Run, Don't Walk! Parfait Ice Cream & Life Changing Ice Cream Sandwiches

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I recently had Parfait Organic Artisan Ice Cream for the first time and it blew me away. I had the Mint Stracciatella and I could not get over the flavor of real mint. It was not that artificial mint flavor that comes from a thick syrup. It was fresh and light and deeeeeeeelicious. You could completely tell the difference.
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I had a conversation with Adria, the passionate owner of Parfait, who told me all about her artisan ice cream and how they make everything from scratch using the highest quality, organic ingredients, sourced locally whenever possible. They make their own toffee for the Butter Toffee Crunch, their own chocolate peanut butter cups for that flavored ice cream, their own cones and more. Adria said that people always say it's the best ice cream they've ever had. I had half a dozen dinner guests tell me the same thing.

So the first lesson of the day is, run(!) - don't walk - to get yourself some Parfait ice cream. Click here to drool over the menu, then click here for their roving locations or click here to have it delivered to your home. That's right, with a minimum order of 2 pints, you can have it delivered to your home! You can even rent the whole truck to come to your house for a big party. That's what we did and it was a hit.

Now once you get your hands on the ice cream, if you don't gobble it up too fast, try making some of these homemade macaroon ice cream sandwiches.

The guy who cuts my hair just got back from France and said that macaroons filled with ice cream are all the rage right now in Paris. You know you can't tell me these things and not have me race out to re-create it. So tonight I got some macaroons, cut 'em open, and filled those bad boys with Parfait's amazing ice cream. You could get so creative with all the different flavor combos. Here's the combos I did with the ice cream flavors I had on hand....

- strawberry macaroon with strawberry ice cream

- strawberry macaroon with honey ice cream

- chocolate macaroon with mint stracciatella

These little macaroon ice cream sandwiches were so cute, but more importantly they were melt in your mouth delicious. I cannot wait to make them for a dinner party. I'm sure you could make them ahead of time and wrap them in cute bags or white parchment paper, tied with colored ribbon or a cute sticker to label the different flavors.

I got macaroons from Metropolitan Market that were a touch smaller than normal. They're bringing them in from a "famous pastry chef in Vegas". I was quite impressed with them, although I'm the first to admit I'm no macaroon aficionado. I know that Honore in Ballard and Bakery Nouveau in West Seattle are said to have great macaroons too.

Next on my list to try...

- chocolate macaroon with hazelnut ice cream
- pistachio macaroon with vanilla bean ice cream
- raspberry macaroon with chocolate ice cream

Are you kidding me? How good do those sound?!



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