A Passion for Ice Cream: 95 Recipes for Fabulous Desserts

A Passion for Ice Cream: 95 Recipes for Fabulous Desserts

by Emily Luchetti

Chronicle Books, 224 pp., $35

Summer is for ice cream. And since I got my hands on an electric ice-cream maker, I have been experimenting with homemade ice cream every change I get. Then, Emily Luchetti's A Passion for Ice Cream: 95 Recipes for Fabulous Desserts arrived, and now I can hardly think of making anything else in my kitchen. This is a gorgeous cookbook full of creative recipes for making your own ice creams, sorbets, and granitas in flavors you won't easily find at the store. I am dying to make the pomegranate sorbet, and the Sauternes ice cream (where I plan to substitute Flat Creek Estate's Muscato d'Arancia for the Sauternes).

This, however, is much more than just an ice-cream recipe book. Rather, it incorporates the recipes into beautiful and enticing plated desserts like Chocolate Cupcakes Stuffed With Pistachio Ice Cream and Blackberry Sorbet Filled Peaches. Other less elegant but equally refreshing approaches include homemade ice-cream sandwiches, Popsicles, floats, and parfaits. This weekend I am making the Mango Spritzer With Lime Sherbet Floats, which sound perfect to beat the August heat.

What I like best about the book is that the recipes are not complicated, and they can easily be made separately. For instance, you may not want to make the coffee meringues, but you can still make the coconut ice cream. There is also a chapter on sauces, toppings, and garnishes, as well as a chart that lists the ice cream flavors alphabetically for easy reference. This is a highly recommended book for all ice-cream lovers.