Drink your ice cream. We call it an adult milkshake.

No ice cream maker? No problem. On the patio or at the dining room table for guests or family, this adult treat might be a surprise.

Start by whipping full fat cream in a cold metal or glass bowl until the cream has very stiff peaks. Fold into the whipped cream a cup of my Celebrity Maple Toffee cream cheese Bacardi Black (Puerto Rican) Rum marinating jus along with rum-plumped golden raisins and elderflower cordial dates and the marinated Maple Toffee cheese pucks.

You might want to chop the raisins and dates to a mince, and the marinated Maple Toffee cream cheese pucks, so you bite into little chunks in each mouthful.

Freeze in a cling-wrap lined, covered metal loaf pan. When frozen but not yet rock hard, slice in one-inch-thick pieces and put a piece of plastic wrap between each slice. Rewrap and freeze solid in the metal pan. When you are ready to serve you can knock off or pry loose each frozen slice.

You might like to make a homemade waffle ice cream sandwich or using a round cookie cutter the same size as your favourite cookie, cut an ice cream slice to match the size and make an ice cream Napoleon, or serve between two of your favourite tuilles. Mine? My dark chocolate, homemade candied hazelnuts and blueberries tuilles.

Drizzle second season maple syrup over top when ready to eat or use the reserved raisin date Maple Toffee cheese reserved marinating jus. Spritz the ice cream sandwich with South African Amarula cordial cream. You might want to roll the edges of the ice cream in unsweetened toasted desiccated coconut.

Instead of slicing, when just barely frozen, using an ice cream scoop, make individual ice cream balls and freeze hard in a freezer plastic zip bag. You might like to roll each ice cream ball in toasted desiccated unsweetened coconut.

You can buy readymade dark chocolate serving cups, big ones and small ones, or make your own. When ready to serve, place a frozen scoop in each cup. Drizzle with reserved Maple Toffee syrup rum sauce.

Hint: Make ahead lots of the Maple Toffee cheese syrup sauce and refrigerate in a sterilized glass covered jar so you can use it anytime. Remove the marinating sauce from the fridge a few hours before using. (Note: You could even drizzle the sauce over sliced stovetop sautéed garlic pork loin, oven-roasted or sautéed chicken or salmon, oven-roasted rock Cornish game hens, or even on roasted rabbit, venison or lamb; or barbecue any of these. Using my watercress pesto, drizzle the pesto with the syrup sauce and make a puddle on an oversize plate. Add sea scallops and/or pulled from the shells deep-fried oysters and/or mussels, gently sautéed in sizzling unsalted butter.

NOTE: You could substitute Asbach Uralt cognac marinated fresh black mission figs for the dates in any of the combinations; using congealed cognac marinating jus from your refrigerated jar. Celebrity has a Fig Cream Cheese as a possible switch-up.

In any of the ice cream mixes, you could stir in a tablespoon of my homemade kumquat marmalade and/or minced homemade candied citrus rinds from your pantry sugar jar.

To any of the selections you might like to add minced homemade candied nuts from your pantry collection, singular or a variety.

Maple Toffee Cream Cheese Rum Sauce

You can easily increase to adjust amounts. In a glass bowl, pour an inch of second season maple syrup. Add a tablespoon of golden brown sugar. Add a tablespoon of Bacardi Black (Puerto Rican) Rum. Chop a heat-sealed log package of Celebrity Maple Toffee cream cheese. Cut the log in half and half again. Don’t worry if the pucks break. Add rum-marinated golden raisins, chopped marinated in elderflower St-Germain or Amarula medjool dates.

If you are able to eat nuts, chop a few from your homemade candied nuts pantry jar. Mince homemade candied citrus rinds from your pantry sugar jar and add to the marinating sauce.

You can refrigerate this marinated cheese mix and just eat it as a sweet pick-me-up any time of day. It’s almost like candy, and equally addicting. Try it with my frisée salad recipe.

There are so many uses for this dish and it keeps for weeks refrigerated. A great nibble. It really is addictive. Maybe fill a crepe with the sauce and flambé with Mampe Halb and Halb or your favourite bitters. Maybe use Benedictine.

For those who imbibe, maybe drink your ice cream – a special poolside or patio treat, like this special alcohol ice-creamy milkshake:

Milkshake Extraordinaire

Using a large ice cream scoop, fill a glass full-size blender jar three-quarters full with scoops of your homemade frozen hard ice cream mix and pour in a cup and a half of Bacardi Black (Puerto Rican) Rum. This will make four milkshakes.

Whiz the blender contents just until frothy, leaving a few ice cream lumps using the pulse button. Sprinkle with a few flakes of Amagansett Sea Salt and pour into tall milkshake glasses.

Before pouring into milkshake glasses, paint the inside of each glass with the reserved raisin date marinating jus using a new thick, tufted mop-style pastry brush. Then cap the milkshake when ready to serve with a generous drizzle of the marinating jus. Clean the brush in a little plain rum, then rinse with boiling water, let air-dry and tip the rum into the leftover sauce.

Serve this delicious treat in an old-fashioned milkshake glass with a large-hole straw and a long-handled parfait dessert spoon.

ALTERNATE: Maybe use homemade Amarula marinated bing cherry ice cream with or without nuts and add one cup of Offley Royal Porto as an alcohol ice cream milkshake.

You could drizzle a little of your reserved refrigerated delicious Amarula marinating jus over top when ready to serve.

Place the milkshake glass on a small paper doily or a folded napkin on a small see-thru glass pie plate so you have a place to rest the parfait spoon. For a special occasion underpin with a large charger plate to stabilize. You might like to add a vine of sugared seedless green grapes on the charger to decorate; or use a generous sprig of fresh mint.

Using your imagination, mix and match and make your own amazing treats.

Amarula Bing Cherry Candied Ice Cream

Drain two tins of bing cherries, preserving the liquid. You could use fresh cherries in season but you would need to marinate them in heavy sugar syrup for about an hour. Drain. Chop the cherries or pulse.

Chop a half cup of candied almonds from your pantry storage jar or pulse them in your mini kitchen beaucoup.

In a sauté pan, bring the sugar marinating liquid and/or the bing cherry jus to a simmer. Add a quarter cup of Turkey Hill maple syrup and reduce by half. Add a sprinkle of Amagansett Sea Salt and a pinch of nutmeg and the tiniest pinch of bottled powder ground cloves.

Stir into the reduced liquid, a half cup of South African Amarula Cream liqueur and continue to reduce. The creamy texture should coat a cold metal spoon.

This cream liqueur is made using fruit from the Murula tree. The fragrance is enjoyed by the local South African elephants, thus the product logo.  Real local cream is used with the magnificent fruit, local herbs and spices to create the cream liqueur product on our shop shelves.

Whip two large cartons of heavy cream in a refrigerated cold metal bowl, until just before the cream reaches the butter stage. Refrigerate.

Mix the chopped candied almonds into the reduced cream sauce. Add the chopped bing cherries. Allow to come to room temperature and then refrigerate in a covered glass container. Fold this mixture into the very cold whipped cream. Freeze until solid.

Add a scooped ball of this amazing ice cream to any salad choice, but you might find it particularly good on this special salad recipe that brought a rave review:

You could reserve a little of the reduced jus and drizzle it over the Amarula ice cream dessert served in a champagne flute, with a long-handle parfait spoon. Maybe tuck in one of my dark chocolate fruit/nut tuilles on top.

You will find many enjoyable uses for Amarula Cream liqueur.  I was recently introduced to the miniature sample product by the importer and added it to my go-to list of spirits in my kitchen.

Rum and Raisin Ice Cream (or use Elderflower Dates or Cognac Figs)

Whip two cups of full-fat whipping cream until stiff. Add a half cup of minced Bacardi Black (Puerto Rican) Rum soaked golden raisins that you have squeezed most of the liquid out. Save the liquid.

Freeze the fruit cream mixture in a metal container such as a plum pudding steamer dish until solid. Ideally overnight.

In the meantime, heat the reserved raisin marinating rum liquid and add a half cup of brown sugar and a quarter cup of molasses. Stir to combine until the liquid reduces and coats a metal spoon.

Store in a refrigerated covered glass container and pour a few tablespoons over each ice cream serving.

This homemade ice cream presents nicely in a double glass shrimp cocktail dish with crushed ice in the under-glass, positioned on a see-through glass plate on a charger separated by a paper doily.

ALTERNATE: Replace the rum marinated raisins with finely chopped Medjool dates marinated in Elderflower St-Germain. Make similar sauce using the St-Germain marinating liquid but replace the molasses with maple syrup.

Or, you can fill my pre-made Bird’s Nest Pavlova and serve immediately. If you have a container of individual cup-size stored pavlova, this makes a terrific instant gourmet surprise for guests or family.

These gourmet homemade ice creams keep, frozen, for weeks and stay as fresh as the day they are made. I often use an ice cream scoop and make individual size serving balls and keep frozen in bags, ready to serve on short notice.

If you want to be really creative, roll a still warm genoise that you baked in a rimmed baking sheet, into a jellyroll shape using sheets of plastic wrap so it doesn’t stick to itself. When cool, unroll and fill with a layer of slightly mashed ice cream. Re-roll in jellyroll shape. Wrap in cling wrap. Re-freeze. Slice thick slices with a sharp serrated bread knife when ready to serve and drizzle with related sauce.

With any of these ice creams you can mince (or use your mini kitchen beaucoup) homemade candied citrus rinds from your pantry sugar jar and stir into the ice cream mix or into the sauce. You could always serve candied citrus segments on the side.

If you enjoy cream in your coffee, make a different kind of cup by stirring a tablespoon of any of these ice creams into hot black strong fresh-brewed coffee. Maybe make a different kind of Asbach Uralt Rudesheimer coffee by adding a spoon of any of these ice creams when ready to serve. Use your long-handled special spoons to stir gently.

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© Spirits in My Kitchen: Lady Ralston – Canadian Cooking with Bouquets and Aromas