The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

So this past spring a bunch of ice cream companies released a bunch of new flavors, including the Destination Series from Haagen-Dazs. At the time I was working through a bunch of free ice cream I'd gotten and just became too overwhelmed to really try to tackle many of those new flavors. Now I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed about all the flavors I haven't tried, but better late than never! This flavor is described as In this Asian-inspired recipe, we collaborated with the small batch artisans at Morning Glory Confections and blended toasted sesame ice cream with the delightful crunch of honey cardamom sesame brittle pieces. The result is a uniquely delicate indulgence with a sweet, clean, and perfectly balanced flavor.  Thank goodness somebody finally made a sesame ice cream flavor. Sesame brittle is one of my favorite kinds of brittle. Maybe. I actually really like brittle of all kinds. But for real, Haagen-Dazs is really adding something interesting to the ...

When Haagen-Dazs announced the flavors in their new Destination Series, they all sounded really good, but Toasted Sesame Brittle was the only one that sounded truly unique and adventurous, so it's obviously the one I tried first.  From the Haagen-Dazs website, In this asian inspired recipe, we collaborated with the small batch artisans at Morning Glory Confections and blended toasted sesame ice cream with the delightful crunch of honey cardamom sesame brittle pieces.  The result is a uniquely delicate indulgence with a sweet, clean and perfectly balanced flavor. Lizzy and I actually picked this up a couple weeks ago when she was visiting for spring break and had a few bites of it.  I wasn't blown away by those first bites I tried, but my opinion changed drastically once I got around to digging into an entire bowl.  This stuff is. DA. BOMB. The base had a very light toasted sesame flavor.  I would have to agree with the official description; the flavor ...

Horray! It's time for the first ice cream of the New Year! And the first ice cream of the year had better be good, so after a quick Google search of "best ice cream in Boston," Brett and I headed off to Picco Pizza and Ice Cream for an afternoon treat. Picco is a unique ice cream experience, because it is a restaurant, first and foremost. But you can come for only ice cream and sit at a table, sit at the bar, or take your ice cream to go. It was a too chilly that Sunday afternoon for a stroll with ice cream, so Brett and I sat at a table for our ice cream, instead of getting it to go. Although there were options for floats, shakes, sundaes, and scoops, Brett and I both decided to order "the sampler," which allows you to try 3 flavors for $6.50! This would allow us to try almost half of the flavors available that day. And from looking at Picco's FaceBook page, they rotate flavors, note everyday, but quite frequently! Brett ordered Mint Chip, Honey, and ...

The best part about traveling is ice cream. Seeing family and friends is cool or whatever, but nothing gets me quite as jazzed up as trying out another city's local scoop shops. The other weekend I visited Brett in his new home in Cambridge, MA. The week leading up to the visit I would text him and say, "What are our plans for the weekend? Where are we going to get ice cream?" Of course, most people don't put as much time and emotional labor into pursuing ice cream, so I ended up doing an investigation of local scoop shops all on my own. I was incredibly pleased to discover Brett lives close to a scoop shop considered by many to be the best ice cream in Boston! After drooling, and of course, agonizing, over their flavor list for a week, we made the trek with my friend Lizzie, who also lives in the Boston area, over to Toscanini's on Saturday afternoon. The line for ice cream was almost out the door, but luckily, there were many employees and the line moved quickly...

Cardamom.  Oh, cardamom, how I love thee.  I will seriously buy anything with cardamom in it.  For a while last fall Starbucks was making a Vanilla Cardamom Latte and I bought SO many of them and I don't even really like Starbucks. My favorite way to make blueberry pie is to make the normal filling and then add cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom, so when when I saw 'Spiced Berry Crumble Gelato infused with cardamom flavor' at Target I knew I was bringing that guy home with me.  I paid $4.99 for 30 Fl Oz (a pint is 16 Fl Oz), so this was cheaper ice cream than a B&J or H-D pint. Archer Farms is a (generally pretty yummy) Target brand.  Per the container: Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest, Gelato, Italian ice cream, is hard to resist.  Imported from Italy, Archer Farms Spiced Berry Crumble Gelato is made with alternating dollops of berry-flavored gelato and cardamom-flavored gelato.  A ribbon of berry sauce runs throughout the...