Top 8: Satisfying shop-bought ice creams for a summer treat
A scoop of ice cream makes a perfect summer treat. Picture: iStock Â
This bank holiday weekend, let’s make the best of the timeless treat of ice cream. A few tweaks and it can be transformed into something even more special. Try drizzling hot coffee over vanilla ice cream for the Italian affogato (meaning drowned), but I also like it over chocolate ice cream. Add fresh fruit and drizzle aged balsamic vinegar over vanilla. A sprinkle of freshly toasted almonds, hazelnuts or pine nuts will raise your game, and I have been substituting toasted sunflower seeds wherever I see nuts listed in a recipe - they are superb.
I was recently inspired by Italian chef Georgio Locatelli to try lemon thyme in a custard ice cream. Best to blend it into a custard while warm, but a teaspoon of leaves (no stalks) could also be gently boiled for three minutes with equal measures of sugar and water to pour over vanilla. The flavour is also good, as Nigella proves in her Bundt cake.
In Iceland, ice cream is a treat in winter and summer when couples go, or parents take their children, to ice cream shops in temperatures of minus 12. I’ve done it, enjoying unusual combinations such as liquorice and milk chocolate.
To keep quantities low and avoid too much fat and sugar (there is quite a lot of both in most ice cream), a scoop in a cone is perfectly satisfying.
Milk, cream, sugar, skimmed milk powder, Madagascar vanilla bean, nothing more. Beautifully balanced creaminess with rich, natural vanilla tones. Fats 11%, sugars 17% are relatively low. First choice for two tasters if money was no object. Made in Cork. We bought in Bradleys, Cork, also from NeighbourFood website.
This Dingle-based producer delivered our rare second top score with a short list of ingredients – milk, cream, sugar, raisins, eggs, rum, plus a stabiliser, for a rich, satisfying mouthful. Plump rum-soaked raisins punctuate the ice cream. Fats at 9.66% and sugars at 16.3% are relatively low. One scoop in a cone is enough for a fun finish to a summer meal. The lemon curd was superb too. Tops for tasters. See murphysicecream.ie for the nearest outlet.
10Â
Tasters loved this ice cream with coconut milk as the dairy substitute, honey, avocado, fresh lemon juice, vanilla extract, and lemon oil – another good, short list of ingredients. An interesting choice for dairy and well as non-dairy desserts. Top choice for one taster, second for a few. 11.3% fats are average and 14.9% sugars are relatively low. We bought it in Quay Co-Op, Cork.
9Â
This name refers to yoghurt and added Omega 3, which with added Vitamin D have potentially useful health benefits. One taster liked this best of all, enjoying the texture and strong flavour of raspberry. The younger tasters liked it too. Fats 7.7% are low, sugars 18% are average. Made in Cavan by Gerry Sheridan’s Ice Cream Treats company. We bought it in SuperValu.
8.5Â
There was competition among chocolate ice cream producers and three made the final eight. The cream here may be Italian, but it makes a delicious ice cream paired with dark chocolate in a few forms (solid, paste, powder) and sugar in a short list of ingredients for a deep chocolate flavour and sumptuous mouthfeel. Sugars at 21% is high, 12% fats is relatively low.
8.75
With a lower list of ingredients than many low-cost ice creams, tasters were impressed, particularly when they saw the price (even allowing for the smaller quantity per tub). A rich vanilla flavour with the chocolate powder, the egg used is in powder form and sugar comes as natural and as glucose – sugars 17%, fats 12%. Milkier and not as distinctively chocolatey or luxurious as others, but enjoyed in a cone.
7.75Â
Good to see no palm oil here - coconut oil is used instead. A decent 13% chocolate sauce provides swirls through milk and dark chocolate ice-creams. Sugars a high 23.3%, fats a relatively low 9.5%. Top choice for one when the price is considered, and enjoyed by all tasters. Made by Silver Pail Dairy in Fermoy, Co Cork. Good value.
8Â
Coconut fats are used instead of palm oil, along with vanilla pieces, sugar, glucose, and glucose-fructose syrup which amount to a high 22% sugars, yet the flavour is not oversweet. Instead, it delivered a decent vanilla flavour and creamy texture for serving with pies and fresh strawberries. Fats are a relatively low 7.5%. Tasters liked it.
7.5
