Summer and ice cream, they go hand in hand. Eating ice cream becomes a bona fide activity during the summer (particularly if you have a child) and you feel this need to go out for ice cream and load up like it's going to disappear on you! This is especially the case when you're on vacation; I can almost guarantee you ice cream is part of the day's dietary consumption during a summer vacation.
Is it me or does ice cream just taste better on vacation? We were reminded of this on a recent road trip to Newport, Rhode Island. After the time spent touring The Breakers and other mansions, admiring the shoreline and views, the other priorities were to get a good meal and to find some ice cream!
We discovered this place, Kilwins, right in the center of Newport, and had a few scoops of fantastic ice cream. Maybe it's the heat and exhaustion of a hot day of sightseeing and the excitement of trying something new but this ice cream tasted particularly good - it almost made us regret the Ben & Jerry's we opted for the day before. Despite all the colorful options and flavors on offer, we're always drawn to old favorites and predictable flavors. We can highly recommend the cappuccino chocolate chip and...the "fudgie brownie" flavor.
A chocolate fudge brownie ice cream is hardly unusual, I know, but it was so good that we immediately headed back to the counter for seconds once the first cup was done! I knew I had to come home and make a batch myself in an attempt to impress my son. It helps that I make brownies every now and then (okay, very often...) so all I did was set some aside in the freezer for the centerpiece of my homemade fudge brownie ice cream.
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| Cubes of frozen homemade fudge brownies to be stirred into the ice cream |
Maybe ice cream is a bit of a misnomer here. I actually started with David Lebovitz's chocolate gelato recipe, which relies on a milk-based custard, and is one of my favorites because it's rich yet light, without being overly chocolaty and pudding-like. I tinkered with the recipe a bit - holding back an ounce of chocolate in the base to make room for all the brownie and chocolate bits of goodness to be stirred into it - and adding a touch of vanilla extract.
So this is my homage to our fun little road trip to Rhode Island and to that delicious ice cream break at Kilwins. It's a creamy chocolate ice cream/gelato with plenty of dense, fudgy brownie chunks (a lot more than Kilwins' had, actually) and some bits of dark chocolate. I wanted to tamper my son's expectations but luckily, it turned out really well. I was told that this homemade version was very much like Kilwins. For my part, I have to say it's really quite good. I won't say it's as good as Kilwins but it definitely holds its own.
And here's the fun thing; I looked online and discovered there's actually a Kilwins in New Jersey! I plan to surprise the little guy with a drive out there in a few weeks. He will get such a kick out of that!
