Basset Tracks Ice Cream and Anise Hyssop VFD
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I made Huge Hound's first dog-inspired feature flavor yesterday. Basset Tracks is an homage to (aka a blatant rip-off of 😆) Moose Tracks, a national brand of ice cream produced by Denali Flavors Inc. Actually, as you can tell from the link above, there are now more than 20 varieties of Moose Tracks besides the Original one, which consists of vanilla ice cream with a fudge swirl and peanut butter cups.
In an effort to be allergen-free (in every way besides dairy-free), Basset Tracks replaces the peanut butter cups with both the Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate varieties of Free2B Foods' Sun Cups, which are made from sunflower seed butter rather than peanut butter. And in addition to a fudge swirl—the same one I use in my Vanilla Fudge Ice Cream—I've incorporated a sunflower butter swirl, made from the No Sugar Added version of SunButter (because that's what I regularly buy to eat at home, because I get enough sugar in my diet from all of the sweet treats I consume without also consuming sugar in my sunflower butter), refined coconut oil, and agave.
I'm happy to see on the companies' websites that dairy-free Sun Cups will soon be available and guaranteed–soy-free SunButter is now available, though it wasn't at my health food store when I bought the SB I used in my swirl. So if you're unable to digest even a trace amount of soy without upset, you might not want to follow in these Basset Tracks.
The idea for Basset Tracks came from one of my identical-twin nephews, either Matt or Mike, almost exactly seven years ago. But I can't remember which one suggested it. (See this post at my personal blog.) I texted the guys last night; they're freshmen at different colleges in Pennsylvania. Neither took credit for the flavor. Matt thought his father might have suggested Basset Tracks, since he's a big fan of Moose Tracks. David is a peanut-butter-and-chocolate fanatic, but I'm pretty certain one of my "'phews" came up with the idea. David had suggested using Rudy, who was the inspiration for the Huge Hound brand and who was loved by M&M and their parents, as a marketing tool. And I'm going to do that with our current basset, Grady. (See below.)
At any rate, I love that Basset Tracks is now an actual thing that people can actually buy. I've made it a few times over the years (see here, here, and here) for the enjoyment of friends and/or family, including initially with peanut buttery ingredients.
Because I ran out of my swirls before I ran out of the ice cream base, I will also have a few pints of Vanilla Ice Cream at the market on Sunday.
I had planned to make Ginger for this week's vegan frozen dessert flavor. Caroline, one of my favorite regular customers, had raved on Sunday about the ginger ice cream a former local ice cream shop, Half Pint Kitchen, had made that had incorporated locally grown, fresh young ginger. As I've mentioned on the blog before, Tony and I are members of Sandbrook Meadow Farm's CSA, and I was hoping their ginger would be ready to harvest this week. It wasn't, so I had to come up with a Plan B.
I've got a big pot of anise hyssop on the deck that's been going gangbusters all summer. I'd considered making an Anise Hyssop Ice Cream or VFD before this week but dismissed it as unlikely to have broad enough appeal. Then I remembered the first time I made Lemon Verbena Ice Cream at home. I'd assumed it would be a novelty that I'd eat only a couple spoonfuls of every so often, but I couldn't get enough of it. And LV has also been one of my best sellers at the market. Who's to say anise hyssop couldn't end up being the same kind of sensation?
I made a relatively modest sized batch of AH VFD yesterday. I liked it, and so did Official Taste Tester Sheila. I'm curious to see what my customers think of it.
As I mentioned in my previous post and alluded to above, Grady, our current, mighty big, though not quite huge, hound, will be making an appearance at the market this week for at least part of the day. Grady, are you psyched to be helping your Daddy generate excitement for his new ice cream flavor? *Grady continues to snooze on the couch.* We'll see you on Sunday.