Oh, my! That sounds like a wonderful combination. You've really put that great summer package to good use. Sanders brings back such good memories for me. Growing up in Detroit, my Aunt Bernice used to take me on the bus Downtown to Hudson's department store. We'd always end our day with a hot fudge sundae or cream puffs topped with hot fudge or caramel sauce (Sanders of course!). Ann

Here are a few I came across at Food Network Canada. The last two are recipes for what you can do WITH gelato. Blackberry Vidal Sorbet Yield: 6 Recipe courtesy of Hart Melvin, Founder, Gelato Fresco. 3 cup fresh blackberries, (1 1/2 pints) 1 x 375 ml bottle, Inniskillin 1997 Select Late Harvest Vidal sugar, 12 percent of the total amount of liquid Puree the berries in a blender. Use a sieve to remove seeds. The puree you are left with should measure close to 1 cups. Put puree in the blender. Add an equal amount of wine. The amount of sugar added will be 12% of the total wine/blackberry puree. 3 cups of wine/blackberry puree will require 1/2 cup of sugar. Add the sugar to the puree. Blend until the sugar is dissolved. Freeze in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturers directions. Alternately you can spread the mixture into a shallow pan and freeze. Give it a stir with a fork every 45 minutes. Once it gets fairly firm very briefly toss it in a blender to break up the ice into finer crystals and refreeze. Serve within 24 hours. Keep frozen at low temperature, as the alcohol will depress the freezing point. ************************************** Lemon Gelato Yield: 4 2 cups whipping cream (500 ml) 1 cup sugar, granulated (250 ml) 1/2 cup lemon juice, fresh (125 ml) 2 tbsp lemon zest (30 ml) In a medium glass bowl, using a hand mixer combine whipping cream and sugar until sugar dissolves. Stir in lemon juice and zest. Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and allow it to freeze. Follow manufacturerÂs instructions. ******************************* Chocolate Gelato Tart (See link for picture) (From pastry chef Anna Olsen) Yield: 8 Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies 3/4 cup whole hazelnuts 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 1/3 cups dark brown sugar, packed 2 large eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 tbsp instant coffee powder 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp fine salt Assembly 2 1/2 cups chocolate gelato 1/2 cup lightly chopped hazelnuts Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread hazelnuts on a baking sheet and toast for 12 minutes. Cool, then rub off skins with a tea towel and roughly chop. Melt chocolate in microwave, stirring every 10 seconds and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in eggs. Stir vanilla and instant coffee together and add to butter mixture. Stir in melted chocolate. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt and add to butter mixture to combine. Stir in chopped hazelnuts. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Press dough into a greased 9-inch fluted tart pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until center has a dull finish and edges are lightly browned. While still warm, press gently in the center of the tart to make an indentation to fill with ice cream. Allow shell to cool. Assembly Let chocolate gelato sit for 10 minutes at room temperature, then beat on medium speed to soften slightly so gelato is spreadable. Spread gelato into cooled tart shell and sprinkle with ½ cup lightly chopped hazelnuts. Freeze until ready to serve. *************************************** Cognac Brule Gelato With Chocolate Madeleines (From Christine Cushing) Yield: 12 Gelato 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup thirty-five percent cream 1/4 cup cognac, or other brandy 2 1/2 cup two percent milk 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 cup cornstarch 4 egg, yolks 1/4 cup cognac, for soaking 1/3 cup chopped dried apricot Madeleine 1/3 cup melted bittersweet chocolate, (2 1/2 ounces) 3/4 cup icing sugar 1/4 cup all purpose flour, plus 1 tbsp all purpose flour 1/4 cup ground almonds 3 egg, whites 1 tsp honey 1/3 cup melted butter, plus 1 tbsp melted butter Gelato Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. To make caramel mixture put 1 cup of sugar in a large heavy bottom pot. On a high temperature begin to cook sugar until it turns into a dark amber colour and begins to smoke. About 8 to 10 minutes. Tilt pot several times to blend sugar but do not stir. Remove from heat immediately and add ¼ cup of cream. Cover and let cool slightly. Stir thoroughly and add ¼ cup Cognac. Pour 1½ cups milk and ½ cup sugar into a medium pot. Bring it to a boil. In another bowl stir together the corn starch and ½ cup milk until well blended. When first amount of milk begins to boil pour in the starch mixture. Whisk briskly on low heat for about 2 minutes until mixture is thoroughly boiling. To temper the egg yolks, put them in a small bowl. Continuously whisk egg yolks and pour approximately 1/4 cup of the hot milk onto the yolks. Off the heat, quickly add the tempered yolks back into the hot milk and stir with wooden spoon. Return to very low heat for another 2 minutes stirring continuously. Remove from heat. Add caramel mixture and the last ½ cup of milk. Strain. Freeze following manufacturers directions for ice cream maker. Madeleine Melt chocolate over a double boiler and set aside. Butter and flour a Madeleine mould and set aside. Sift together icing sugar, flour and almonds in a medium bowl. Set aside. Whisk egg whites in a medium bowl until frothy. Add to flour mixture and whisk until blended. Whisk in cooled chocolate, honey and melted butter. Spoon mixture into mould and refrigerate until batter stiffens about 20 minutes. Bake for 12 to16 minutes or until set. Cool. Preparation Soak the apricots in remaining Cognac for at least 30 minutes or until gelato is ready. Apricots can be warmed slightly before pouring over gelato. Serve gelato with Madeleines.

I had the same problem you had with the blueberry with the charoset sorbet I made for Passover. It was whiz-pow at the slushy phase and just tasted like frozen applesauce at the frozen stage. Another thing you can do to intensify the blueberriness is reduce it. Of course, you have to chill it then, but it should work The storage issue is one I've yet to solve. I have some insulated ice cream containers, including a long narrow one that's good for scooping, which work fairly well defending ice cream from the freeze for an hour or two so you can get through dinner. Sorbet, having no fat impediment, lasts at the good spot for less than an hour. The problem is food storage and dessert storage are meant to be at different temperatures. I've been considering getting a portable cooler. They make them that do all the freeze/cool temperatures you could want. I figure it could chill wines, hold frozen desserts at the correct temperature, and also serve as a cheese cave. The issue is I'm not about to get four of them, and that's four different temperatures (only segregating wine into white and red), so I'd have to manage the cheese making so it didn't run into entertaining, chill whites in the fridge and bring down reds to sufficiently below ambient that they'll still be a nice temperature during dinner, without shocking them, and get it cooled and the dessert in before company! Argh!! More likely, company will get something baked the previous day, and the reds will get to be happy, and we'll do the ice cream thing when it's just us. If you have a few hundred dollars you're willing to throw at it, however, you can certainly get an electric cooler and get your ice cream and sorbet to the correct temperature(s).

The gelato custard recipe I use in my Simac "Ice Cream Boy" is simpler with less egg and no salt. 2 c milk 1 c heavy cream 4 yolks 1/2 c sugar Prepare as in your recipe. Be careful not to scramble the eggs, low and slow temperature. Then chill custard in refrigerator until it is around 45F, or for a few hours. Turn on gelato maker to get it nice and cold; there should be a setting where the machine is chilling but not beating. Add flavoring to custard. Pour into machine, start beating. After 15 min (my machine - see below) check consistency. Keep beating and chilling if gelato is too soft, it will get firmer as you continue. You'll have to experiment but in my machine, about 20 min gives the texture I like. Hard to describe textures, but it is creamy enough that you can easily spread the gelato without tearing soft bread, as if it were soft butter. I don't know why you are not getting the texture you want, but maybe your gelato is too frozen, or being beaten too much. I found that all the pre-chilling allows the custard to spend the least amount of time being beaten. Perhaps gelato doesn't like punishment. I looked up your machine online and it has a complicated beater in a sealed chamber, so I'm guessing it has a very active beating action that doesn't introduce much air. Times will likely be different from my 30 year old $10 machine. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/simac-il-gelataio-800-the-ice-cream-boy-dsvw-vd~2254923