What is there to say about this ice cream?
It’s all gone, I’ll tell you that much.
Need I say more?
Considering this is my 3rd batch of ice cream this week, I’d say I’m doing a pretty darn good job of embracing ice cream season fully and completely.
Hey, don’t judge. I had a quart of good heavy cream in the fridge, and not like it’s going to use itself. There’s nothing I hate more than wasted cream.
So long as this heat keeps bombarding us (freezer space notwithstanding) I’ll make ice cream until the cows come home. Then I’ll milk them and make some more.
This ice cream has sass; it’s anything but plain chocolate. Chocolate and caramel come together and the result is show stopping. It’s kind of like that chocolate caramel ganache I made a while back: (almost) unbelievable that the addition of caramel could make chocolate that much better, so decadent that it should be a sin.
I love ice cream with a little heat; the sensation baffles your tongue. Like it can’t decide if it’s cold or hot and so you better eat some more ice cream just in case. The hint of spice in this ice cream is just perfect, a dash of cinnamon and cayenne pepper the wake up call your mouth was longing for. Sure, you could leave out the spices and go for a straight chocolate caramel (which would be great in its own right) but the spices just take it over the top. Fight heat with heat, I say.
Don’t let the dry caramel scare you. Be patient, be on alert (don’t turn your back for even a second), and you’ll be just fine. The end result is worth it, I promise.
Here’s the thing. It’s summer. It’s 90+ degrees outside, at least 75 inside at any given time. If you see an ice cream photo where the ice cream isn’t dripping everywhere, you know something’s not right, either the photographer has some space-age sub-zero photo studio or they have artistic superpowers allowing them to get the shot in 5 seconds or less. Or they cheated and gave their melty ice cream a photoshop facelift (shame shame). Shooting ice cream in winter is one thing, when that extra 10 degrees will give me a solid 15 minutes to work with (but really, who makes ice cream in the winter? Oh wait, I do.) But in the heat of summer it’s a race to get the shot before everything goes to sh*t, and no amount of planning or pre-freezing everything in sight is going to change that.
Because really. Even with the AC cranked that ice cream isn’t going to last long.
I’ll tell you what, give me two spoons and it’ll no longer be an issue. :)
Submit to summer. Embrace the mess. Revel in the chocolate smudges in the corners of your mouth. Go on, lick the drips off your fingers (it’s so good you won’t want to waste a drop). I give you full permission to dive head first into a bowl (preferably a large one) of this ice cream and eat to your heart’s content.
Because isn’t that what summer is all about?
Ice cream base adapted from David Lebovitz.
All images and text ©Lindsay Landis / Love & Olive OilLet us know what you think!
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