A GRAETER BROWNIE

I decided to combine my favorite Fairytale brownies with my favored Greater's ice cream.  I don't have to tell you why I love Fairytale Brownies.  I tried Graeter's Ice Cream about six years ago when I was in Cincinnati, Ohio.  That's where this small batch French style ice cream is produced.  I not only loved the consistency and flavor of the ice cream itself, but it was all about the chocolate chips.

Of the name brands, Ben & Jerry's is certainly not on the top of my list.  Each time that I had a flavor that contained some from of chocolate chips, all I seemed to taste was the palm oil.  Hey, if I wanted coconut...you know.  Ben & Jerry's isn't the only brand that does this.  The explanation is that you can't have "real chocolate" in ice cream because the chocolate would be much too hard to bite into.  Graeter's uses a small amount of soy oil which doesn't take away the chocolate taste. 

Air goes into ice cream, so if you think you are getting a pint or quart it's just the size of the container and not the weight of 16 oz. etc.  Graeter's actually weighs 16 oz.  I'm not sure about the weight of Ben & Jerry's if you were to get a simple flavor without all of the added "candy" which basically boils down to a lot of added sugar.

The way that Graeter's batches are made is that they are stirring the chocolate "liquid" into the ice cream and the paddles break it up.  That is why the chips are not all the same size.  If fact, you get a little surprise of what is like eating a small chocolate candy bar inside the pint.  Mmmmmm.....chocolate.

If you were to go to Ohio, you can most likely go to one of the Graeter's ice cream store.  That was my problem...go online and get it delivered or sulk about the chips in ice cream.  It was about a month ago when I was in Stop & Shop and saw Graeter's.  Had to do a double take and read the label.  There was my favorite flavor of Greater's, too.  Black Raspberry Chip!  Price wise it was about the same as Ben & Jerry's or Haagen Daz when they are not on sale.  I called the company and eventually had Rich Graeter on my radio show! I also talked about the additives of guar gum and locust bean that is in more ice creams.  It turns out that they are simply stabilizers that prevent the ice cream from forming ice.

That brings me to the brownies!  Chocolate Chip brownie covered with Graeter's vanilla ice cream and topped with slices of fresh strawberries.  I soaked a Chocolate Chip brownie in Chambord and then topped it with vanilla ice cream.  Graeter's Mocha Chip with strawberries and broken up plain Fairytale brownie.

I took a chocolate chip brownie, cut it in half and placed vanilla ice cream in the middle and froze it.  Another dessert idea.

I think of coffee ice cream (Graeter's has real coffee in it) and a version of iced coffee with sugar and cream.  Let me think...Original brownie covered with Black Raspberry Chip and topped with fresh raspberries.  My next venture is to a plain brownie topped with Cherry Chip ice cream and fresh cherries or chocolate chip brownie topped with cherry ice cream and fresh cherries. Please refrain from drooling on your computer.