Gluten Free Key Lime Treats in the Florida Keys

Posted in Gluten Free in Florida, Gluten Free Living, Travel & Adventures by PhoenixRize

When Brian and I visited the Florida Keys recently I made an extensive search of all the Gluten Free Key Lime treats. It was a challenge, but I love my readers…. Diet be damned! I ate every gf Key Lime treat I could find…. ’cause I love you guys! 😁

Coconut Fried Key Lime Ice Cream

Marker 88
88000 Overseas Hwy,
Islamorada, FL 33036
Not my favorite Key Lime Treat in the Keys. The coconut coating was good, but the ice cream was so frozen it was hard to scoop it up with the spoon. It had to be ‘stabbed’ more than scooped.

Key Lime Sorbet

Key Largo Chocolates
100470 Overseas Hwy
Key Largo, FL 33037
Again, not a favorite…. Key Largo Chocolates had good reviews on the Find Me Gluten Free app. Maybe I just got the wrong employee. She seemed disinterested and not very clear about what would be safe for GF people.

I was excited to try the Key Lime Ice Cream, but when pressed, the clerk said that sometimes, when one of the frozen Key Lime bars (which do have crust) break in manufacturing they’ll add it to the Key Lime Ice Cream…. so it’s not necessarily safe. The sorbet is gf…. but… it’s just sorbet…. meh.

They also had truffles and other Key Lime treats at the store, but by the time I’d badgered answers out of the clerk about the ice cream I was annoyed and ready to leave.

Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe
802 Duval St
Key West, FL 33040
Kermit’s had great reviews on the FMGF app and they were so right!

The staff was sweet and helpful. The first day…. (yeah…. I had to go back a second time…) I got a slice of GF Key Lime pie. OMG! It was so good. Rich and creamy… super Key Lime-y…. and NOT geen…. yay! (because it shouldn’t be green… that’s just dye… yuck!) Brian and I each got our own slice… because I don’t share pie!

On our second day in Key West we went on a Sailing / Snorkeling / Kayacking tour. Afterward we ate BBQ and then went back to the hotel to clean up (from the salt water, not the BBQ sauce!) Brian would have been happy to turn in early, but I wanted to find some Key Lime Ice Cream.

You wouldn’t think it would be so damn hard to find ice cream!

Here’s a list of where GF Key Lime Ice Cream ISN’T:

Häagen-Dazs® Ice Cream Shop
Kilwins Key West Chocolates Fudge (crust in the ice cream)
Mattheessen’s (this place really ticked me off. When asked, the clerk said it only had ‘little bits’ of pie crust in it. Yeah… ‘little bits’ are still a problem! Grrrr 😡

After checking all the ice cream places close to the hotel and only finding ice cream with pie crust chunks I was annoyed and determined to find GF Key Lime Ice Cream. Brian and I headed back to Kermit’s where I knew they had GF Key Lime Ice Cream.

Brian wasn’t ecstatic that I made him walk a mile for ice cream, but it was damn good ice cream… and I argued that all the walking burned up all the calories!

Flava Moose

Posted in Gluten Free in Florida, Gluten Free Living, Review by PhoenixRize

I posted something on Instagram a while back… I don’t remember what, but I do post a lot of food pics (food, Jamberry, seashells and my Pomeranian!) and I received a notification that Flava Moose liked my photo.

Flava Moose? Oh, I had to see who was this Flava Moose.

Flava Moose is just the yummiest, most overwhelming and awesome ice cream shop in the universe! (And I’ve made it my mission to check them all out!) Flava Moose may just be my favorite though.

Why? Well, to start with, the combinations are endless!

You begin by choosing a size… a Small is still three scoops…. just sayin’….

Then you choose whether you want Ice Cream, Gelato or Ice.

Next you you have to pick a Milk…. Soy, Cashew, Almond, Coconut, 2% Lactade, Whole or Greek Yogurt. (I’d vote for whole milk, but if you have a dairy issue, they’ve got you covered!)

Nope, not done yet…. What kind of sugar do you want to use? Splenda, Honey, Regular Sugar, Maple Sugar or Stevia?

How about a waffle bowl? Or would you like you ice cream in a crepe? They’re made fresh as you watch.

(I was talking with the Flava Moose man during my last visit and I’d mentioned that I was Gluten Free so I couldn’t have the waffle bowl….the delicious smell was torture! and he said that they’d been considering adding GF waffles and crepes. Eeeeep! Of course I squealed and promised that I’d come in and taste test for them! One in each flavor should do it, right?)

No no, we’re not done… I got side-tracked with the whole GF waffle bowl thing….. NOW…. pick a flavor. Your brain may just possibly explode from the sheer possibilities of deliciousness.

Brian chooses chocolate every time. He says he’s a purist. (whatever) Mom is working her way through the fruit flavors and I’m bouncing around the menu. Blackberry & Raspberry was delicious! So was Lavender & Raspberry….. (I’m on a raspberry kick lately.) I’m thinking I want to try the chai next time… or maybe the rose? There are also veggie flavors to choose from.. carrot, broccoli, aloe, corn…. I’m not sure about those…. they sound too healthy.

Okay, but that’s just the ingredients… now lets talk about how it’s made! Each order is made individually… that’s how you can have so many combinations. They first blend the base flavor and the milk then the concoction is poured over a -40° pan. Using two scraper/spatulas they scrape and smooth and blend the ice cream mixture until it is just the smoothest, creamiest and dreamiest.

Of course you can add toppings and sauces, but I don’t usually choose to add any. I think I heard that there were over 18 different toppings.

It’s not a super fast process, but it is fun to watch. We took our out-of-town-friends to try Flava Moose last week. It was our last stop on the two-day “See Where We Live Now” tour and we were all getting kind of tired from running around. It was nice to stop and let the ice cream be the entertainment for a bit. The Flava Moose crew mixed our ice creams and chatted with us as one at a time we each received our chosen creations. We’d all grab a spoon and sample each other’s and oooh and ahh. Then the next ice cream mix was being drizzled on the -40° pan and the scraping, smearing and squooshing show would begin again. It would probably make a great first date stop. The shop is only two blocks from the beach… after you got your ice cream you could walk to the beach to eat it…. yeah… ice cream and a walk on the beach… totally romantic! (Yes, my idea of romance does include ice cream…. duh.)

Every time you leave the Flava Moose crew hollers “Bye, see you tomorrow!” and I think ‘thank, goodness I don’t live closer or, yeah… I would back tomorrow. Blast you, Moosie!’

311 North 3rd Street
Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250

16Jun2014

Lick the Bowl Vanilla Ice Cream

Posted in Recipes by PhoenixRize

This weekend was Father’s Day at my Sister-In-Law’s house (Brian and I had FD for my side of the family the weekend before). Our job is aways to bring a photo (1) dessert. I’ve been using my Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment a lot lately and I thought ice cream and brownies would be fun. My SIL’s Sister-In-Law (what does that make her to me? SIL x 2?) often brings fruit and this killer fruit dip (I need to ask for the recipe) that everybody loves, so I figured that would be delicious with ice cream too.

I’ve been trying out new ice cream recipes and this is my latest favorite. I found it on Pinterest by searching “Ice Cream – No Eggs.” Until I read this post, I hadn’t realized that ice cream WITH eggs is actually custard, And ice cream WITHOUT is called Philadelphia Style. Brian and I have experimented with making the custard style…. and ended up with scrambled eggs in cream…. so sad. On the bright side, we made Coconut Macroons with the extra egg whites.

The recipe that I followed offered a couple of suggestions for different amounts of cream, half-and-half and milk. It also offered the option of heating the cream/milk and sugar and chilling it and then churning it….. I just went with the easiest sounding options. This is how I made it and it turned out delicious. So delicious in fact that my SIL x2’s little one licked the bowl clean!

Lick the Bowl Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

3 c. Heavy Whipping Cream
1 c. Whole Milk
3/4 c. Sugar
1 Tbs. Vanilla

Directions

Combine the Cream, Milk, Sugar and Vanilla and mix well. Follow the manufacturer’s directions on your ice cream maker.

——–

I was using the Kitchen Aid Ice Cream attachment and I set the timer for 20 minutes. The sound of the machine started to change around 17 minutes and I figured that it was done at 20. The recipe that I followed warned that using whole milk instead of more cream or half-and-half could change the thickness of the finished ice cream and might not make the ice cream maker slow down or “pop” like it would with thicker cream bases.

This recipe made about 8 cups of ice cream when finished.