Maple Walnut Ice Cream

The Second Bottle

A few weeks ago a friend over coffee on a Saturday afternoon casually handed me a sticky plastic bag with two bottles of maple syrup inside.  She and her husband are moving out of the country and cleaning out their house as a result. I felt a little embarrassed taking the syrup, embarrassed to accept such a magnificent treasure, since I don't ever expect to have a first born, and it would take an offering along those lines I think to repay such a gift. The one bottle graced some bowls of oatmeal and then some French Toast for lunch and dinner and finally a batch of maple walnut ice cream. The recipe is from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. The recipe all told uses more than a cup of syrup, but the result is far from treacly. On the contrary, the cold and the butterfat together cut the sweetness and what remains is earthy and heavenly all at once.  Remained I should say, since I ate nearly the whole quart on my own. Once with some banana. Once after dinner at my neighbors.Twice in unadorned solitude, each time dreaming of caramel sauce and whipped cream and a maraschino cherry and not minding their absence. Next time.

Oh, and the new computer finally arrived this morning. Good news all the way around.