The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

It's the end of October and I haven't posted any reviews of pumpkin flavors!!!! Since I haven't been blogging as much this semester, I didn't want to re-review any pumpkin flavors I've already tried like Ben and Jerry's or Talenti's pumpkin flavors, so my choices were limited. On a whim, I picked up some Belmont Pumpkin Praline from Aldi's. Pumpkin Praline is pumpkin ice cream with cheese frosting swirls and praline pecans. Belmont is premium, rather than super premium ice cream, so higher overrun (airier) and less fat content than you may be used to if you typically stick to super premium brands like Haagen-Dazs, Ben and Jerry's or 'boutique' ice creams. This was evident in the texture, which was light and airy, but didn't decrease the impact of the flavor. The base achieved an exquisite balance between pumpkin and spice. The pumpkin flavor was very strong and actually tasted like pumpkin with just a hint of cinnamon and ...

In 2015, Lizzy predicted that alcoholic ice cream would be the new ice cream trend of 2016. Turns out, she was a year early in her predictions, and 2017 is the year that multiple mainstream brands came out with alcohol-flavored ice creams. Both Haagen-Dazs and Ben and Jerry's, arguably the two behemoths of grocery store super-premium brands, released a bourbon ice cream.  Haagen-Dazs has Bourbon Pecan Praline, nutty pecan pralines  and pools of brown sugar bourbon folded into bourbon ice cream.   Bourban Pecan Praline is a very grown-up flavor. Bourbon is a very sweet and smooth alcohol, which makes it the idea alcoholic ice cream flavor. The bourbon base had these sweet and smooth qualities, but it also had that uniquely alcoholic burn that you could both smell and taste.  The pecan pralines and brown sugar were the perfect mix-ins. The flavors were distinct from, complementary to, and not overpowered by the strong bourbon base.  The pecans were coat...

So while I was conducting research in California I ate a lot of delicious local ice cream and had a blast. However, when I'm potentially publishing my research I'm probably not disclosing my research site. So, I decided, to protect the people I worked with, not to write reviews of those ice cream shops in case some random creeper decided to hard core stalk me to try to figure out where I did research. And while it was very disappointing to eat all that delicious ice cream and not be able to review it, I did get so froyo at a California-wide chain, Yogurtland, so I can totally tell all of you all about it! I'm sure many of you may think my 8-step froyo shop review process is a bit excessive, but I'm just trying to keep you, Dearest Readers, as informed about frozen dessert issues as possible! Here are my 8 steps I go through when reviewing a froyo shop! 1) The variety of flavors: is there a good selection? 2) The flavor of my choices. 3) The quality of the com...

It's time to GET EXCITED FOLKS, because the Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog has gone INTERNATIONAL! Sunday through Tuesday, I was in Calgary, Canada to present some of my research at a conference. The conference presentation went well and I got to ~network~ and all that jazz. But is it bad I was just as excited to explore cool areas to run and cool Canadian ice cream as I was to present at the conference...? My potentially mixed-up priorities aside, there was a great pedestrian bike path along the Bow River right by my hotel that provided gorgeous views for running. Also, there was a super teeny tiny and adorable cafe, Angel's, just a quarter of a mile down the path from my hotel, that also served ice cream! They didn't make their own ice cream, instead they served Canada largest independent ice cream brand, Chapman's Ice Cream. Chapman's is also made with 100% Canadian milk. Is this shop not THE most adorable place ever? Angel's didn't have a hug...

Aside from some ice cream sandwiches, this review of Praline Crunch will be the last New Orleans Ice Cream Co. review that we do together.  Lizzy is on her own for the rest!  This ice cream is Our delicately flavored praline ice cream with crunchy whole caramel pecans. A N'awlins favorite. Madeline's take: I'm pretty sure the words "HOLY SHIT!" came out of both my and Lizzy's mouths the second we bit into this ice cream.  It was that good. Before I talk about this ice cream, I want to talk about what it reminded me.  To me, it tasted exactly like the cereal Waffle Crisp .  Or like waffles smothered in pecans, maple syrup, and butter.  In fact, I would totally eat this ice cream on top of a waffle and underneath some syrup. It seems a bit weird to me that the base flavor was described as 'praline ice cream.'  I've always thought of praline as a dessert involving pecans rather than a flavor, but I suppose if you've ever had the Ameri...