Postcards from the Trail

I bought a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker last year and it is the best thing in the world. I have mainly been making sorbets. I love the refreshing taste of fresh fruit. I have been making a wide variety from Dragonfruit to Blood Orange. Berry or Citrus are our favorites.

I have tried one or two ice creams based upon a custard base. They are way too rich for me. I prefer ice creams made without eggs or "Philadelphia style". I recently did a web search to see what options and stumbled upon recipes from Jeni Britton Bauer creator of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Columbus Ohio. The first recipe I made was the Vanilla Bean Ice Cream from this article in Food and Wine Magazine. It was exactly what I was looking for.

Strawberries are late this year with the cool weather and they have just started showing up in our local Farmers Markets. I couldn't resist. I got two great pints from Jessie's Berries. I decided to make Jeni's Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream recipe from Tasting Table this weekend and it is absolutely divine. I highly recommend it. It is so smooth and creamy with out the added richness of eggs. Get the best milk you can get. I found some unpasteurized local milk from Twin Brooks Creamery in Lynden Washington. The local milk along with the roasted local strawberries were wonderful and soooo easy.

I also bought her new book on ice cream - Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream from Amazon. Lots of great tips on making home made ice cream. Some of the recipes are quite exotic but should be fun in the coming months. I love the Autumn recipe section.

Here are some photos to entice you....

Key - freshest ingredients

Close to nature... close to you

Local fresh strawberries from Jessie's Berries in Mt Vernon

Stir in the strawberry puree to the base and it is ready to freeze