Summer is quickly melting away and, while some might say that the season for ice cream is ending, I say that there is no reason to put those ice cream scoops into storage until next year. Ice cream is one food that might be good for cooling off, but it is good all year round. In this spirit, I’m hosting a quick little end-of-summer ice cream giveaway for my readers!
The prize is a goodie basket with some ice cream making essentials. It also includes my new favorite Zyliss ice cream scoop, but everything else is a surprise. The only things you’ll have to supply is the actual ice cream because it just doesn’t ship all that well in my experience – not without some fancy ice packs, anyway!
To play, just leave a comment below describing your favorite ice cream. Be specific! I want to know if your favorite is homemade, or a particular brand of ice cream from the market or from a particular store in your city. Gelato and sorbet are fair game, too, if those are at the top of your list. The contest is closing on Sunday, September 19th, so leave your comments before then. Be sure to leave your e-mail address (it won’t be published if you type it into the form) so I can contact a randomly selected winner on Sunday night! Good luck everyone!
For some great ice cream ideas, check these out:
Lori
September 18, 2010Vanilla! The best flavor – it can be made into many things – rootbeer floats, sundaes, malts, etc…
Emiliy
September 18, 2010I love Maple Nut!! brings back good memories of going to grandmas!!!
melissa
September 18, 2010I love butter pecan and strawberry cheesecake ice creams. I had a really awesome butter pecan in seattle one time, though i don’t remember the name of the place.
Becki Sue
September 18, 2010I spent 3 weeks in Italy during college and fell in love with pistachio gelato.
gingycookies
September 18, 2010I just made homemade for the first time, and it was awesomel Cant go wrong with Vanilla!!!
Bronwyn
September 18, 2010Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip!
Virginia J.
September 18, 2010I absolutely adore the Harris Teeter (a local grocery store) Naturals brand vanilla ice cream. It is amazing and blows away all other vanillas! When I looking for a lighter option I grab Breyers light Rocky Road!
Heather
September 18, 2010Ben & Jerrys World Peace which is oddly hard to find. Irony not lost on me at all!
scaaty82
September 18, 2010Haagen Daz’s vanilla ice cream. Sometimes plain and simple is the best!
Joan C.
September 18, 2010Maple nut is an old favorite.
Meg
September 18, 2010My favorite ice cream is Mud Pie Medoly: coffee ice cream with a fudge swirl and oreos mixed in!!!
Deepa
September 18, 2010My Fav ice cream has to be the Deeply Chocolate Gelato by Ina Garten…Real chocolaty..not for the faint hearted!!!
Mai
September 18, 2010Just moved to St. Paul,MN Dar’s (a little mom pop shop) has a coconut flavor that tastes just like Almond Joys. YUM!
Nikki
September 18, 2010Mmmm! I’ve been eating ice cream non-stop this summer! It’s way hot here in the desert where I live 😉
My favorite ice cream is something I discovered this year actually, and that is my friend’s homemade cinnamon apple ice cream. If I had an ice cream maker, I would totally make it over and over, but I just let her do the work 😀
AmyLynn
September 18, 2010David Lebovitz’s tiramisu ice cream – to die for!
Laurel
September 18, 2010Cherry Gacia by far is my fave ice cream, but at $8 a pint where I live is a rare treat!
Love your site!
Leilani
September 18, 2010Mint chocolate chip. The green kind. Preferably Thrifty, or Baskin Robbins. It just doesn’t taste as good out of a breyers box! And my little girls are dying to try your fudgesicles, so maybe that will be a new favorite!
Tom
September 18, 2010Mmm, the cherry lemon ice cream my wife makes. And her vanilla bean ice cream. Love homemade ice cream.
Nancy
September 18, 2010My new favorite is Mission to Marzipan by Ben and Jerry’s. I love the taste of Marzipan and when I found this ice cream, I ate the whole pint that night!!
Diane
September 18, 2010My favorite would have to be blue bunny bunny tracks or dulce de leche by hagen daze. Bunny tracks is chock full of reese’s-like bites and swirls of chocolate, but dulce de leche tastes sooo delicious!
Emily
September 19, 2010We have a great gelato maker so my favorite ice creams are all homemade. It’s hard to pick just one, but the best one we made this year was a really rich roasted apricot ice cream- yum!
PenguinBot
September 19, 2010My favorite ice cream of all time is Tillamook Udderly Chocolate (it used to be called Brown Cow). White chocolate ice cream swirled with milk chocolate ice cream with chunks of chocolate. Yum!
Christine
September 19, 2010My favorite is fresh, homemade, creamy Pumpkin ice cream from Kimball Farms in Westford, MA (they have 3 other New England locations). I just got my ‘fix’ yesterday!
Katie
September 19, 2010Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough ice cream from a little ice cream shop called “The Juice Bar” in Nantucket, MA — best ever — premium homemade chocolate ice cream with PB Cookie Dough… just thinking about it makes my mouth water!
Mary
September 19, 2010For many years, my & my husband’s favorite flavor has been Baskin Robbins’ “Winter White Chocolate”, which has crushed chocolate-chovered cherries in it. Unfortunately (or ‘fortunately’, sometimes!) it’s only in the stores I think Dec thru Feb. One of our last-minute Christmas Eve errands is to go to BR and get a hand-packed container as a Christmas gift for ourselves!
shobha
September 19, 2010Dublin mud slide from Ben and Jerry’s..It is so yummy…Thank you for the give away
Rachel
September 19, 2010Ooo this sounds fantastic! My favorite ice cream flavor started as store bought and has become homemade – thanks to some creative kitchen experiments. Ben & Jerry’s Oatmeal Cookie. Yumm yum yum
MikeW
September 19, 2010Hmmm … black raspberry at Strickland’s in Akron, Ohio … or the pineapple at the Creamery on Chincateague Island, VA?
But I really love pistachio ice cream. The best ever was the gelato in a little shop in Siena. We just stopped for a snack & to rest. The Gelato was a the ugliest green you ever saw, I balked at it, then girl behind the counter offered a sample. Wonderful flavor, it was the best!
Magycmyste
September 19, 2010Honestly, my tastes in ice cream have been changing a lot lately. My two old favorites have been haagen daaz chocolate chocolate chip, and various brands of mint chocolate chip. Lately, I’ve been leaning towards strawberry and pistachio flavors, though, particularly the gelato I find in the grocery store. I also get the feeling that if I could get my ice cream maker to make proper ice cream (I get the feeling it’s not getting cold enough, or I’m doing something wrong, but I can’t get the darn stuff to freeze), but that I would enjoy that a lot more. So far, I’ve ben trying to make a crushed strawberry ice cream with mini chocolate and mint chips. The flavor profile makes me ecstatically happy, but I can’t get the texture right, because it won’t freeze in the ice cream maker.
Connie T
September 19, 2010Love the Fruits of the FOrest ice Cream at Granpa’s Ice Cream Shoppe. It is a small batch homemade ice cream shop in Minneapolis.
jody
September 19, 2010My fave ever was this ice cream I got at a dairy farm/ice cream shop outside of Boston. (I think the name is Richardson’s?) We were visiting family, and I don’t remember the details but do remember the Moose Tracks ice cream I ate!!
Erin F
September 19, 2010I LOVE the birthday cake ice cream at Coldstone!!
William B
September 19, 2010Homemade strawberry cheesecake ice cream
Jen
September 19, 2010Chocolate sorbet –homemade. The only ingredients are water, sugar, cocoa, and vanilla. It doesn’t sound like much, but Oh. My. It is the richest, chocolatiest frozen treat I’ve ever had.
More chocolatey than Friendly’s Forbidden Chocolate, which is by far the best chocolate ice cream sold anywhere.
Mmmmmm, puts me in the mood for some.
Ari
September 19, 2010I recently had some of the most amazing, bizarre ice cream in my life, at the ice cream shop Mix in Ashland, Oregon–strawberry balsamic! It was absolutely fantastic with a hazelnut chocolate tart. I’m kind of obsessed with figuring out how to make it myself now.
Emily
September 19, 2010My great-aunt has really picked up cooking and baking since retiring, and when I visited her in Hong Kong last year, she made a fantastic lychee sorbet for dessert. Using fresh lychees just off the trees, the sorbet was fragrant, sweet and smooth. A perfect treat for the hot and humid weather!
Dianne
September 19, 2010If I am ordering ice cream I always go with one of the big three, vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. I usually go for the vanilla. If I am making ice cream it is always Sweet Cream from the Ben & Jerry’s Book. Occasionally I may add in chopped up up Heath Bars.
Alison Shell
September 19, 2010For ice cream shops it’s a toss up between JP licks (boston) coffee oreo, and Christina’s (cambridge) gingersnap mollasas…if I’m eating from the carton, I love Breyers natural vanilla with pretzels to dip or top…can’t beat that!
LisaKai
September 19, 2010I absolutely LOVE mint chocolate chip ice cream! It is dangerous in our house. I really haven’t tried a brand that I didn’t like but my favorite is the Breyer’s Natural kind (it’s not green like most are.) With that said, I don’t think I’ve met an ice cream flavor that I haven’t liked 🙂
RMJ
September 19, 2010hagaan daaz coffee ice cream – by far the best out there!
Michelle Cho
September 19, 2010Green tea ice cream!
Michelle
September 19, 2010salted caramel from bi-rite in san francisco!
Robin
September 19, 2010My favorite ice cream is Chocolate-Malted Crunch. I used to get it from Thrifty’s, which then turned into Rite-Aid, and has now closed! So I can’t get it anywhere anymore 🙁
Danielle
September 19, 2010My new favorite is Snooklefritz Ice Cream- by a local chicago ice cream maker who only uses local ingredients for her delicious treats!! I can’t get enough ice cream!! She has a candied maple walnut that is out of this world!
http://www.snookelfritz.com/Home_Page.php
Kimberly
September 19, 2010Bluebell Vanilla is SO delicious I can eat it by itself — this coming from someone who saw no use for vanilla as anything other than a vehicle for toppings.
I also love getting pretty much any flavor (but especially chocolate cookies ‘n’ cream) ice cream from Kansas State University’s Call Hall. It is made there on-site; it is rich; it is delicious!
Sheila
September 19, 2010Homemade rum and raisin! Awesome!
Emily
September 19, 2010I LOVE ALL ICE CREAM!! But, my all time favorite is mint chocolate chip, in particular Graeter’s. Instead of the microscopic pieces of chocolate, they use large chunks of chocolate that melt in your mouth! Perfection! I also can’t resist cinnamon ice cream when I find it at the ice cream shops.
Aly
September 19, 2010Quarterback Crunch – oh so good but only available at this time of the year.
Aly
September 19, 2010Heath. I’d eat it in almost anything.
D.Liff
September 19, 2010my gut would be very happy ice cream season was ending…except that it means christmas cookie season is right around the corner!