The importance of Ben and Jerry (Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream and Dessert Book - Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield)

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream and Dessert Book - Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield
Date:	26/07/04 (369 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great ice cream

Disadvantages: Very Rich, American Measurements

Ben and Jerry?s ice cream. Always coming up as one of the favourites in any ?favourite ice cream? question, and I have to admit to being rather partial to a tub myself from time to time. So as my answer to that particular question is ?the homemade variety? I was quite pleased when browsing through the recipe section of the bookshop I came across a Ben and Jerry?s recipe book. Fantastic, so for the princely sum of £7.99 the shop let me take it home, and 12 months later I finally got around to trying out some of the recipes and to writing a review.

The book is a good size for browsing it?s a small to medium size paperback book, so none of the struggling to fit it on the shelf, or the kitchen work top when you?re trying to use it, and as you can see from the picture at the top, it?s very brightly covered, and this carries on throughout the book.

As with any good recipe book it?s divided nicely into sections and the first one is the history of B and J and as with any good history section in a recipe book have I bothered to read? What do you think? I made it through the first paragraph where I got as far as learning that they met in 7th grade gym class and were the only ones who couldn?t run a mile in under 7 minutes, but let?s cut to the chase and skip the next 11 pages and get to the next chapter?.

Ice Cream Theory

Again, another 8 pages of very interesting facts on what makes ice cream, proportions of fat and salt and all that jazz, but for me, ?who cares? I just want to make ice cream so I move onto the next bit, yeah it?s the recipes.

The first section is how to make an ice cream base as many of their recipes use one of 3 bases, not a lot more to say about that really as we then move onto all that is great about Ben and Jerry.

Their greatest hits

This section contains all of their best
sellers in their shops in the States, I?m not going to list the lot but it contains things like Raspberry, Mint Oreos and New York Super fudge Chunk. Now I don?t actually use this section very much, largely because it is very American in taste, and some of the basic ingredients aren?t the sort of thing I would normally consider buying over here, and I?m not sure if we can even get Oreos over here. Then of course there is the other question, who wants to make a Heath Bar Crunch ice cream when the next section is?..

Chocolate

The one good thing about this book is that both Ben and Jerry have different tastes and opinions on how to make ice cream, but rather than argue about it like most people would they make both, and then put both in the recipe book. Bens chocolate ice cream is apparently about as rich as you can get, I wouldn?t know having only made Jerry?s which came out very rich. The book said it has a fuller texture, I honestly don?t think my kids let it hang around long enough to discover it, it was gone ? very quickly.

They then have the usual number of alternatives, like adding chocolate chip, mint, nuts that sort of thing. The one that worried me a little and I wouldn?t have ever considered (or ever consider trying) is peanut butter.

The next section is Fruit ice creams

I haven?t actually tried any of these as my whole family are rather partial to Fruit sorbets so no one wants the cream added to it but again there are some different additions to what you would expect to find in the UK. Plum ice cream, Kiwi ice cream and Pumpkin ice cream to give you some examples, but they do all sound delicious.

Downtown Specials

These are strange and exciting types of ice cream, the one I really must try next Christmas is Egg n
og. This page contains possibly my favourite quote of the book. Throughout the book there are little comments from the boys about making the ice creams or just general funny things, here they probably hit to the biggest home truth about cooking:

?Ben says; because the recipe calls for eight egg yolks we?ve always considered what to do with the extra egg whites. I put them in a covered bowl and store them in the refrigerator. After a month, I throw them out.?

Odd combinations in this section include: Maple Grape Nuts, Peanut Brittle and Mocha Heath Bar Crunch.

Cookies and Candies

This section is probably the reason I bought the book in the first place, it includes things like Rolo Cup ice cream, Kit Kat ice cream, Chocolate Mystic mint (minor technical issue with this one in that you can?t actually get Mystic Mint cookies in the UK, but its still good to read about) and of course Superfudge Brownie icecream.

Sorbets

As I mentioned early my family are rather partial to Sorbets so this is my best used section in the book, and they also have a page for slushy drinks, which I really should have a go at one day.

But of course being Ben and Jerry there has to be some different ones so why not try ?Beer Sorbet? (If you can bare the through of adding loads of sugar to a bottle of Becks. Lemon Daiquiri Sorbet with rum in it and Mimosa Ice, which in the UK would probably be called a Bucks Fizz sorbet with champagne and orange juice. Strange you never find these in the ice cream section at Tesco.

Bakery

This section is wonderful, it has all the bakery items that they use like the Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies, which also forms the base of their Cookie D
;ough Ice Cream, and then of course you take 2 cookies and make an ice cream sandwich out of them. The final recipe in this section is for a Brownie Ice Cream layer cake, which they even suggest you could use as a birthday cake.

Sundaes

This section I am never likely to use, as by the very nature of a Sundae you need to have more than one flavour of ice cream about at a time. I have a very small ice cream maker and once you have used it, you need to clean it then pre-freeze it for 24 hours before you can use it again, I am sorry with the best will in the world, no homemade batch of ice cream is going to last 24 hours in my house, just so I can make another one and make a Sundae out of it. But they do sound good, except the Fried ice cream which I can honestly say sounds horrible but I?m sure someone will disagree with me.

Sauces

The penultimate and a very small section. The one that I probably would use the most would be Hot Fudge Sauce (with a suggested alternative of Grand Marnier) but to be honest I haven?t used any of them as the ice creams tend to be very rich and certainly don?t need anything else to add to the sugar rush.

Drinks

Makes an ideal finish to the book, with Ice Cream Soda and a Hot Chocolate Float, but again these are a little rich for my taste.

Well there you have the run down of what the book contains, and it is a very nice book to read, but to be honest I also have a basic ice cream book which I use far more and there are a couple of reasons for this; Firstly many of the Ben and Jerry?s recipes contain raw egg, now the recipes are very well laid out and the ones I have tried work very well and most ice cream includes heating something at some point so I alter the recipe slightly to make sure I stir the e
ggs into something hot, just to cook them a bit and be on the safe side, this has always worked so far. My second gripe is something that is always an issue using an American book in the UK, I am always substituting ingredients and I have absolutely no idea how big a ?cup? I am supposed to use. I assume they don?t mean the size of the bucket I have my cup of tea out of in the morning so I use a regular mug, seems to work but I?m sure I?m wrong.

I?ve given the book 3 stars, it does make a nice recipe book to look through, but to be honest it?s a bit fussy with loads of recipes I?m never likely to try and I prefer a basic straightforward ice cream book. But for any Ben and Jerry?s ice cream freaks out there, go and buy it now, you?ll love it.

Thank you for reading.

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