From Filipino Halo Halo to the Unusual Blue Moon Brain Freeze Ice Cream & Desserts

From being sold by street vendors on a hot summer day to the more posh ice creams that are sold in air-conditioned ice cream parlours, there are different kinds and classes of ice cream, each a league of their own, and make for the most delicious dessert recipes. Whatever their differences, all of them are worth trying at least once in your life. To pick the best of the lot, especially check for the colour, brightly hued ones tend to use artificial colour and in addition to natural fruit.

1. Halo Halo

Coming from the Philippines, Halo Halo translates to “mix mix” because it's an ice cream dessert that is made with a mixture of fruits (jackfruit, coconut, banana, sweet potato, sugar palm fruit), red beans, crushed ice and either topped with milk or ice cream. It also might include purple yam jam, leche flan and sweet corn as a topping. Halo halo is said to be inspired by the refreshing and rustic Japanese Anmitsu. In fact it was Japanese vendors who sold halo halo in small shops in the 1940s, before the Filipino folks took over.

2. Affogato

You might have come across this coffee-ice cream dessert in the beverage section of many cafes and it combines two Italian classics, a shot of strong espresso with a scoop of vanilla gelato (called fior di latte gelato in Italy). It is mostly enjoyed as a beverage for those who can't stomach a string espresso, but equally good as an ice-cream dessert for those who love their coffee. Affogato means drowned, and the name is apt because the scoop of gelato is drowned in the steaming shot of espresso.

3. Clotted Cream Ice Cream

The Brits love their clotted cream, so much so that they put it in almost every dessert and if it's not in the dessert is beside the dessert, so, this ice cream is hardly a surprise. You will find this ice cream in most supermarkets in the UK, but its home is Cornwall. It’s made with whole milk (from Cornwall cows), eggs, and clotted cream, sometimes vanilla; using the local Cornish milk gives the ice cream a velvety and smooth feel. The Brits go a little bit extra and use a serving of clotted cream with their clotted cream ice cream.

4. Blue Moon

If you like unusual ice creams then this one is worth a try because it's a brilliant hue of detergent blue with a flavour not quite similar to regular ice cream, and it's recipe is patented by the makers in the US. It comes in different flavours from lemon, vanilla, marshmallow, pistachio, bubblegum, cotton candy to blue curacao. It is said to have been invented by a Milwaukee dairy company that stamped a trademark on the ice cream.

5. Gelato alla pesca

One of the many gelato varieties in Italy, Gelato alla pesca is made with ripe peaches that are turned into a puree and mixed with milk, cream, sugar and eggs. Some recipes also call for a mix of peach puree with lemon juice, whipped cream and water. The resulting ice cream is dense and creamy with a subtle peach flavour and because peach is the main flavour and ingredient, it's pale orange in colour.

6. La dame blanche

An ice cream dessert from Belgium that is also popular in the Netherlands, it has a rich vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. It was said to have been invented by Auguste Escoffier, a famous French chef who was behind updating many French cooking methods. He was said to be an opera fanatic which is how this ice cream dessert earned its name, based on the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott's works of the same name that used to run at Operas in the country.

7. Spumoni

A layered ice cream dessert, it's made with Italian gelato, whipped cream, nuts and candied fruits. It's often referred to as a custard-based ice cream when you dig into it but the insides are like a semifreddo. Earlier it was like an ice cream cake, made with the same ingredients and also sponge cake and used to be served in slices but today this term refers to any layered ice cream with multiple flavours. It is also popular in Latin American countries where Italians immigrated to and took the recipe with them.