I Scream, You Scream
We all scream for ice cream! Who doesn’t love this yummy, creamy, cool and delicious summer treat? While we used to feel sorry for all you Kidzworld members out there who are lactose intolerant or allergic to dairy products (which ice cream most definitely is), you’ve actually got some options now. Come with us on an ice cream adventure and find out what all these different kinds of frozen desserts are…
Good old regular ice cream
It’s cold, it’s creamy, it’s absolutely delicious – it’s good old regular ice cream, a staple for any summer-lovin’ kid. Whether you eat it with a spoon out of a bowl or lick it right off the cone, ice cream is that reliable frozen dessert made from dairy products like cream, combined with flavours (double chocolate mocha cherry fudge chunk!) and sweeteners (like sugar). The mixture is cooled while stirring to prevent large ice crystals from forming and destroying this delectable dessert.
Soft serve
It’s sometimes available from the ice cream truck or fast-food restaurant. Soft serve is a frozen dessert that’s dispensed from a special machine instead of scoped up by hand. It’s also called soft ice cream, and it was invented by a chemical research team in jolly old England that discovered a way to double the amount of air in ice cream. This allowed manufacturers to use less of the actual ingredients in ice cream and save some money on production. It’s still delicious though!
Freeze dried
This is a dehydrated brick of ice cream that’s always ready to eat, with no need to freeze. Freeze drying removes water from the ice cream by lowering the air pressure to a point where ice shifts from a solid to a gas. The ice cream is placed in a vacuum chamber and frozen until the water crystallizes. The air pressure is lowered, creating a partial vacuum, forcing air out of the chamber; then heat is applied, vaporizing the ice. Finally, a freezing coil traps the vaporized water. This process continues for hours, resulting in a perfect freeze-dried ice cream slice.
Fried
Sounds crazy? It’s not. Fried ice cream is made by taking a scoop of deep-frozen ice cream (frozen well below the standard temperature at which ice cream is generally kept), possibly rolling it in egg, then rolling in cornflakes or cookie crumbs, and then briefly deep frying – the extremely low temperature of the ice cream prevents it from melting while being fried.
Sorbet
It’s a frozen dessert, too, but has a mushier consistency than ice cream due to the fact that it’s not made with any dairy products whatsoever. Sorbet comes in every flavor imaginable, just like ice cream does, although it’s traditionally made in fruit flavors. An Italian specialty, you may hear it called “sherbert” – but that’s just another way to pronounce the same word.
Gelato
Also Italian in origin, gelato is made with similar ingredients to most ice cream around the world: milk, cream, sugar, flavorings and, of course, plenty of air (it’s true!). Italians love their gelato, and make it with fruits, chocolate, nuts, candies, cookies and biscuits.
Frozen yogurt
It wasn’t invented until the 1970s, and didn’t really catch on in popularity until the 1980s. Basically, frozen yogurt is marketed as a healthy alternative to ice cream, since it’s made with low-fat or non-fat yogurt instead of the heavier milk and cream ice cream consists of. You’ll find frozen yogurt options in every ice cream shop – be sure to scoop some!
Ice milk
Like frozen yogurt, this product was made to offer people who are more health conscious or concerned about their weight a lower-fat alternative to regular ice cream. It’s got less than 10% milk fat in it, but uses the same sweeteners ice cream does, which means it may be lower in fat but not calories.
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