A HARTE APPETITE: COOL DESERTS YOU MAKE AT HOME: ICE CREAM, SORBET SUMMER FAVORITES

History is full of famous duos: Romulus and Remus, Gilbert and Sullivan, Batman and Robin. But of all the prominent pairs over the ages, perhaps my favorite is Ben and Jerry. That's because the ice cream produced by that Vermont institution is the closest to homemade of any store-bought brand I know. And what could be better during the hot summer months than a scoop of homemade ice cream? (Unless it's two scoops.)

Though ice cream may be the quintessential American dessert (with more than 30 quarts per capita consumed on average, it is our favorite sweet), it actually originated in ancient China. There a combination of mountain snow and saltpeter was used to freeze containers of syrup, a process said to have been brought to Italy by Marco Polo.

How much credit should be given to him is unclear, but in any case Italians, especially in Venice, have traditionally specialized in making iced confections and their predecessors, the ancient Romans, knew how to make sorbet or what we call sherbet, though sometimes the two are distinguished by the fact that a sherbet usually contains milk while a sorbet usually does not. (Actually, sorbet is a French word; Italians call it sorbetto.) Sorbet is typically lighter than ice cream but richer than an ice, or what Italians call granita, a concoction which is more granular than sorbet or ice cream.

Despite the noble efforts of Herrell's in Boston, Lappert's in Hawaii, and Blue Bell in Texas (all among my favorites, not to mention Ben and Jerry's), the best ice cream in the world, as far as I am concerned, is still made in Italy. Recently I spent a few days exploring the ice cream parlors of Italy, as I had done years ago (a task to which I took naturally, having lived as a child next door to the Bang's ice cream plant in St. Louis), and as a result I can fully understand why legend has it that King Henry II of France married Italy's Catherine de Medicis for her ice cream recipes.

Gelato (the Italian word for ice cream) is generally richer, more intensely flavored, and creamier than our ice creams because it typically contains less air. The amount of air in ice cream does make a difference (as does the amount of butterfat -- the FDA requires a minimum of 10 percent, but some premium brands have more than twice that). Some air is necessary to prevent ice cream from being hard as a rock, but too much air makes it spongy and light. The less air, the denser and creamier the ice cream. The legal maximum is 50 percent and brands vary widely in the amount of overrun, a term used to refer to the amount of air they contain. That's why a half gallon of one brand may not weigh the same as a half gallon of another.

Generally, the heavier the ice cream per volume, the more satisfying it will be, though, of course, other factors like the nature of the ingredients will also come into play. So as a public service to readers of this column, recently I painstakingly conducted an ice cream weigh-in among several locally available brands. The results reveal that Breyer's, Edy's, and Schnuck's house brand all weigh roughly the same per half gallon (around two and a half pounds give or take an ounce or two), while Ben and Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs tip the scales at four pounds per half gallon, meaning they contain roughly half as much air as the other brands. No wonder they taste so rich, and no wonder they cost so much.

Of course, the richest, densest, and most satisfying ice cream is the kind you make yourself. Turning the crank of an ice cream maker by hand or even letting an electric motor do it will likely not aerate the mixture to the same degree that an industrial machine in a factory will. Besides, when you make ice cream at home you can enhance the final product by using only the finest of ingredients in generous quantities. (I once burned out the motor on an ice cream maker by adding too many chocolate chunks to the container. I have no regrets!)

Making homemade ice cream, however, is a time consuming process and it does require a certain amount of effort, even hassle (unless you have one of those modern, and very expensive, machines that eliminate hand cranking and don't even require ice and salt). Still, it's probably worth it. But producing something homemade that is extra special does not necessarily require using an ice cream maker.

You can create great homemade ice creams by using one of two other quick and easy techniques. One involves freezing the ice cream base until almost solid, then breaking it into chunks and placing it in a food processor where it is blended until smooth and then put back in the freezer until firm. This technique works best for frozen yogurt, sherbet, or sorbet. Alternately, you can freeze chunks of fruit and blend them in the food processor with milk or other liquid to get much the same result.

The other easy homemade ice cream technique is even simpler. Just fold extra ingredients into softened store-bought ice cream and transform it into something special. For example, at our house, favorite ingredients to blend into ordinary vanilla ice cream include ground cinnamon, chunks of candied ginger, and fresh cherries and chopped chocolate.

Today's column offers recipes for both of these techniques along with a traditional one that requires an ice cream maker. During this time of the year when everybody screams for ice cream, each of these recipes is a delicious way to add to the clamor.

Risotto Gelato

Several years ago my wife discovered a sublime rice pudding gelato at a little gelateria in the Cannery in San Francisco. Being a rice pudding devotee, she has been looking all over for something like it ever since, but to no avail. Happily, this recipe, from Patricia Wells' wonderful book, Trattoria, seems to be the genuine article.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup arborio rice

3 1/2 cups whole milk, divided

1 1/4 cups vanilla scented sugar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 plump, moist vanilla beans

6 large egg yolks

1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

In large saucepan combine rice, 1 and 1/2 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt and bring to a simmer over moderate heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer until rice is cooked, about 20 minutes, stirring often. Cool to room temperature and strain and discard the liquid. Set rice aside. Remove seeds from vanilla beans and reserve. Combine the remaining 2 cups milk and the vanilla pods over moderate heat. Scald the milk, remove from heat, cover and let steep for 15 minutes and remove pods. Using an electric mixer whisk the vanilla seeds, egg yolks, and remaining 3/4 cup sugar until thick, fluffy, and a pale lemon color, 2-3 minutes. Mixture should form a ribbon when whisk is lifted. Return simmered milk to high heat and bring just to boil. Remove from heat and pour 1/3 of the boiling milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return milk and yolk mixture to remaining milk in saucepan, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens to a creamy consistency (registering 185 degrees on a candy thermometer), about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately stir in cream to stop the cooking. Pass through a fine-mesh sieve and let cool completely. When thoroughly cooled, stir in the cooled rice, transfer to an ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Makes 1 quart.

Blackberry Sorbet

This recipe is simplicity itself, yet it produces a beautiful and intensely flavored dessert which, incredibly, is fat free. My inspiration for the sorbet was an article on fruit slushes published several years ago in one of those so-called women's magazines you get at the supermarket. I've also successfully substituted strawberries, raspberries, and kiwi fruit for the blackberries. In fact, the recipe is so easy, it's no trouble at all to make three flavors which can then be served as a trio, perhaps scooped out onto a plate of complementary sauce, for a finale elegant enough for even the most sophisticated meal.

Ingredients:

1 pound (2 1/4 cups) frozen blackberries

1 cup fat free half and half (or evaporated skim milk)

3-4 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Place berries in bowl of food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add sugar and half and half. Process until mixture is smooth and the consistency of soft-serve ice cream. Freeze until firm. Makes about 1 pint.

Peanut Rocky Road

This has been a favorite ice cream dessert at our house ever since we clipped the recipe from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch many years ago. If you like "drumsticks," those frozen ice cream novelty cones, you'll love this.

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped cocktail peanuts

1 cup chopped chocolate chips

2 cups miniature marshmallows

3 pints vanilla ice cream, cut up

1 to 1 1/2 cups peanut butter

Directions:

Toss together peanuts, chocolate chips, and marshmallows and set aside. In a bowl, stir ice cream until smooth. Swirl peanut butter into ice cream. Spoon half of ice cream mixture into a chilled 8-inch square pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle half of peanut-chocolate-marshmallow mixture over ice cream and cover with layer of remaining ice cream mixture. Sprinkle with remaining peanut-chocolate-marshmallow mixture, pressing lightly into top. Freeze until set and cut into squares.

Got a recipe you'd like to share with our readers? Are you looking for a recipe for something in particular? Send your recipes and requests to A Harte Appetite, c/o The Southeast Missourian, P.O. Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63702-0699 or by e-mail to tharte@semovm.semo.edu.

~Tom Harte is a professor at Southeast Missouri State University and writes a food column every other week for the Southeast Missourian.