Recently I got to take a trip to beautiful Michigan with a team of wonderful bloggers, to visit a cherry orchard and learn firsthand how Private Selections sources ingredients to make some of the best ice cream on the market.
I loved every one of the bloggers on this trip and hope you will take time to visit them when you can.
The most fun of the trip for me, though, was getting to work with everyone in the culinary kitchen at the Great Lakes Culinary Institute as each of us developed an ice cream flavor to represent our state!
Every year since I was a little girl, my family has made an annual fall pilgrimage to a local apple orchard. There, we walk among the apple trees, drink apple cider slushies, and pose for photos before picking out several varieties of apples to bring home for baking. A week of apple treats ensues as we turn out pies, cakes, cookie bars, and crisps. Of course, Fried Apples with streusel topping are always a favorite. When thinking of flavors of home, my heart always lingers in the apple orchards of Alabama.
So for my ice cream, I used fresh apples, coated them in spices, and then sautéed them in butter. I then blended more apple spices into a rich vanilla ice cream before stirring the apples in their butter sauce in as well. To top it off, I mixed up a brown sugar, oatmeal streusel topping and stirred some of that into the ice cream before adding in layers between the ice cream as I packed it into the container.
You can check out my ice cream flavor as well as all of the other flavors created by everyone on this fun trip by visiting the Private Selections Facebook page! The fun part is, one of the ice cream flavors developed on this trip will make it to store shelves and YOU get to help pick which one! While you’re there, be sure and vote for your favorite and receive a coupon for .75 off a private selections ice cream of your choice!
You can vote once per day through September 17th.
Click here to go directly to the voting page for the State Of Great Taste Ice Cream Contest