A certain Mr. Jack DIRE (or terrible Jack) wrote this article a few years ago :
“Dear People Who Like Neapolitan Ice Cream. You like horrible things. Neapolitan is for people who don’t know what the hell they are doing with their lives. It’s the psychology major of desserts. Something told you it would give you the most options, but then one day you realized that “something” was just the person who sold you your acid …”
And it goes on and on like that. He also calls it “CHONILLABERRY ICE CREAM”… Does this guy melt it all together and slurp it or snort it ?
my answer :
Dear JACK (who I forgive because I’m feeling magnanimous, as usual), do you not eat hamburgers and other sandwiches that are layered preparations, do you hate cream-filled cookies and ice cream sandwiches ? How about pizza, do you separate the layers and eat each ingredient individually ? You intrigue me.
Enough of that “crazy-talk”, let’s get back to our ‘business’.
JULY 14th is France’s national holiday, celebrating the birth of its REPUBLIC.
I’ve chosen this day to talk about the REBIRTH of a forgotten and often criticized 19th century frozen dessert : NEAPOLITAN ICE CREAM.
WHY ?
Because not only can it be prepared and assembled using several flavors and colors to look like a flag to match your own national holiday theme, but actually because as a kid growing up in Montreal, buying a long rectangular volume (probably 9 cm x 9 cm x 18 cm) of this ice cream at the supermarket, tightly packaged in its waxed cardboard case, then sliced (with the cardboard still on, which would then be peeled off before serving) was a DELIGHT, whether served in our home or in other homes. We were kids, it was colorful, it was a clean individual slice, for each guest (and the hosts).
I make this once a year and I’ve made it again, using my pure white vanilla-less, egg yolk-less, milky, creamy “OLYMPIAN FLEUR DE LAIT ICE CREAM” recipe (see it here) as a base and then calculating the volumes required to create the cubes, dividing it up in three before adding in the flavorings.
Mine were rather traditional using honey & vanilla for the white layer, strawberry jam and rose water for the pink layer and coffee, cocoa & chocolate spread for the brown layer (but you could make up your own and match it to the colors of your flags, your tastes, your heart’s desires, etc.).
You begin with the first layer and its freezing/hardening, then the second layer again and freezing again and the final third layer and freezing (no churning here my friends, it’s not necessary nor practical and the ice cream mixture is relatively high in fat so the formation of ice crystals is rare and the additions are also fatty and/or non-crystallizing sweeteners).
And then, when it’s all ready, layer upon layer, flavor upon flavor, comes the “SLICE”. Not a scoop. Not a snowball. Not several layered spoonfuls. A clean and precise, rectangular/square/cubic, individual slice.
YUP, I love it and yeah I may be a ‘jackass’ too, but I enjoy this shamelessly . . . :)
p.s.: It’s been one year today since the attacks in the city of NICE, France. Please remember the nice Nice people.
