Ginger Ice Cream Sandwich
February 20, 2012 § Leave a comment
Sometimes I think crazy thoughts.
Such as …
-Will the universe implode if temperatures reach 0 Kelvin?
-How would civilization be different if we only had four fingers per hand and foot?
-Could we all just be toys in the toybox of some celestial kid?
Over the years, my crazy-deep thoughts have turned toward the culinary. And more recently they have focused on the pinnacle (at least in my book) of creative dessert forms: the ice cream sandwich.
I do have a soft spot in my heart for those vanilla-soft-serve-between-soft-chocolate-cookie creations. They’re reliable and the eater has no expectations at all—except perhaps to have chocolate goo between their front teeth for at least 10 minutes afterward. But when it comes to a real ice cream sandwich created by hand, the vanilla and chocolate combo becomes passe.
And dare I say it, so does the chocolate chip cookie and vanilla combo. It’s a good starting point. But there’s oh-so many possibilities. Start by staring at the Ben & Jerry’s selections.
Ginger Ice Cream Sandwich
Credit for this Ginger Ice Cream Sandwich’s inspiration comes from a friend – let’s call her Ginger – who is the spice’s biggest fan. The Ginger Ice Cream is courtesy of the local Jamaica Plain ice creamists at Batch. And yes, there are bits of crystallized ginger scattered about its creaminess. A generous 1/4 cup—more, perhaps—is sandwiched between two massive Ginger-Molasses Cookies, whose recipe comes from Joanne Chang’s Flour cookbook. And here’s a key step to keep in mind for anyone constructing an ice cream sandwich: Let it firm up in the freezer for about a day so the ice cream doesn’t escape when you bite into it.
Oh, yeah. It’s good. And there’s one in my freezer right now.
Other crazy ice cream sammy combos are on my to-bake list. And if Ginger has any say in the matter, each sammy will have a corresponding cupcake. One person’s crazy is another’s brilliance.
Sugar in Yogurt Will Astound You
July 27, 2011 § 2 Comments
I don’t mean to turn into the Nutrition Nazi here, but …
With not much being in the fridge or cupboards for breakfast—nothing quick, anyway—I pulled out a little cup of yogurt. Innocent enough, right? Plus, according to the Yoplait Greek yogurt packaging, it has twice as much protein and that regular ol’ yogurt. And I was hungry and in a hurry and it was blueberry flavored, so … I’ll just open it and eat it, although I’m basically off dairy for breakfast nowadays.
And I gobbled. It. Up. Oh my goodness, that was good. Really good. I mean, so very, very good. What was in there?
Ya know what was in there? Sugar. In some form, anyway. I normally don’t eat much sugar. I taught myself early on in my coffee-drinking adulthood to skip the sugar (and all those colored packets, too—really, don’t we eat enough artificial crap anyway?). Same with yogurt. Plain, unsweetened. That’s it. And, as an aside, same goes with the soymilk.
Back to the sugary yogurt. I was curious about exactly how much sugar was in that little 6 oz. cup. Seeing that it said 20 g. on the label, I decided to pull out my digital scale to see exactly what 20 g. of sugar looks like.
That's allota sugar!
That’s not just 20 g. of sugar. That is a MOUND of sugar. Eat that with a spoon and you’d feel really guilty. Really. Guilty.
Am I doing the math correctly? I don’t know. I hope I’m not. I do know that I’m not eating that again. Long live plain, unsweetened yogurt. Vive la Food Revolution.
The Dainty Dot 