Kieran

It’s an Endurance Test!

Piano bicycle We have just about survived the carnival atmosphere that is Dingle over the bank holiday weekend, serving thousands of customers. It’s still going to be very busy for the next few weeks, and then it will all be over.

It’s impossible to prepare for the height of the summer, and anyone in the ice cream business will, I’m sure, be able to relate to the mayham. Even so, running ice cream shops in August becomes a kind of endurance test that might only be compared the pre-Christmas rush in other retail businesses.

Line out door

Most of the time it’s smooth, even with the craziness, but inevitably things go wrong. The compressor on the scooping cabinet in Killarney broke, a staff member went home sick, another sprained their ankle.

That’s when you are truly tested, and yet, somehow it all seems to work out in the end. The days are long and intense, but there is also a great rush from the sheer volume of it.

When you have a queue out the door much of the time and had two record-breaking days over the weekend, it’s hard to be anything but happy, no matter how tired you are.

You close up late up night, think about all the hard work you’ve done preparing for this, think about the care that has gone into the product and the hard work of the team around you, and then you take a deep breath and open the doors again in the morning…

And there, waiting, is the another queue of customers, expectant, waiting for you to bring on the ice cream and make them happy…

Bank Holiday Madness

Cat in Boat Although my parents cat, Folly, has time to laze around on the boat, we’ve been completely manic here in the world of ice cream. The August Bank Holiday is this weekend, and the shops are packed with people. Please forgive my lack of blogging, but I’m in the thick of things trying to keep it all going!

Irish Cream Liqueur Ice Cream

Irish Cream Liqueur Ice Cream A great Irish ice cream flavour is Irish Cream Liqueur (we use Baileys), and we call it “Bó Bhán” (white cow) in Irish. It’s an easy ice cream flavour to make, and the alcohol in the recipe improves the consistency. This ice cream partners chocolate cake or fruit tarts perfectly. It is also excellent served in hot coffee at the end of a meal.

Murphys Irish Cream Liqueur Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup Sugar 

5 Egg Yolks 

1 3/8 Cups Cream

1 1/8 Cups Milk 

2 Tablespoons Irish Cream Liqueur (we suggest Baileys, and you can add a bit more if you want, but if you add too much, the ice cream will be very soft and melt quickly...)

What to do:

  1. Shot of BaileysBeat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow. 
  2. Bring the milk to a simmer. Remove from the heat.
  3. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
  4. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat. 
  5. Stir until the custard thickens (around 60C).
  6. Allow the custard to cool.
  7. Mix in the cream and the liqueur, beating for one minute.
  8. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.

6 Servings

Notes: 1. Make sure you add the liqueur when the mixture is cool, or the alcohol will evaporate.

2. To pasteurise the eggs, heat the custard to 73C and keep at that temperature for three minutes. Use a cooking thermometer, though, and keep stirring! If the custard goes any higher than 76C, the eggs will scramble. Immediately cover and place in the freezer until cool.

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Discovery Channel in Dingle

Discovery channel filming me The Discovery channel is filming in Dingle as part of a series of great walks (the Mount Brandon walk is one of them). Discovery filming

They came into us this morning and interviewed me and filmed myself and my brother inside our shop. (That’s your’s truly above with the smile frozen on the face.)

It’s great that they are giving focus to hill-walking as the landscape here is so beautiful, and there is never any harm in a bit of publicity for ourselves. We were delighted to help out when they asked us. It will be interesting to see if the ice cream segment makes it into the final piece, and whether I committed any verbal gaffes. I did find it fun, though…

The only shame was that it was a bit disruptive to our regular customers (who made themselves scarce at the first sign of the camera), and I appreciate their patience!

One would certainly think that such a program will do tourism in Dingle no harm, though this time of year one wonders if it needs it…

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Dingle Corn Maze

Kids in corn maze After the tours around town and the peninsula, the ice cream and the dolphin, a lovely couple of hours can be spent in Dingle in a rather unique way, especially if you like mazes or have some kids in need of entertainment. The Dingle Corn Maze, right in town, is definitely worth a trip.

Dingle Corn MazePlanted across five acres by the farmer who supplies us with Kerry Cow Milk, the maze has a dinosaur theme this year and was laid out with computers and lasars. Spare a thought for Colm, the farmer, who did all of the plucking of corn for the paths by hand!

There are also picnic tables, a rope maze for kids to clamber around, finger mazes, and other bits of entertainment.

At the end of the season, the corn will go to feed the cows, but for now, with the weather changing for the worse and the beaches less of an option, the maze is a very attractive option for humans…

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Ice Cream and Alcohol

Vanilla and Kahlua For me alcohol and ice cream are natural companions. If it wasn’t for the licensing laws in the country, I would love to be able to serve alcohol over ice cream (not to mention with coffees) for the customers in our shops. Alas, that is not to be!

However, it is not illegal to do it at home, and it makes a very adult and heady dessert. You can either pour in some booze first and then add the ice cream or simply serve a shot over the ice cream as you would a sauce.

Kahlua Vanilla 2The Top Ten Combinations that come to my head are:

1. Chocolate ice cream with Cointreau

2. Coffee ice cream with Baileys

3. Vanilla ice cream with Kahlua

4. Mango sorbet with tequila (I favour Sauza) and a bit of lime

5. Raspberry sorbet with Vodka (A good brand like Grey Goose)

6. Cognac with almost anything

7. Blackcurrant sorbet with Guinness

8. Chocolate with whiskey (Irish whiskey is great since it’s not over-powering).

9. Pear, peach, strawberry, or black currant sorbet with champagne.

10. Port with just about anything.

I’m sure you can think of many more!

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Chocolate in and Chocolate out

Lindt Aines Chocoalte  I was lucky enough to grow up with a grandmother living on the border of Italy and Switzerland, and every time she visited, she brought a huge sack of chocolate. I guess it’s her fault that I turned into such a chocoholic!

Her chocolate bars of choice were Frey and Lindt, and at the time they were exotic luxuries. When we first opened the shop here, Lindt was still a rarity in these parts, and when we wanted to buy some, Lindt Switzerland directed us to their English subsidiary, who treated us in a beastly fashion, and we could only infer that they had no interest in our custom. Last year, however, Lindt put a salesman in Ireland. He was very friendly and pro-active, and we brought in their chocolate.

It has sold well for us, and it certainly had nostalgia value having grown up with it. But the salesman has proven to be too good, and now Lindt is in every shop around, so we’re considering dropping it.

There is more and more variety in Irish chocolate, and Aine’s now have a range of bars, including a diabetic bar. It’s always good to support Irish producers, and we’ve brought in some to see how they sell (we’ve carried her boxes of truffles for some time).

In any case, we won’t be lacking for variety when it comes to chocolate bars, for we have a huge range of Valrhona, and my brother and I are completely hooked on the stuff!

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The Minis Have Arrived

Vanilla Mini We’re very excited here as our new mini containers (125ml) finally arrived, and we’ve filled the first few. It’s amazing how long it takes to get packaging!

Mini SpoonWe will do them in a few flavours and these little tubs will be in shops soon. The best thing is that there is a spoon in the lid.

The worst thing is that the packaging is expensive, and I think they will around €3 retail, depending on how much markup retaillers take, which is definitely more than we would have hoped. The little disk is the most expensive part!

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