Thursday 24 April 2014

It's hard to have a Gaytime on your own: BSFIC

IceCreamChallenge_thumb


One of the things about living in a foreign country is gaining perspective on your own culture and upbringing. Cricket commentators casually referring to "Pakis" is rightly considered unacceptable in the UK. Not everyone stores jam in the fridge. And it had never really crossed my mind that having an ice cream called a Gaytime was pretty funny.

Now I just admire the fact that Streets haven't renamed them.

Anyway, after a cold weather hiatus Kavey has resurrected her Bloggers scream for ice cream challenge, and this one is a nostalgic look back at ice cream van treats.

I don't have any particularly strong childhood memories of ice cream vans. I think we were probably a bit too rural for them to be worthwhile, so our source of that sort of ice cream was Robyn's dad's milk bar. My all-time favourite was the Choc-Toff Paddlepop, which I seem to remember cost 20c. However, since I am still bitter that they were discontinued I decided to go for my second favourite, the Golden Gaytime.
The actual mechanics of making a vanilla ice cream core with toffee ice cream surrounding it, coating it in chocolate and biscuit crumbs to make an exact replica were a bit beyond me, so I just concentrated on getting a flavour that a Gaytime lover (no more giggles from the back row, please) would find familiar.

I took 250ml of premium vanilla custard and folded a can of caramel through it. Then I folded in a handful of crushed chocolate-dipped honeycomb biscuits, put it in a plastic tub and froze it. I took it out and gave it a stir after about an hour, but because of the caramel it doesn't freeze really hard.

I think if I make it again I might also make some plain vanilla ice cream and ripple the two together. The caramel flavour and the chocolate and biscuit crunch was absolutely spot on for my memory, but it's so intensely sweet that it really does need that bit of vanilla to mellow it. This makes about 750ml, so you can have a Gaytime on your own if you spread it out over a few days or a single emotional crisis.


7 comments:

Food Urchin said...

We should import Gaytime ice cream, we really should

Kavey said...

You are genuinely all kinds of GENIUS! This is hilarious and just what I meant when I said to use the ice cream van theme as inspiration rather than restriction. LOVE the video, still giggling!

Bettina Douglas said...

I remember the slogan more than either the ad or the ice cream - but I think I had moved on to Weis Bars by this time.

Joanne said...

Here in NYC we have the Big Gay Ice Cream truck! But I think they really intended the word to go both ways, which is probably not true for your Gaytime ice cream lol. :P Sounds delicious though!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Danny - one of the hip young pop-ups should put it on the menu.

Kavey - thanks!

Mother - the mango weis bar was a beautiful thing.

Joanne - I've heard of the Big Gay Ice Cream truck! Their stuff looks amazing.

grace said...

we didn't have ice cream vans or trucks in my hometown, and what a shame. i like your flavor though--i doubt it'd be too sweet for me! :)

Alyce said...

Alicia,
I see Joanne mentioned Big Gay Ice Cream Truck here in NYC and I just had to weigh in how I love it. They've done so well with the truck, they opened 3 stores -- with lines down the block. It's quite special and so worth the price - excellent quality soft ice cream. One of the stores is in a neighborhood I frequent, but I can't walk down that street too often, it's irresistible.
xo
Alyce

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