Clove Brown Sugar Ice Cream

My all-time favorite cookies are my grandma's clove cookies. They've got the crispy edges and the gooey center, but what really makes them delicious is the clove. It's a spice that doesn't often get center stage, so people sometimes have a hard time placing it. Not me. Anytime I smell even a hint of it, I immediately think back to my grandma's famous family recipe. Call it magic or luck, but I've managed to replicate the cookies in ice cream form. It tastes like nostalgia.

Whole cloves have a much more pungent aroma than the ground up stuff.

Champagne Strawberry Sorbet

Feeling in a festive mood (and trying to finish off the four pounds of strawberries on my hands), I came up with this pretty pink creation. I think it would be great to add it to a Champagne flute with a splash of some bubbly. This sorbet is boozy and crisp with sweet strawberry tang.

Gotta love strawberry season.

Strawberry Jalapeno Cilantro Sorbet

I love spicy. Spicy as in a bottle of Tabasco a month. Spicy as in I'm not sure all my taste buds still exist. So when I bought four pounds of strawberries today, it wasn't so unusual that I thought "Maybe I can make a spicy strawberry sorbet?" And what goes better with jalapeno than cilantro, right? Well, it made sense in my head. And it makes sense in my mouth.

Get ready for some serious strawberry porn after the jump.

Ginger Sake Ice Cream

The sake was so good in my pear sake sorbet that I had to try it with an ice cream. Ginger ice cream to be exact. I may have to make a sushi dinner just so I can end it with this.

Why have I not been adding alcohol to all my ice creams? Each bite melts like butter—even after it's been sitting in the freezer for a couple days. 

Pear Sake Sorbet

A friend recently told me that sake is really trendy right now. I'm not quite convinced that it's really any trendier than it's ever been. (Chicken and waffles, however, that's a trend. Why is every restaurant in DC serving this all of a sudden??) Either way, I'm starting my own sake trend, beginning with this sorbet. The pureed pear is sweet and silky, and the sake is a perfect compliment flavor. Plus, the alcohol content prevents the sorbet from getting too icy.

Does this remind you of The Very Hungry Caterpillar?

Mint Brownie Ice Cream

Sometimes you just have to give the people what they want. I have made many bizarre ice creams in the past year: green tomato ginger, Roquefort honey, cucumber mint vodka. Most of them are great successes, but friends and family still cringe and ask, "Oh... really?" Let's face it, the classics are the crowd pleasers. So when I announced to my roommate that I would be making a batch of mint with brownie chunks, she replied: "Now that is ice cream."

Apple Carrot Ginger Sorbet

Apple-carrot-ginger is one of the greatest juice combinations of all time. It's got a healthy fruity taste with a spicy zing of ginger. I was introduced to it at the farmers markets in London, where I spent a semester in college. There's something very energizing about it. Plus, it's tasty and good for you.  It was only a matter of time before someone "churned" it into a sorbet.

 

Carrot juice and apple juice.