Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream

You don’t need to live in Brooklyn to know about Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, however if you do live there, the odds are good that you are a fan of this particular ice cream brand. The small company started in 2008, with the goal of producing ice cream using top quality ingredient s and no stabilizers, to ensure that their customers would be eating only the best and most flavorful ice cream out there. With two retrofitted mail trucks, the team took to the streets of New York City and immediately began to win over fans. Over the years, the company expanded to include brick-and-mortar stores and more trucks serving a wider range of ice cream lovers. In Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, you’ll find 100 recipes from this much-loved ice cream brand – some that are in their shops and some that are not – that you can make at home to recreate the experience of eating Van Leeuwen.

The book opens with an introduction about how the brand got its start and how they developed their first ice cream flavors before getting into the basics of ice cream making. All the books in the cookbook have been scaled down for home cooks and are designed to work in countertop ice cream makers, rather than the larger commercial machines that you’ll find in restaurants. The recipes include classics like Mint Chip and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough that are done exceptionally well, in addition to flavors like Roasted Banana and Sticky Black Rice, which you simply won’t find anywhere else. In addition to the ice cream recipes, there are chapters that feature vegan ice creams, sorbets, frozen yogurts and toppings. My favorite section is a small chapter featuring recipes that use up leftover egg whites found at the back of the book.

The recipes are clearly written and easy to follow, with plenty of suggestions given for ingredients given alongside them. The recipes are almost all illustrated by beautiful photos that will make you want to lick the page. Instead of adding water damage to your copy of this lovely book, however, just make a trip to the store for staples like milk, cream, eggs and sugar and you’ll be ready to start churning your own batches in no time.