Melbourne's temperatures are finally dipping into the relief of early autumn. Cooler... is so much cooler, when it means open doors and refreshing breezes.
Then I squeezed this milky custard into the freezer for the better part of a day and ... voila! The best ice-cream... and I mean the BEST vanilla-bean homemade ice-cream I could ever dream to eat. And dreaming is about as close I get, as my dairy allergy only allows for licking the spoon and forcing others to eat my share.
But it's no excuse to abandon all things summery. Especially if you've just mastered (ok, tinkered) with the pleasure of making your own ice-cream.
You can't blame me, really. Too many reality TV shows, unrelenting heat and a fair supply of eggs from my hens either addled my head, or pushed me into sudden brilliance. Because I found myself tossing milk, cream, sugar, eggs and real vanilla bean pod scrapings (see, too much television chefery on the brain) into my thermomix (modern day kitchen Cinderella) for oh, about... 5 minutes.
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| 19th century ice-cream vendor |
Such a modern day accomplishment, to produce a quick and delicious treat. With electric gadgets, I had a frozen dessert on offer with hardly any effort on my part. Unlike my Victorian era counterpart, who would have sourced Icelandic, Canadian or American ice from a merchant, I just stepped over to the wall and opened the door.
Fortunately, unlike my Victorian era counterpart, I dished up into washed sorbet glasses, with no concern my family might succumb to health hazards, common among Victorian era ice-cream enthusiasts. 19th century lovers of ice-cream often ate from used dishes, and their coins bought them other people's spittle along with their Penny Lick. Following the death of a child in 1898, the House of Commons in London, formally discredited ices.
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| Vanilla Bean Ice-cream - Crabapple House |
But ingenuity and possibly commercial enterprise, saw the invention of ground almond cones. And the sale of ice-cream has never looked back.
So whether you're the silver spoon, footed glass type, or the waffle cone kind of eater, there's a serving solution for everyone's tastes. For me, a good vanilla ice-cream cone would be perfect. But then I'd need a small scoop of coffee too...
How about you? What's your favourite ice-cream flavour?
Blessings for a wonderful weekend,
Blessings for a wonderful weekend,
