Sugar free ice cream is already on the shelves

Just when I thought I had come up with a great new business idea, I visit Leo's and find it already exists. Sugar free ice-cream is available in tiny tubs for $5.50 in burnt caramel, strawberry, banana and chocolate flavours:

Making my own ice cream

In the last week, I have tried to make ice cream twice. I have been disappointed with the results. I used a simple recipe from Yummly:

- thickened cream, whipped
- condensed milk, gently folded in (60% sugar)
- vanilla essence, added

Frozen overnight. The result was far too rich and hard. Just simply sweet frozen cream. Yuk.

The second time I used evaporated milk (12% sugar), but the whipped cream collapsed and the passion fruit I added sank to the bottom, so I whizzed it up with banana and milk to make a smoothie. However I do not really enjoy the flavour of full fat cream. It is too rich for my palate.

It works in a milkshake though!

Baclava Ice-Cream at Mesa Johnston Street Fitzroy

On Saturday night we had a delicious dinner at Mesa in Johnston Street Fitzroy.  For starters we enjoyed saganaki, soft bread, chargrilled beef rissoles, zucchini fritters and calamari.  For main I had the moussaka (divine) and for dessert, the boss and I ate baclava ice-cream (I'm watching my sugar these days).  It was excellent, but I realised how sweet honey is.  I haven't eaten honey for months and the sweetness hit me with surprising ferocity.  The nuts in pastry were also very rich, but the creamy ice-cream was delightful. Yum 9/10

Hall's Gap, Grampians Victoria

We ventured out to Coola's ice-creamery in Hall's Gap on the weekend.  They had home made cones and Norgen Vaas ice-cream. I tried the ginger (nice big chunks of ginger in a creamy ice-cream) and passionfruit (real pips and sauce swirled through the ice-cream).

My other half had boysenberry and mango.

 

 

Lunch at Wen & Ware in Ballarat was very nice.  Especially the passionfruit fizzy drink and cake!

 

 

 

Yum!

 

Noerdenfine, Torquay

We discovered a wonderful artisan ice-creamery on Bell Street Torquay over the weekend.  I tried Cherry Ripe (excellent fine chocolate pieces, coconut and real cherry) and passionfruit (great flavour with real passionfruit pips) in a nut-encrusted chocolate dipped waffle cone.  The other half tried jaffa and cherry ripe.  He was not sure if the jaffa was more gelato style (his taste buds were exhausted after a long weekend of very rich food).  He thought the cone was fantastic.

The shop is opposite the caravan park and I couldn't help wondering if a Scandanavian backpacker came to Torquay, fell in love and decided to open an ice-creamery so they could stay.

This was probably the ice cream highlight of my summer holiday.  We also visited Jock's in Middle Park and I was very impressed by his passionfruit flavour as well as the coconut lime.  Unfortunately I ate it too quickly to take a photo.

Federal Diner, Auckland

The Federal Diner is opposite Sky City in Auckland.  However it is a world away from a casino.  It is like stepping back in time to an American diner... The staff are dressed in quirky uniforms and the decor is fantastic.  I enjoyed the NY steak for dinner one night and a rueben sandwich for lunch another day.  Both were delicious and reasonably priced.

Auckland desserts at the Heritage

The winter has been a little quiet for ice cream.  However now that spring has sprung, I am back on the ice cream bandwagon.

On a recent trip to Auckland I had a couple of good desserts at my hotel.  The Heritage doesn't have much ambience in the dining room, but they make an effort with the food and service:

Sticky date pudding with vanilla ice cream

Flourless orange cake with vanilla icecream: