Frozen Dessert

You’re probably familiar with the little tune that announces the ice cream truck is coming down the street. In Mexico, there’s a specific whistle (admittedly, not at all pleasant) that lets you know a cart with warm sweet potatoes and plantains is on its way. The purveyors wander through the streets pushing carts that steam the sweet potatoes and plantains in their skins. The whistle is the cry of the steam coming out. For this recipe, you can use either bananas or plantains. Either way, roasting heightens their sweetness and gives them a more complex flavor. If you use plantains, be sure to buy ripe ones: they look black on the outside and feel mushy.

If you love rice pudding, you’ll adore these paletas. They have a particularly creamy texture because half of the rice pudding is blended after it’s cooked. Mmmm, I’m salivating just thinking about it! I give you the option of using cinnamon or lime zest with the vanilla because both are common combinations. I couldn’t decide between the two, so I leave it up to you.

Avocado ice cream is fairly common in Mexico, so I decided to make avocado one of the flavors of paletas when I launched my company La Newyorkina (“the girl from New York”) at the Hester Street Fair in New York City’s Lower East Side. I was unsure of how people would receive them, but avocado paletas rapidly became a customer and personal favorite! An avocado ice pop may sound unusual, but it’s very tasty and has a luscious creamy texture without any dairy. The lime juice not only helps keep the paleta green, it also enhances the flavor of the avocados.

Adapted from Bonnie Brae, Denver, CO If you love chocolate malted milk balls, this is the recipe for you. The malt flavor of the candies is echoed by the malted milk powder in the ice cream.

Tin roof sundaes are traditionally made of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce and a scattering of red-skinned Spanish peanuts. I couldn't resist using chocolate-covered peanuts instead and folding them into the ice cream, where they become embedded between layers of fudge ripple.

Adapted from The Daily Scoop, Barrington, RI You'll be hard pressed to find two foods creamier than ripe, sweet bananas and peanut butter; when they're combined in this ice cream it's sensational.

Everyone needs a terrific vanilla ice cream recipe in their repertoire, and here it is. Keeping a tub of homemade vanilla ice cream in my freezer is standard policy, since I can't think of any dessert that isn't made better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting alongside.

Making ice cream cones at home is very easy. It’s quite fun if you have an electric waffle-cone maker, although you can bake them in the oven with great success as well. The batter is simplicity itself: just a few ingredients mixed together, baked, and rolled up into cones…which is the fun part! You will need a conical cone-rolling form made of wood or plastic, or you can simply shape them around overturned teacups to make a cone-bowl hybrid. A few tips for baking cones by hand: The batter recipe can easily be doubled, allowing for a few practice cones, which may come in handy your first time making them. When baking them in the oven, I prefer to use parchment paper to line the baking sheet, rather than a silicone baking mat. Also, I let the baking sheet cool between batches or have another baking sheet handy, as the batter is much easier to handle when the baking sheets are at room temperature. To roll the cones, you may wish to wear clean rubber gloves or use a tea towel, since the just-baked cookies may be too warm for you to handle with bare hands. If using an electric ice cream cone maker, most models require 3 tablespoons of batter for each cone, so you may get 4 cones from this recipe. Follow the instructions that come with your unit.

This is a childhood favorite reinvented for grown-up tastes. You've got the texture of a Fudgsicle but with the flavor of rich dark chocolate, salty peanuts, and sweet caramel, all combined in a dessert pretty enough to make people think it came out of a professional kitchen. It's important that the Fudgsicle bars soften at room temperature for 5 minutes before serving, otherwise they'll be too hard to cut into. The flavor comes forward when the dessert warms a little. Don't forgo the ice-water bath. You need to cool the custard quickly to keep it from overcooking.

Plan to start making this truffle-rich ice cream five days before you serve it and you'll be rewarded for the waiting. It took the chefs at St. John years to arrive at this recipe. We're glad they did.

Easy-to-make almond milk is the rich, flavorful foundation for this icy treat.

Got eggs, sugar, and cream? Then you can make a striking Italian semifreddo. It's the lushest and creamiest of frozen desserts—no ice cream maker required.

Like the striped pops from the ice cream truck—without the artificial flavors and colors.

The Italian aperitif Campari brings balance to these sweet orange pops.

These Mexican-style pops are loaded with pieces of fresh fruit.

Garnish this dessert with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, which are a snap to make using a vegetable peeler. If the chocolate is especially hard, as bittersweet chocolate tends to be, microwave it in 15-second intervals until it's soft enough to be shaved. The softer the chocolate, the larger the curls.

It's hard to believe that a three ingredient dessert can deliver such a big flavor payoff. Try garnishing with a wedge of watermelon.