Summer is exciting for so many reasons, but mostly because it’s the start of the ice cream season. And even though you can eat ice cream all year round, this frozen dessert is particularly tasty on hot summer days.
Being a favorite frozen snack, ice cream comes in all imaginable flavors and styles. But did you know that there are many different ways to prepare and serve ice cream?
In this article, we will give you the inside scoop about the most popular types of ice cream consumed all over the world. Let’s take a look at what makes these frozen desserts so unique!
What Is an Ice Cream?
Ice cream is a frozen dairy food that is generally eaten as a snack or dessert. The ice cream mixture is typically made from milk or cream, sugar, and other flavorful ingredients.
All of these ingredients are churned together to incorporate air that increases the volume and then cooled below the freezing point. Due to different stirring techniques, there is a large number of ice cream variations such as frozen yogurt, gelato, frozen custard, and even vegan varieties.
15 Popular Types of Ice Cream
From traditional ice cream to ice cream sandwiches and sherbet, ice cream comes in many different forms and textures. Take a look at some of the most popular and universally loved types of ice cream.
Gelato
Gelato is a highly popular Italian ice cream that’s made with whole milk, rather than cream. As a result, gelato has a lower milk fat percentage than American ice cream.
Gelato is also made without eggs and stabilizers and churned at a lower speed which creates a thick and dense texture. The most popular gelato flavors are pistachio, vanilla, strawberry, and stracciatella.
Sherbet
Sherbet is a fruit-based frozen dessert that contains dairy and no more than three percent milk fat. This frozen treat is made with milk or cream, fruit juice, egg whites, and sometimes gelatin.
Sherbet is smooth but less creamy than traditional ice cream and comes in many different flavors including orange, lime, rainbow, and lemon.
Falooda
Falooda is an Indian version of a cold dessert that has its origin in Persian cuisine. This delicious and refreshing treat is traditionally made by mixing rose syrup, vermicelli, and sweet basil seeds with milk and served with ice cream.
Rolled Ice Cream
Also known as stir-fried ice cream, rolled ice cream is a sweetened frozen dessert that originated in Thailand. It is made using milk, sugar, cream, and other ingredients that are stirred to take in air and at the same time cooled.
This process creates spiraling rolls of smooth ice cream that is served in a vertical position and topped off with strawberries, Oreos, or other add-ins.
Baobing
Baobing is a shaved ice dessert that originated in China and is especially popular in Taiwan. This frozen treat consists of a large pile of ice shavings topped with various dressings.
Sugar water, mung beans, and condensed milk are commonly used as toppings for baobing. However, seasonal fruit such as mango and strawberries are also popular choices.
Kulfi
Often described as traditional Indian ice cream, kulfi is a dense, milk-based dessert that is frozen in a cone-shaped mold. Traditionally, kulfi is made by slowly heating milk with spices, sugar, and nuts while constantly stirring.
Other, fast way to make kulfi is to use condensed milk for a thick and dense base. Kulfi comes in a variety of different flavors such as mango, pistachio, rose water, and saffron.
Ice popsicle
Also known as ice pop, popsicle, and freezer pop, ice popsicle is water or milk-based frozen treat on a stick. Unlike ice cream, which is whipped while freezing, an ice popsicle is frozen while at rest to create a solid block of ice.
Ice pops come in many different fruity flavors such as pineapple, lemon, orange, strawberry, and apple.
Dondurma
Creamy and dense, dondurma is a Turkish mastic ice cream. It’s usually made from cream, sugar, whipped cream, mastic, and salep, a wild orchid root native to Turkey.
All of these ingredients are churned regularly to create a flexible and sweet frozen dessert that can be stretched like taffy. Dondurma comes in a variety of fruity and nutty flavors.
Jipangi
J-cone or jipangi is basically ice cream in cane-shaped puffed corn. Created in Insta-Dong in Korea, jipangi is a newer frozen dessert and doesn’t have a long history as other types of ice creams on this list.
Each J-cone is filled just enough so that a small amount of ice cream is sticking out from either end of the cone.
Soft Serve
Soft serve, also known as soft ice, is made with milk and sugar, and it typically doesn’t contain eggs. It is rapidly churned with air and has more air than other types of ice creams which gives it a swirly and light texture.
In the US, soft serve isn’t sold prepackaged in supermarkets and grocery stores, but it can be found at carnivals and specialty stores. Vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate are the most popular flavors, and unlike other ice creams, soft serve doesn’t contain Oreos, nuts, or chocolate chips.
Sorbet
Sorbet is a frozen dessert made from sweetened water, frozen fruit, juice, wine, or honey. While they are often confused, sorbet doesn’t contain dairy products while sherbet contains milk.
Sorbet has a frozen and melty texture that’s easily scooped in a cone and makes a refreshing treat for vegans and lactose-intolerant people.
Frozen Yogurt
Frozen yogurt is a popular frozen dessert made with yogurt and sometimes other dairy or non-dairy products. While it has a similar consistency as soft serve, frozen yogurt has a different flavor since it’s made without milk and cream.
This frozen dessert comes in many different flavors including vanilla, chocolate, triple berry, coffee, mango, and many more.
Mochi
Mochi ice cream is a small round dessert that’s made from pounded rice filled with ice cream. The pounded rice dumpling gives this dessert sweetness and texture, while the ice cream filling adds flavor to the mix.
Mochi ice cream comes in a variety of different flavors including mint chocolate chip, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and green tea.
Philadelphia ice cream
Also known as an American ice cream, Philadelphia ice cream is made without eggs. This makes it lighter than frozen custard and other egg-based ice creams.
Philadelphia ice cream is churned with more air than its denser counterparts and has a fluffier texture. It comes in many different flavors, the most popular being vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.
Other Ice Cream
Besides traditional dairy ice creams, you can now find a wide variety of vegan ice creams at every grocery store. Bear in mind that while vegan ice creams contain healthier ingredients they are still highly processed and might contain additives.
Non-Dairy Ice Cream
As its name suggests, no-dairy ice cream is made without cow’s milk. Instead, the most popular vegan ice creams are usually made from almond, soy, coconut, cashew, rice, or oat milk.
All major ice cream brands produce non-dairy ice creams in many different flavors. So even if you’re lactose intolerant you can still indulge in eating vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream whenever you’re in the mood for a frozen treat.
What Is an Ice Cream On a Stick Called?
Ice cream on a stick is also known as an ice cream bar or a candy bar that has ice cream in it. Ice cream bars usually have a thin layer of chocolate that prevents the melting of ice cream.
The ice cream bar and the popsicle aren’t the same, since popsicles are frozen while at rest and don’t contain any ice cream.
What Is The 3 Flavor Ice Cream Called?
Neapolitan ice cream is a type of ice cream that is made from three separate flavors that are molded together in the same container. Typically, the Neapolitan ice cream is made from vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice creams, but can come in many other ice cream flavors.
Conclusion
Sweet, refreshing, and delicious, ice cream is a perfect cooling treat for hot summer days. However, nothing can stop you from having a scoop of ice cream during winter or any other day of the year.
As a universally loved treat, ice cream is prepared differently and its form, texture, and the way it’s served varies greatly from one country to the next.
From fruity sorbets to frozen yogurt, to popsicles and soft serve, there are so many different types of ice cream just waiting to be tried.
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Thanks for the info.
At lunch today at a Mexican Food restaurant the desert had an ice cream that started with a Th. What is this ice cream.?