Please vote for our Banana Bread Macadamia Nut Crunch Ice Cream on Fine Cooking.com!

We owe a lot to Fine Cooking magazine. It was with my purchase of this magazine about 5 years ago that we stepped out of the realm of my wife’s cooking (i.e. jarred pasta sauce, refrigerated mashed potatoes, frozen garlic bread, etc.) and into gourmet home cooked meals. From the first recipe I made, I found the steps in Fine Cooking to be easy to follow, almost always fool proof and resulting in excellent quality meals. I was so pleased that I became a subscriber and quickly bought up the back issues I didn’t yet own. It's also been with the help of Fine Cooking, that my wife has become a much better cook.

So, it came as no surprise when the June/July 2009 issue of Fine Cooking published a terrific article on homemade ice cream, utilizing the assistance of former Chez Panisse pastry chef and author of The Perfect Scoop, David Lebovitz. Their timing was perfect…right on the heels of my wife receiving a Cuisinart ice cream maker for her birthday. In conjunction with the article, Fine Cooking launched a Create Your Own Ice Cream Challenge, asking for entries that used the issue’s master recipe for the ice cream base provided Mr. Lebovitz, along with your own creative twists. Inspired by our recent trip to Hawaii and a newly discovered love of making ice cream, my wife created her contest entry of Banana Bread Mac Nut Crunch Ice Cream.

The recipe consists of a vanilla infused custard base (vanilla beans, whole milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract and salt). To the freshly churned product, she added chunks of dense, sweet homemade banana bread and chopped, toasted macadamia nuts. When allowed to melt just a tad, this ice cream sent us right back to the Big Island. It was perfectly creamy and the flavor from the banana bread permeated throughout each bite, along with the crunch of the chopped macadamia nuts.

Today, Fine Cooking posted its top 10 finalists for their contest, and I’m proud to report that my wife’s entry made the cut. Over the next two weeks, users can log onto their site and vote for their favorite. The winner will receive exactly what they need to perpetuate this obsession…an ice cream maker! We invite you to peruse the site and vote for your favorite; hopefully it will be the Banana Bread Mac Nut Crunch Ice Cream!

To vote for our Banana Bread Mac Nut Crunch Ice Cream, click on this link and scroll to the bottom to cast your vote. Thanks in advance for your support!