bin labeled “Food Grade Waste.”

But there is a happy end to this story, because the leftover ice cream isn’t just thrown away. The ice cream, along with other remnant ice cream produced that day, is accumulated, diluted with water, and tested for butterfat and total food solids. It is then sent to a nearby farm where it is blended with dry feed and fed to the ever-hungry pigs. Pretty lucky pigs!

Thanks for your question!

Ernie

Okay, before you wrinkle your nose and emit an “ewww!” audible to everyone within 20 feet, give this treat a chance to explain itself. It’s a spaghetti and cheese flavored ice cream from a shop in Merida, Venezuela called Heladeria Coromoto. The shop is known for its unusual ice cream flavors, including its claim to having the most flavors of any ice cream shop in the world (nearly 900 and counting, though the shop only offers about 100 flavors on any given day). And one of those flavors is spaghetti and cheese, a tempting combination that begs the question: Would you eat it?