The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Has anyone else noticed less and less Talenti on their grocery store shelves? Just me? A lot of what was once Talenti real estate at my local Cub Foods and Target is now given over to Halo Top (grrrr), and I JUST NOW found Cinnamon Peach Biscuit which was new last year. Cinnamon Peach Biscuit is c innamon sugar gelato with biscuit cookies and a sweet swirl of peach butter. God damn Talenti and their weak-ass mix-ins!! I get that gelato typically as smaller, more well-distributed mix-ins, but Talenti's mix-ins, aside from their chocolate chips, are just so weird! The biscuit cookie mix-ins were small, about a quarter-inch in diameter or a bit smaller, and there weren't many of them, maybe one every other bite. If the cookies were decent, I could live with the poor distribution, but they were so dry and tasteless! It honestly would have been a better flavor with no mix-ins. As usual, the Talenti texture was stellar - dense and smooth. The cinnamon flavor of the base...

One thing that I think Big Muddy's does better than other ice cream bloggers is bring you info about scoop shops in interesting corner's of the country. We love hidden gems. Yeah, yeah other ice cream bloggers can go on for days about the myriad of scoop shops in NYC and LA, but who knew Utah had such a hip ice cream scene until Madeline visited? Probably no one outside of Utah, that's who. And who knew that some of the most innovative ice cream flavors are being thought up in Omaha, NE? Probably no one outside of Omaha. When Madeline and I recently visited Omaha to watch our cousin compete in the US Triathlon Age Group Championships we stopped by Ted and Wally's to grab some tasty frozen treats. The line was out the door and around the corner, so we were hopeful that we were about to have some tasty ice cream. When we saw the flavor list, it wasn't the longest we'd ever seen, but I would go so far as to say it was THE most unique flavor list I've ev...

Alright, folks, you've got a short and sweet review coming your way. I went to Yotopia with a friend this past Friday evening, and not surprisingly, it was very crowded. Right after we walked in, like three very large groups walked just after us. Normally I take my sweeeet time deciding on what froyo flavors and toppings I want, but when feeling pressured by other impatient customers, I get panicked. I definitely felt my friend and I were being glared at so I rushed through my process and totally forgot what Yotopia flavors I'd already tried. I ended up getting two flavors I've already reviewed, Chocolate and Strawberries and Cream. But there was a seasonal flavor, Georgia Peach, that caught my eye and I ended up getting some, which was a fabulous decision. The peach is down at the bottom of this picture. I very much enjoyed this flavor. I was surprised by how strong the flavor was. But I really shouldn't have been because Yotopia knows what they are doing. It w...

There are a few ice cream offerings in Midway, UT and the first I tried was Timp Freeze .  Timp Freeze is your typical small town summer burger and shake/ice cream place with a window for ordering and outdoor seating. I didn't know if I would have a chance to try Timp Freeze for a second time (I really hope I do!) so I asked a couple of the workers for their opinion about the single best dessert offering.  They suggested I either try a peach shake or a grasshopper shake, and I wasn't really feeling anything minty, so I went with the peach shake. I was expecting a typical peach shake, with either real peach or peach syrup blended into ice cream.  This was something totally and completely different.  I would actually liken this more to the soft-serve version of a concrete than a milkshake. The shake was simple: vanilla soft serve with pieces of real (fresh not frozen) peach mixed in, and it was amazingly good.  Normally when people list of the qualities ...

There's nothing I love more than a great peach ice cream, and Sam's Choice has really delivered with their new Peach Cobbler.  This flavor is Peach ice cream with pie crust and peach bits and cream cheese swirl. The peach base of this flavor ranks up there with Graeter's (seasonal) Peach as the best peach ice cream I've ever had.  The front of the flavor profile is a strong peach, just like biting in to a fresh, juicy, ripe fruit.  Then the flavor transitions and finishes with a deep and rich cream. There weren't very many pie crust bits; I think I had about 6 in my pint.  The few I did get were 1/2'' squares barely on the too-dry side of perfectly flaky.  They had a buttery, rather than an oily, flavor. Holy cow, the peach bits were amazing, maybe even better than the Graeter's peach bits.  I don't know what kind of chemical magic Sam's Choice worked (probably corn starch and preservatives), but these did not taste frozen at al...

Dearest readers, I feel a little bit bad about posting this review.  McConnell's Summer Fruit Cobbler is an absolutely divine flavor that, unfortunately, was only available from May 31 to September 31 so you may not be able to obtain this flavor at the moment.  Straub's must have a pint or two left in stock.  Hopefully this will become available again next summer so you can try this absolutely lovely ice cream. While this flavor is listed on the McConnell's website, there is no flavor description, but it seemed to be sweet cream ice cream with chunks of peach, raspberry swirl, and cinnamon-y crumbles of cobbler crust.  Alliteration for the win! I wonder if there is a different picture on every lid of McConnell's? New ice cream collection? The first thing that struck me about this ice cream was how sweet it was.  To be specific, it was not exceedingly sugary or cloying.  Instead, it was like biting into a perfectly ripe and juicy peach or a ha...

Alright, Haagen-Dazs Sorbet, it is about time we met. A while ago Haagen-Dazs sent Madeline 6 coupons for free pints and she so generously sent me 3 of them. I have been working my way through them slowly, because I keep getting "$1 off two pints" coupons from HyVee. So with all the Haagen-Dazs craziness going on in my life, I decided it was about time to try some Haagen-Dazs sorbet. I wish so hard that sorbet was healthy. Like if sorbet was frozen fruitiness and not totally packed with sugar, I would eat sorbet all day every day. However, sorbet has so much sugar and I usually spend my daily sugar allowance on ice cream. I've got to remember to give sorbet its moment more often. The description of this flavor reads Succulent, ripe summer peaches shine in this delicate and delectable sorbet . Okay folks, when was the last time you had a canned peach? This sorbet reminded me of canned peaches. However, I feel like a lot of people associate canned fruit with ...

The frozen yogurt bar, Tutti Frutti opened a University City location back in the summer of 2012. After not being super impressed my first visit that summer, I was convinced to go back when I was told they had amazing vegan flavors made with soy. Their soy peanut butter, taro root, and banana milk have been favorites of mine ever since. Look at the adorable designs on the Tutti Frutti cups!! But the University City location, on North & South and Delmar, isn't actually close to where I used to live in University City, so I didn't go a ton, and I hadn't had a chance to go since moving out of St. Louis. Even though frozen yogurt bars aren't the most exciting, I had really been craving some vegan peanut butter froyo, so after my birthday dinner (at the all vegan brick and mortar location of Lulu's Local Eatery) last weekend we all headed to Tutti Frutti for some froyo. A list of things to help you convince yourself that froyo is good for you. A while...

So Madeline  and I have gotten a bit out of order here at the Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog. A while ago, dear reader, you may remember that we tried to make ice cream and failed. We told you that we would be making popsicles with the peach ginger ice cream base. We made and ate quite a few of them days ago and just haven't gotten our lazy butts around to writing about them. I'm not sure if we started at the bottom, but now we're here; the peach pops. We poured the peach pop base into little paper Dixie Cups, and put them into the freezer. We walked to Madeline's handy dandy corner market Joe's to see if they had popsicle sticks. The plan was to wait until the pops were slightly frozen to put in the popsicle sticks so they would stay up right. At Joe's there were no popsicle sticks but they had plastic utensils which we thought would work just fine. After much debate we chose to use spoons rather than forks so we wouldn't stab ourselves in the mouth. Typically,...

So blogger.com is a bit silly and won't let both Madeline and I contribute to the same post from our two different accounts. Lame. So Lizzy will be writing in this font. And Madeline will be writing in this font.  Yesterday, Madeline and I attempted to make ice cream with her vintage ice cream maker she got as a birthday present from our parents. We decided to make Rocky Road (chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and pecans) and Ginger Peach ice creams. We had a recipe for the Rocky Road and a Peach ice cream recipe and we were just sort of winging it with the ginger part of things. We bought much dairy product at the grocery store and very peaches and even more ginger. Making the bases was super easy and they tasted delicious from our samplings. We took everything over to Madeline's friends' house, bought lots of ice and lots of salt and we were all set to get churning.  Such dairy. Wow. At first things seemed to be going great.  We had alternating layers of ice and...

Prepare yourselves! This is going to be a long post.  My wonderful French Horn and high school marching band teacher asked if I would review Graeter's ice cream on the blog.  This is a new-to-me brand based in Cincinnati, Ohio. I *think* I've seen Graeter's in grocery store freezers before and not bought any because I was kind of turned off by the name.  Graeter's is a good, German last name and there's no reason it should bring anything to mind other than delicious dessert, but to me Graeter's sounds like it should be the name of a dive bar. I looked on Graeter's website,  http://www.graeters.com/ , to see where I could buy this ice cream in Minneapolis, and the most convenient place for me was the Whole Foods in downtown Minneapolis.  I went in on Thursday night after a dance class, skipped over to the freezers, found the Graeter's and then froze when I saw the price.  I was planning to pick up a pint of the Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, Graeter...