Hola Fruta! Pomegranate & Blueberry Sherbet

I was very excited to see Hola Fruta! on sale this week, and if the freezer wasn't full, I would have bought a couple, not just one. It's $3.99 a quart at Shaw's this week instead of the usual $5.49. Sure, it's a lot for sherbet, but I was pretty confident I would enjoy whatever I picked. Well, I had a half dozen choices in front of me, but after the first test, I knew I wanted to go with the Pomegranate & Blueberry next. Why? Because I've never had a sherbet in either flavor, and if I was going to try a new sherbet, this brand is the way to go.

For whatever reason, I assumed the flavors would be mixed, but you actually get a nice clean, mild pomegranate on one side, and then a nice fruit chunk filled blueberry on the other side. Not big chunks mind you, these are very finely blended pieces well scattered throughout the sherbet. Both taste real nice, and you can put them together in whatever ratio you want. My only odd thought is that for whatever reason, this flavor gave me a massive urge to grab a salty snack.

Mmmmm, the Hola Fruta! website shows this flavor with a big slice of angel food cake, I bet that's good!

On Second Scoop: MMMMMM, so good

Nutrition: 150/10-0.5/0/1

Topping of the Week: Hershey's Cocoa

I have been dieing for ice cream all day long, so I couldn't wait to scoop a bowl for TV time. One problem though, I wanted chocolate and we don't have any. I have some Breyer's cookie dough, so that will be my base. Now sure, I could have dumped on some Nesquik syrup on top, but what happens if I go with pure cocoa? Well, exactly what you expect happens: It's potent, very potent, and I added way too much. It tastes fine when you get just a bit with your scoop, but grab too much and it's overkill. Cocoa just isn't one of those things you want hitting your taste buds all by itself. I wound up having to dump in more cookie dough, but even then, I was still left with a mild but unpleasant chalky aftertaste.

I swear this was an accident!

So, give it a try if you want, but be gentle. Ok, back to the TV (Chuck!)

Turkey Hill Black Raspberry Ice Cream Review

Ahhhhhh, now that's how you make Black Raspberry ice cream. There are so many great flavors out there, but a good BR holds a special place on my top ten, and a nice one like this makes me want to toss out the one from Stone Ridge. A little harsh, but the thought has crossed my mind.

So, what do you get? a fantastically sweet, yet not to tangy, bite of BR bliss in every spoonful. Black raspberry is meant to be simple, sweet, and understated. I just can't complain when an ice cream hits the spot like this. The only possible, small, miniscule complaint I could come up with is that I wish they would turn this into one of their All Natural flavors. That would get rid of the extra stuff and take that creamy texture all the way. If they did that, I would probably always have to keep one on hand (hint, hint).

Nutrition: 130 / 60-4.5 / 0 / 2

...Dubba ....makin' cupcakes ....the dubbinator

sorry, outdated SNL reference there. We went to a family friendly party tonight and you can't go to those empty handed ...and in this case, ice cream wasn't an option. I thought I would take my turn making the treat. After flipping through my trusty "Mrs. Field's Cookie Cookbook", I wound up going with my pre-cookbook thought and made some cupcakes. I tried applying some of my recent ice cream making tricks into making the cupcakes: In other words, let's see how much stuff we can shove into them to make them "special". The base was funfetti cake mix, threw in a bunch of dye to try and make them orange, threw in a scoop of toffee and chocolate chips that had been thoroughly chopped and blended and started mixing. I also replaced the oil with applesauce, you know, try to keep them a little healthy. That wasn't quiet fancy enough, so after pouring the mix into the cups, I threw in two midsize Hersey kisses in the middle. They came out of the oven fine, but the chocolate toffee flavor was very mild, so I went with some nice prepackaged whipped chocolate frosting. Everyone seemed to enjoy them, though they would have been better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

....oh man ...now I got myself thinking about ice cream again

Another TotW: Helados Finos Review

translated, it means "fine ice creams", and we all know I'm a sucker for those. hehehehe. I was shopping way too late last night, but even though it was just shy of 10 o'clock, that doesn't mean I don't have 2 more minutes for my favorite part of the store.

Now I knew I wanted something for the ride home since it had been two hours since I ate anything (that's a long time in my world). The first thing to catch my eye was the Weight Watchers english toffee crunch bars. Being weight watchers, one might assume these are very healthy. well ....you would be wrong, the saturated fat content was way two high (a serving of two bars is 55% of your daily allowance!)

Just like a kid, my attention turned to some brightly colored boxes. Helados Finos. Ok, I don't know what that means, but I do understand the universal language known as "A picture". Tasty looking picture too with big strawberry pieces mixed in with the bar. Hmmm, several fruity flavors to choose from. Rum Raisin or Mango? Nah. Coconut? Ummmmm, no way. Strawberry? Oh yeah, now we're talking.

At the bottom of the box it says "Quiescently Frozen Ice Cream Bar". Again, I'm lost. "Premium Ice Cream" Now that I understand. "All Natural" Yup, I understand that too. Into the cart it goes, time to go home!

Car's packed, keys in ignition, unwrap treat, drive home and start eating. Hmmm, interesting. Not quite what I expect, but interesting. I like the flavor, but the texture is kinda weird. The texture is more like a popsicle than ice cream. I guess the best way to describe it is that it is kind of rubbery. The strawberries sank to the bottom, but that's ok, it's the bonus treat at the end of the snack. I'm not huge of fruit flavors, and the texture is odd, but overall it's a pleasant change of pace.

Ok, time to learn something: So I looked it up, Quiescently refers to the fact that the mixture is not stirred or agitated like ice cream is. This totally explains the strange texture. I would think it would taste better the other way, but I'm guessing it probably holds together better this way (it's not like it has a chocolate shell to keep it together).

One more note: They have more flavors than the ones I saw, you may even spy them in the single serve format. Oh man, chocolate eclair!

On Second Scoop: Big thumbs up from my wife on these tasty treats.

Nutrition: 150/60-4.5/0/2

Popsicle Firecracker Super Heroes Review

Iron Man

Iron Man

Does whatever an Iron can

No ...wait ... that ain't right. My daughter got to pick this week's treat, and she's a big fan of knowing there is a box of popsicles in the freezer waiting for her. She got to go first the other day and tried a Spiderman pop. She wound up happy, but very very purply-blue. I decided to try one for myself last night so I went with Iron Man (if you haven't seen Iron Man, you should, it's a fantastic movie and lots of fun). My Iron Man pop was actually purple on top, black, then yellow on the bottom, unlike the picture, unless maybe they rotate. My opinion? It was cold. Seriously? It was ok. The flavors are pretty mild, makes me miss Welch's popsicles. It is kinda funky how the flavors are actually on top of each other, so there was a bit of yellow lemon underneath the middle section. I'm sure I'll try another one sooner or later.

Nutrition: 40/0/0/0

Häagen-Dazs Raspberry Sorbet

Happy National Fruit Day!! Ok, yeah, I'm sick of the national days, but it just so happens there is a new fruity treat in my freezer. Sherbet gets some mild attention here at second scoop, but to be honest, I don't know if I've ever tried Sorbet, nor do I know the difference offhand (not that I won't look it up in a minute)

So, Häagen-Dazs sorbet was on sale, and since they tend to make top notch stuff, I decided to give it a try (all the Hola Fruta! is gone unfortunately). I take off the lid and the carton is sealed, very nice touch! I get a spoon and dig in. Oh Man, this does not taste good at all. Instead of eating raspberries, it tastes like I'm eating the stems. Oh, I don't like this at all. Texture is ok, like frozen ice, but it tastes like those "good" fruit juices that wind up tasting like bark and not the actual fruit. I have no urge to continue on, spoons down bigtime on this one.

Info: Ahhhh, that's what I figured when I looked at the ingredient list. Sorbets don't use milk, while sherbets tend to use a little bit. Good to know.

On Second Scoop: Ok, going in with lowered expectations. Ok, i was a little harsh I guess, though I still don't love it. I'll probably eat it so it doesn't go to waste, but I can't imagine trying it again. What can I say, I like sweet sherbets, this sorbet's just a bit too 'natural'. I guess it kind of reminds me of one of those unsweetened jellies you can buy.

Nutrition: 120/0/2/0

Stone Ridge Creamery Black Raspberry Chip

I think it's been less than a year, but a while back Stone Ridge Creamery invaded the freezer section of our local Shaw's Supermarkets. With its low price, I assumed it was an entry level brand and didn't pay it much attention. Well, it was on sale this week, so I decided to give it a try.
I decided to go with the "Special Edition" Black Raspberry Chip ice cream. I know, I said I would avoid chocolate chips in my black raspberry, but this is different. The black raspberry is mixed with vanilla ice cream. Sounds tempting, especially when you are really hungry.
After throwing dinner in the oven, I decided it was time for an 'appetizer'. I took off the lid and scraped it off (don't want to waste). Hmm, interesting, it has potential. I dig in to the main container and take several bites before I really settle on how I feel about it. The vanilla is alright, it's mild, but the texture is nice. The black raspberry is strong, in fact, it feels like a sherbet. It says ice cream, but it's very debatable. I just don't like it by itself. I think the secret is to scoop the vanilla and the black raspberry in a ratio that's right for you. I bet this could actually be used to make a really nice black raspberry milkshake.

Ok, so, do I like it? ....well, ummm, I guess I do. How about this, the quality is better than "Great Value" or Hood. I can definitely see myself trying one of the other Stone Ridge flavors. Stone Ridge is owned by SuperValu, which owns a bunch of supermarkets ...including Shaws. Well, it all makes sense now.
On Second Scoop: Well, my opinion hasn't changed a whole lot really. It's an alright ice cream. The black raspberry is just way too strong, especially if you make the mistake of taking too big a bite of it. It actually kind of reminds me of Breyer's take on black raspberry, but that's not really a good thing. I forgot to mention the chips: the are fairly scattered so they don't really bother me. They aren't real high quality or anything, so they basically just add a bit of crunch now and then.
Nutrition: 150/70-5/0/3

Dubba's Butterscotch Ice Cream

Dubba's Butterscotch Ice Cream Recipe

1 Cup of Heavy Cream

1.5 Cups of 2% Milk

1/2 Cup of Butterscotch Topping

Nothing fancy, put it all together and throw it the Ice-20. It started with a 1/4 cup of butterscotch but you could barely taste it. It was originally going to have an add-in, but it came out so nice and mild, I just couldn't figure out what would really go well with it, so I gave up.

sorry, no story to go with this one, I went out to mow and forgot all my thoughts.

Nutrition: 244/145/0/2

Friendly's Sundae To-Go: Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

NO NO NO, I did not just eat ice cream before 10:30 in the morning ...it was ...ummm ...the other Dubba. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. I had an extra spot in my lunch bag so I brought in a Friendly's sundae to-go that I had in my treat box. I was going to save it for a rainy day, but unfortunately the sudden urge for chocolate and peanuts overcame me.

Friendly's Sundae To-Go Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

peanut butter ice cream, fudge topping, peanut sauce, 

Reese's chopped peanut butter cup candy

Walgreens Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream

I'm busy wrapping things up with the other division (yeah, they both got sold, but this one wasn't paying my salary). I had a super late lunch, and I just got back from my afternoon snack hangout, Walgreens. I decided to take a crack at one of their non-premium flavors. Their entry level stuff includes neopolitan, chocolate, vanilla, and cookies & creme. Actually, I almost grabbed a pint of their rainbow sherbet, but then went back to my choice of cookies 'n cream.

Walgreens Cookies 'n Cream Ice Cream (circa 2008)

vanilla flavored ice cream with chocolate cream cookies

I was so hungry that waiting in line with the ice cream was pretty tough, but ice cream is about relaxing, not about getting worked up on spending an extra 2 minutes in line. Surprisingly enough, the nice lady behind the counter apologized for making my ice cream melt. See? balance has been restored. I told her not to worry, the ice cream is just easier to eat now.

So, through the rain and back to the car. Crack open the container, in goes the spoon, out comes the potential goodiness ....and I'm disappointed. Not nearly enough cookie flavor to go around. Occasionally you run into a big chunk, but these generic cookies just don't offer top notch flavor. It's bland, plain and simple. Not much else to say except now I know why it's not a premium flavor.

On Second Scoop: Yeah, still bored, this one just doesn't make the cut.

Nutrition: 140/60-4/0/2

More Treats: Triple Chocolate Fudgsicles!

I keep forgetting to write up some thoughts on the popsicles I got with my ice cream shipment. Well, it's because I wanted to take a couple of cracks at them and make some substantiated claims about them. So, we've got 3 flavors: Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, and "White Chocolate". I put that in quotes because there is no chocolate involved in that last one. It's really just a vanilla pop ...and not a very potent one at that.

I've had the milk chocolate pop twice now. It's not that it's bad, it's just not right somehow. The flavor just seems a bit off. Skinny Cow fudgsicles just go down so easy and you can't wait to grab another. Sorry it's hard to describe, it's just off.

That leaves the dark chocolate ones. I've had one, and it's dark chocolately. Ok, I need to try another one.

Nutrition: 60/15/0/1

Treat of the Week: Butterfinger Ice Cream Bar

 

Oh no!! Watch out for the giant ice cream!

Well, I think my days of lunchtime reviews are over for now. The closest spot with ice cream is a little lunch counter that's about a six minute walk away. The selection is light, but better than nothing I guess. We have the usual suspects: ice cream sandwich, ice cream cookie sandwich, 2 kinds of Drumsticks, Strawberry Shortcake bar, a few other things, and then my choice for the day, a "King Size" Butterfinger Ice Cream bar.

So, we've got "BUTTERFINGER ice cream dunked in thick chocolatey coating and crunchety bits", but "Frozen fun on a stick?" At a $1.80 and 60% of my saturated fat for the day, I would answer No, not really. It tasted alright, but it just didn't hit the spot. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. Iunno, it's been a long long time, but I remember the flavor being more potent, more butterfingery, but what I got was pretty mild (maybe it was older than it looked).

Topping of the Week: Smucker's Caramel Sundae Syrup

When's the last time you threw some caramel on a sundae? It's been a long time hasn't it. You know, I think the last time I did it was our company picnic at Kimball Farm which included a fantastic ice cream buffet ...or was it hot fudge ...actually, I think it was both ...hmmm, it's been awhile.

true story: I was a burger flipper for quite a while. While the majority of employees didn't make it past a month, there was a hard core group of us that had been at McD's since junior year. Somewhere along the way, I also learned to be a cashier. Sure, neither job is glamorous, but that doesn't mean we didn't have fun ...for you see, cashiers get to play with the sundae machine, YEEE HAAA! My specialty was a souped up sundae: Scoop of hot fudge, squirt of soft serve, scoop of caramel, squirt of soft serve, and one more scoop of hot fudge (nuts are optional). Oh yeah, tasty times had by all!

sorry, got side tracked: So, Smucker's Caramel Sundae Syrup. Decided to try it on the last bit of Edy's Apple Pie. I can't say I was surprised, but the tasty syrup blended right in with the apple pie flavor. If I add anything, I really tend to prefer fudge/chocolate, but it's good to mix things up now and then.

Nutrition: 100/0/0/1 (2 Tbsp)

My kind of cheesecake

Even ice cream lovers need to broaden our horizons now and then. I'm not a huge cheesecake lover, that's my wife's job, but I will make an exception now and then. In this case, we were at the very well known Cheesecake Factory. Their selection is extensive. So many choices, but I decided to narrow my options just to the chocolate cheesecakes. Hmmm, ahhhh, found one, Chocolate Tuxedo Cream Cheesecake. It's a layer of chocolate mousse on top of a layer of vanilla Mascarpone (whatever that is) on top of a layer of chocolate cheesecake on top of a layer of fudge cake. Oh yeah, just think about that, sounds great doesnt it? Oh it was. The best part? it was probably the lightest cheesecake I ever had. It was great, I totally recommend it for anyone who isn't big into big heavy cheesecakes.

Update: forgot to look it up, so here it is: Mascarpone is a triple-cream cheese and it has very high fat content... probably why I'm still very full 2 hours later (and I had already waited 2 hours before eating it)

Nutrition: Iunno, but it cant be good

Walgreens Cake Batter Ice Cream

Yet another busy day. I didn't get to take a break until after 2:30 ...ok, technically I've been thinking about ice cream since about 10:30. I decided to head out for a pint of Walgreens goodiness. Actually, let me be more specific. I know Walgreens makes a respectable ice cream, but can they nail the flavor down right?

Walgreens Cake Batter Ice Cream

Cake Batter Flavored Ice Cream with Thick Fudge Icing

Oreo Ice Cream from Uhlman's

I'm sorry to say I made one of my final Uhlman's trips today (well, unless we stop this weekend). For several minutes, I've been debating to give the good news or the bad/good news first: let's go good news, this is an ice cream blog after all.

Ok, beautiful day, Uhlman's last day of the season is Monday, and I could use some ice cream. I wanted to keep the new flavor streak alive, so I put away the urge for Milky Way and went with Oreo. I knew they wouldn't let me down, and they didn't. A fantastic Vanilla with plenty of fresh Oreo cookie chunks that have been fantastically blended throughout. As always, I am very pleased with my purchase.

Ok, now for bad/good news: Two weeks ago I mentioned having a "rough day". The division I watch over got a new owner, and while I was told my job was secure, they changed their minds and I got laid off by my division ...but thanks to my very cool boss, I was then immediately rehired by our corporate office. Today was actually the first (and probably only) day I went back since the layoff and it was kinda weird. It wasn't easy going back, I think I earned my ice cream treat today. I would just like to say, good fortune and paychecks to us all in the coming months.

(Again, VERY BIG THANKS to my boss)

Topping of the Week: Nesquik

I keep forgetting to pick a topping of the week, so today I go with one of my very favorites: Nesquik! Oh the memories. I use to be addicted to putting Nesquik powder, crushed Chips Ahoy, and whip cream on my ice cream. Mmmm, my very own sundae every night of the week.

It's funny, because only recently have I switched to Nesquik Syrup. I decided to choclify my Chocolate Pretzel Ice cream and see how it tasted. And just like I did when i was a kid ...I added way too much chocolate. You would think I would know better by now. No worries (and no wasting!)

Happy National Frappe Day

Yes, time for another pointless food holiday! My question is: does this mean the same to everyone across the country? Around here in New England, everyone will think this is a milkshake day. Everywhere else? they may be enjoying a chilled coffee drink today. Hmmmmm, maybe this is a pointless post.....

2009 Update: Geez, it's national frappe day again, oh boy!! technically one site says the 4th, but I really think it's today, the 7th.

Hey, since you're here, why not check out the rest of the site.

Breyer's Vanilla & Almond Light Ice Cream Bar

Update: These Double Churn bars are now Carb Smart bars

Breyer's Vanilla & Almond Double Churn Light Ice Cream Bars

light vanilla ice cream with milk chocolate flavored coating and almonds

Dubba's Peppermint Patty Ice Cream

Not sure what came over me, but I suddenly got hit with an idea: York peppermint patties in ice cream! I mentioned in my Andes Ice Cream review that I prefer good old (1940) York peppermint patties. Maybe I just wanted to play with the blender. As you can see, the blender results are quite interesting: the chocolate spreads over the little chunks that are created.

Dubba's Peppermint Patty Ice Cream Recipe

1 Cup of Heavy Cream (finally!)

1.5 Cups of 2% milk

6 Peppermint patties

2.5 tablespoons of cocoa

(5) tablespoons of cane sugar

a few squirts of dark chocolate

I blended the peppermint patties first to see what would happened. They got pretty warm and clumped together, but overall came out good. In a bowl went a cup of heavy cream (so fattening) and a cup of 2% milk. Then we added cocoa and the peppermint patties. Strangely enough, the very cold cream and milk made the peppermint patties very hard, so i had to manually break them all apart, but at least they aren't sticking together anymore (so If you give this recipe a try, watch the chunk temperature).

Almost forgot the sugar, through in some cane sugar (not too much, there's already sugar in the peppermint patties). We were all set, so into the Ice-20 it goes. The high fat content made it solidify very quickly. It also tasted good, but I decided to back off the peppermint flavor a bit by adding another half cup of milk in. To compensate, I threw in the last of the dark chocolate syrup to keep the chocolate/peppermint balance similar to that of the original candy.

Overall, I like it, it's way more pleasant and mellow than that Andes ice cream. I don't want to be overpowered, I just want a cool, pleasant flavor. The only downside is the patty pieces got a bit chewy, but this may be avoidable (again, watch your temps and see what happens).

On Second Scoop: I still really like the flavor. The texture is better than usual, but still feels like the water content is too high (it's more crunchy than smooth)

Nutrition: 206/137/0.5/2
(heavy cream means most of that 137 calories is saturated fat)

Walgreens Waffle Cone Ice Cream

You know, if you put Waffle Cone in the name of your ice cream, you should be VERY sure it actually tastes like a waffle cone. You guessed it, I am disappointed with this ice cream. It's not that it's bad, it's just that it doesn't even come close to living up to it's name.

Walgreens Waffle Cone Ice Cream

Vanilla flavored ice cream with chocolate coated waffle cones, 

chocolate peanuts, and chocolate and caramel swirls. 

Breyer's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough An Ice Cream Review

Wow, where oh where have you been my old friend? It's been awhile since I had Breyer's cookie dough where the base ice cream actually tasted like vanilla. I don't know what it was, but every container I bought seemed to be made with some sort of bleach white, bland substance. Yes, finally a batch that tastes like I remember. The base vanilla was actually off-white and tasted of vanilla to boot! Amazing! It wasn't perfect, but it was 20 times better than the last several containers.

Nutrition: 160 / 70-5 / 0 / 2