I am by no means a sports fan, but quite inexplicably I have been following the Olympics several nights a week this year. Bobsledding looks so crazy that it is a must-watch, and right now I am keeping an eye on the women's figure skating final. NBC's coverage is pretty hilarious, too. The athletes' mini-profiles are full of heartwarming sob stories of adversity and redemption, usually filmed against grimy Russian cityscapes. I have also heard that Finns are all of a sudden totally crazy about curling, although I would swear that last year 90% of the population would have drawn a blank on the word. Apparently Finland is playing for gold in the Torino games.
Watching the Olympics keeps snow and ice on my mind, although in Manhattan there is no trace of winter left. And all that skating and sliding about on TV makes me famished. When my cousin Thomas visited New York before Christmas, he brought us authentic Nürnberger Lebkuchen. Lots and lots of them, in fact 😉 I read later that under EU rules only gingerbread baked in the city of Nuremberg itself may be sold as Nürnberger Lebkuchen, so authentic they truly were. This morning I realised that although the holidays are long gone, the last three of those German Christmas cookies were still lingering in the cupboard.
Suddenly it came to me that the leftover Lebkuchen would be perfect for an ice cream sandwich, a gourmet Eskimo Pie of sorts. I took a really sharp knife and halved the Lebkuchen carefully, as they are quite fragile, and scooped some vanilla ice cream between the halves. Gingerbread biscuits or other cookies would have worked as well. I topped the whole thing with fresh strawberries and halved kumquats, and a sprig of mint in the middle - voilà.
Ice cream sandwiches always take me back to secondary school. When I moved up to the new school, one of its main attractions was a vending machine selling Puffetti, Finnish ice cream squeezed between two biscuits. One year the last cleaner to leave for the summer holidays pulled the machine's plug out of the wall by mistake, and the smell that greeted everyone in August went down in the school's annals.
I love the concept of the "Eskimo Pie". The brand name belongs to a chocolate-covered ice cream bar, which in Finland we simply call an "eskimo". It was invented in the US in the 1920s by a Danish immigrant. But an Eskimo Pie does not look like a pie at all, so I would like to borrow the name for my creation, which was the messiest and most scrumptious thing I have eaten in quite a while. I think I'll go and make another one 😉
Aila and Thomas, if you happen to read this, warm thanks once more for the cookies. They were excellent both on their own and recycled like this!
4 comments
Hi Anna, you just made me crave for the Eskimo ice cream bar - eskimo jäätis - that I used to have when still a schoolkid!
Though the idea of "Eskimo pie" isn't bad either:)
My absolute favorite is the humble Valion Mansikkaeskimo (Sigh). Really, it brings back so many memories. Hope you are not eating too much ice cream - you need to get over that cold 😉
Last Thursday - still sick and feverish - I had a 500ml tub of my favourite ice cream (Cream O'Galloway Sticky Toffee). Not once, of course, but over few hours (I still had enough energy for all those trips to the fridge). It made me feel good - as in "I'm sick and need to get everything I want to feel better even if it'll make me worse in the long run". It also made me shiver badly at the end, as suddenly I was feeling cold:)
I still have a blocked nose, but would now happily eat ice cream without bad conscience.
Haven't had mansikkaeskimo, though it sounds deliscious! Will remember to check it out next time I'm in Finland..
Pille, my newest food obsession is green tea ice cream. Here I can buy it in just about any store, but in Finland I might have to experiment with my ice cream maker, as I'll finally be reunited with all my kitchen gadgets.
Great to hear that you are getting better! Let me know when you are in Helsinki, I'll personally buy you a mansikkaeskimo 😉 Sticky toffee sounds heavenly. My other obsession, Häagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche topped with dulce de leche must come close....