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Community Corner

Celebrate Ice Cream Month with Old Fashioned Social

Connect this summer with friends and family with the ultimate summer hook-up - An Ice Cream Social.

Looking to reconnect and expand your social network beyond Facebook? It’s easy, especially in summer because it’s the ice cream social season.

The original summertime networking party, ice cream socials remain a favorite for churches and family reunions in addition to a prefered summer fundraiser for politicians and charity organizations. These socailly designed events are usually held on Sunday afternoons. The prefered novelty served at these creamery soirées is the ice cream sundae.

Sundaes is a Victorian era concoction developed for ice cream parlors to serve on Sundays (decandent ice cream sodas were outlawed for sale on Sunday), a fact that may explain the reason today why more ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week

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No matter if you hand-crank your own ice cream or purchase it ready made, sundaes are a must have at any ice cream social. When planning your social consider offering guests something more than a simple dish or a plain sugar cone  - add an ice cream sundae bar complete with all the toppings and sprinkles to encourage the creation of sundae masterpieces.

Sundaes are easy and quick. However, if you’re looking for something more than hot fudge and whipped cream, Breyers spokesperson Gale Gund has developed a Top 10 list of tips for sundae making.

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  1. Doll up store-bought toppings. For an example: Dissolve some instant coffee in a little hot water and stir it into store-bought caramel sauce to make a coffee-caramel drizzle.
  2. Using whole nuts and dried fruit for add-ins can give your sundae extra texture and a big crunch.
  3. Roll scoops of ice cream in any kind of crumbs, crunched cereal or chocolate milk powder for an ice cream "truffle."
  4. Use mini containers like egg cups, espresso cups and cordial glasses to make mini sundaes.
  5. Make a quickie fresh-fruit topping by mashing your favorite berries with a little white or brown sugar.
  6. To keep your ice cream from melting as fast, freeze your sundae bowls or dessert dishes overnight.
  7. To make your scoops more perfect looking, dip your ice cream scoop in hot water in between scoops.
  8. Use two or more flavors of ice cream in a sundae to add extra flavor and flair.
  9. Simply tucking a cookie next to a scoop of ice cream, standing up, can really dress it up.
  10. Create an exotic-looking sundae by using a wooden skewer to thread fruit onto, and then stick it into a scoop of ice cream. Use things like berries, ripe peach wedges and banana slices.

July is National Ice Cream Month. To celebrate, in Fenton is planning to give away free mini Coke floats from 3 to 6 p.m. July 20, limit one per customer while supplies last. For details click on www.maggiemoos.com. Both Maggie Moo's and Breyers offer premium product choices that are deisgned to make any ice cream social successful, including the following recipes, courtesy of Breyers.

MINI COFFEE ICE CREAM SUNDAE

  • 2 cups coffee ice cream
  • Salted caramel sauce*
  • Almond whipped cream**
  • 1 shot espresso coffee
  • 4 Amaretti cookies
  • Chocolate-covered coffee beans

Arrange 2 (1/4-cup) scoops ice cream in 4 demitasse coffee cups. Drizzle with salted caramel sauce and then top with almond whipped cream. Pour a little espresso into each cup, then garnish with cookies and coffee beans.

*To make salted caramel sauce, bring 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water to a boil over high heat in heavy-duty saucepan until caramel-colored. Remove from heat; then slowly stir in 1/2 cup whipping or heavy cream. Let cool, then stir in 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Let stand at room temperature until ready to use.

**To make almond whipped cream, whip 1/2 cup whipping or heavy cream, 1 teaspoon sugar and 2 drops almond extract in mixing bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form.

Chill until ready to serve. Makes 4 servings.

SNOW BALL SUNDAE

  • 2 cups mint chocolate chip ice cream
  • 8 slices, angel food cake
  • 1/4 cup hot fudge topping, warmed
  • 1/2 cup marshmallow cream, melted
  • Chocolate sprinkles

Freeze plate 30 minutes. Makes four 1/2-cup scoops of ice cream and arrange on the chilled plate. Place each ice cream ball on one cake slice. Shape cake around ice cream ball, using your hands to completely cover ice cream. Return to freeze until ready to serve. Place in a dessert dish, top with hot fudge, then marshmallow cream and sprinkles. Makes 4 sundaes.

SPAGHETTI AND MEAT BALL SUNDAE

  • 12 small scoops of Rocky Road ice cream
  • 1 cup chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs
  • 2 cups strawberries, trimmed
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 cup vanilla ice cream, divided
  • 2 shortbread cookies, crushed

Freeze plate for 30 minutes. Place rocky road ice cream scoops on chilled plates. Roll in chocolate cookie crumbs. And return to chilled plate and place back into freezer until ready to serve.

To make sauce: Mash strawberries with sugar in a medium bowl using a potato masher to make a chunky sauce. To build the sundaes, press vanilla ice cream into a potato ricer, or if a ricer is not available simply scoop into bowls. Top each with 3 ice cream meatballs, then sauce. Top with crushed shortbread cookie “cheese.” Serve with a fork. Makes 4 sundaes.

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