“I’d be so excited that my order would come out as a song!” That’s how a dear friend of mine described her signature order at her favorite childhood ice cream parlor. “Chocolate Raspberry Truffle in a cup… Pleeeease,” she sing-songed with a widening grin.
“Oh, what about push-up pops?!” exclaimed another girlfriend. “And those little wooden paddles we used instead of spoons?! I loved those.”
Songs may bring back a memory, but foods take us back… to an exact spot in time, the smells and flavors of that singular moment fresh on our minds once again.
There are few childhood foods more iconic than ice cream. Whether you ran after the jingling ice cream truck or begged to turn the crank on your homemade churn, ice cream just seemed to sweeten our early days like no other.
Home cook Pat Morris of Augusta, Georgia looks to her mom’s recipe for Cheery Cherry Ice Cream for her sweetest of memories.
“My mother told me that when she was carrying me she craved cherry ice cream. She laughed saying, ‘It is a wonder that you didn’t come out blue from all the cold ice cream I ate,'” smiles Pat. “She made her scrumptious ice cream using evaporated milk instead of sweetened condensed milk.”
It may just be that evaporated milk that makes this ice cream so exceptionally creamy. We also love that Pat’s mother didn’t bother with a churn; her recipe simply combines all the yummy ingredients and freezes them until set. We sandwiched the delicious cherry goodness between two chocolate sandwich cookies and it took on the flavors of a chocolate covered cherry. It is simply divine.
It was an old friend that first gave Diane Schmidt a taste of her favorite ice cream concoction.
“This [Malted Milk Pie] recipe came from an old friend of mine, Judy Visser Shindlbeck,” says Diane. “My mom, Betty Lillie, is now in charge of making this dessert in our family. My kids beg their grandma to make ‘that ice cream thing.'”
That “thing” is a wonderful concoction consisting of a graham cracker crust layered with malted milk ball-infused vanilla ice cream and a whipped cream made from marshmallow, malted milk powder and whipping cream! It so simple yet so delicious… our favorite combo! It’s also proof the through the generations, home cooks like Diane and her mom are still bringing smiles to the table with their creative ice cream recipes.
Moderation may be the key to a balanced life, but I am confident that ice cream is the key to a happy child. And this grown up kid would like a waffle cone, please.