I impatiently waited for the Food52 Ice Cream and Friends book to arrive and couldn’t be more excited to try some of the recipes. Unlike other ice cream books, this one took a unique approach to ice cream making, skipped the usual basic recipes and focused on really exciting flavors like fresh ricotta, lemongrass chile ginger, horchata, butternut squash and tahini, and so many more. Besides ice cream, there were other recipes for gelato, sorbet, cakes, and drinks.
One of the first recipes that I tried was the cherry snow cone since we had a lot of cherries from our farmers market trip. By the way, this recipe called for Pernod but I substituted it with kirsch since we had that available. I also made a non-alcoholic version for our little guy and he enjoyed it. It tasted so refreshing. The ricotta ice cream was good but definitely needed a fruit compote topping to make it shine. Next time I will add a fruity swirl instead of making a plain ricotta ice cream. I have always wanted to make mochi from scratch so that was next on the list. It was surprisingly easy to make and tasted similar to the mochi that I usually get from local frozen yogurt joints.
So far I have really enjoyed the recipes from the Food52 ice cream book and can’t wait to try the halvah paletas, mango lassicles, s’mores ice cream, and chocolate tacos. The recipes do not have a long list of ingredients and instructions are easy to follow. I highly recommend the Food52 Ice Cream and Friends book to ice cream novices and connoisseurs alike especially if you’re looking for interesting flavors to try.
*I received this book to review complementary of the publisher