Perfect ice cream for cobblers, crisps...

[Cate]

The new Haagen Daas cinnamon dulce de lece ice cream makes certain fruit desserts ridiculously good. It's especially tasty with peach or apple desserts. Just thought I would share....

Any other favorites out there?

[Querencia]

Let vanilla ice cream get kind of soft then mix in a shot or two of dark Jamaican rum (like Myers) and a generous amount of nutmeg. Then refreeze the ice cream. This is good on apple pie or Betty.

[peekpoke]

Full Circle Vanilla - tastes just like Breyers did 30 years ago.

Just Cream, Milk, Sugar, Vanilla Bean.

No stabilizers, starches or gums.
No alcohol.
No eggs.
No corn syrup.
No extract of arctic creatures.

Relatively light and refreshing with a clean mouth feel, no aftertaste (even when Breyers was really pure, it was starting to have a sour afternote).

Sadly, I cannot find it in Southern California. They sold it at the local Food City in Tennessee when I was visiting a few weeks ago. Fantastic discovery.... I'm sad I cannot have it anymore.

[politicfool]

Double Rainbow french vanilla ice cream. Ridiculously good. Available at Trader Joe's (not sure if they have it at every store, though).

[Ruth Lafler]

Yup. That Double Rainbow from TJ's is my "house" ice cream. Excellent quality, and the flavor is well-balanced enough that it doesn't overpower whatever you've paired it with. TJ's has it on the West Coast, but I don't know if, since it's a west coast product, they also carry it in other regions.

[tnilsson]

Though it is more expensive than most, and as boring as it may sound, I have never found any ice-cream that is better to top crisps, etc. with than Haagen Daas vanilla.

[Oh Robin]

HD tastes too eggy to me.

[peekpoke]

HD vanilla tastes strongly of vanilla extract (including the nasty alcohol taste).

Pity they don't make a HD Cream flavor, just sweet, no vanilla.

[Oh Robin]

What's weird is their coffee & chocolate are in my top five. But for vanilla, it must be Dreyer's. Never understood the appeal of Breyer's either... it's "crumbly" to me.

[John Manzo]

HD Vanilla is the best vanilla ice cream I've ever tasted. It does NOT taste like "vanilla extract."

[peekpoke]

The HD Vanilla sold in Southern California has a strong alcohol/vanilla extract flavor, with a hint of sulfur/egg yolk.

The texture/mouth feel is great.

It's certainly better than the new HD Lite Vanilla made under license by Dreyers. The Lite Vanilla besides being far too sweet (first few ingredients are skim milk, sugar, cream, corn syrup), has a strange mentholated chemical flavor. I assume that's from the "Natural Flavors" used instead of pure ingredients.

As for Double Rainbow, it's fine if you like your ice cream gummy and sticky from stabilizers/gums. I find all their flavors very muted.

Breyer's (at least the old version) was "crumbly" because of the large amount of air, lack of butterfat, and no stabilizers.

[foodseek]

I don't like "eggy" vanilla ice cream either. That is why I usually stay away from French Vanilla flavors-I love the taste of vanilla but some ice creams have an overpowering egg taste.

[Oh Robin]

Dreyer's Double Vanilla or Vanilla Bean with a freshly baked Mrs. Smith's apple pie sounds so un-Chow but it's the best. Especially since those frozen pies are all crust, my favorite part.

[tochipotle]

If you're in Ontario - IMO the best ice cream ever is Kwartha Dairy. All the flavours are awesome - but for cobbler or crisps, plain vanilla is what I crave.
www.kawarthadairy.com

[danhole]

Blue Bell Homemade vanilla can't be beat! It is the very best ever.

[southerngal]

I agree. Blue Bell Homade Vanilla is great. I love Haagen Daaz Vanilla, but prefer it on it's own...without cobbler or anything else.

[jinet12]

Agree...the best one to top fruit pies,cobblers...

[swsidejim]

Any high end French Vanilla Ice cream is what I use.

I actually knocked out (2) blueberry cobblers in the last week at my wifes request. What a simple/fast desert, other than having to fire up the oven for an hour during 95+ degree heat..

[Melissavina]

Costco's Kirkland vanilla ice cream is some of the best I've ever had. Yes, it comes in bathtub-sized quantities, but it really is unbeatable for the price. It's much creamier than most regular grocery store brands.

[peekpoke]

I agree the Costco Kirkland vanilla ice cream is very dense and creamy. But it's also sticky and gummy, it doesn't melt right. I think they decided to load it up with stabilizers so they could extend it's shelf life and not worry about sloppy handling (I've had defrosted and refrozen Haagen Daaz bars from CostCo a couple times, very nasty icy).

I would have recommended Breyer's for it's clean taste, but they've recently cheapified the recipe so that it's no better than other generic store brands like Dreyers.

[chaddick]

Some of the newer slow-churned ice creams are really good and creamy, perfect for topping pie or cobbler.

[Lucia]

I had a mascarpone gelato with a strawberry rhubarb crisp this weekend--great combination

[shaebones]

If you can find Sweet Cream ice cream you can't beat it!!!

[morebubbles]

I find that caramel & sea salt ice cream (from Montreal shop MeuMeu) goes well with fruit crisps or pies!

[chef chicklet]

Wonder if there is a recipe around for that? (the ice cream)

[Emme]

do either of these suit your fancy?

http://www.estarcion.com/gastronome/archives/003705.html

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives...

[morebubbles]

Wow, does that David Lebovitz recipe ever look good!! Emme, thanks for posting that! this looks like it may be close to the one I had here. cc, hope you see this!

[bigjimbray]

Yes for any cobbler or crisp, or pie or just fruit plain old vanilla it great it doesn`t
have to cost much and a good creamy vanilla is hard to beat.

[Densible]

Breyers French Vanilla is my current favorite for Peach Melba and Apple Tatin
I do like cinnamon ice cream too.

[drewb123]

just used haagen daz vanilla bean on cobbler it was superb.

[themis]

Haagen Daz Creme Brulee is also very good with fruit desserts.