Please join me in welcoming the fabulous Suzanne Woods Fisher to the blog today to chat about her new book, The Sweet Life, and the world’s favorite ice cream flavor!
THE SWEET LIFE by Suzanne Woods Fisher
SERIES: Cape Cod Creamery #1
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Revell
RELEASE DATE: May 3, 2022
PAGES: 312
the perfect scoop
by Suzanne Woods Fisher, author of The Sweet Life
This will surprise most of you. What do you think is the most favorite ice cream flavor in the world? The entire world. What’s the perfect scoop?
Did you guess vanilla? If so, give yourself a pat on the back. You’re right! Sure, it might not sound as exciting as more dramatic flavors (Meyer Lemon Zest!, Chocolate Macadamia Nut!), but a good—really good—vanilla ice cream satisfies the palate like no other flavor. When you get a scoop of perfect vanilla ice cream, it can blow you away.
In The Sweet Life, ice cream maker Dawn Dixon is on a quest to make the world’s best vanilla ice cream. A self-described perfectionist, she can’t move off this one flavor until she gets it just right.
Getting it right, though, is complicated. It’s intricate, with depth and richness. It’s foundational to all other ice cream flavors. Get it right and Dawn will have her base for the Main Street Creamery. Like all ice cream makers, Dawn knows that a vanilla base is the perfect canvas for mix-ins (chopped nuts, cookies, chocolate, candy, swirled in sauces). But getting it right is proving to be surprisingly difficult.
Vanilla ice cream is so pure that it reveals everything—the skill of the ice cream maker (or lack of), the quality of the milk, cream, eggs, and vanilla beans. Strong flavors like chocolate and coffee can mask flaws or inferior ingredients as they coat the tongue, but not vanilla. Little errors get noticed. You can’t hide anything with vanilla. It has the utmost integrity. If you’ve ever had amazing vanilla ice cream, well, the product speaks for itself. It’s the perfect scoop.
The Sweet Life’s Favorite (so far) Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe
Ugandan Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Credit: Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams At Home by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan, 2011) www.jenisicecreams.com
Makes: about 1 quart
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped (Note: Jeni uses Ndali Estate beans, but you can use any high-quality vanilla beans you prefer.)
1. Prep: Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice water.
2. Cook: Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla seeds and bean in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heat-proof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. Chill: Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag into the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
4. Freeze: Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.
5. Enjoy!
With over 1.5 million copies sold, Suzanne Woods Fisher is a bestselling author of over 39 books, ranging from novels to children’s books to non-fiction. She is a Christy Award finalist, a winner of Carol and Selah awards, and a two-time finalist for ECPA Book of the Year. She writes stories that take you to places you’ve never visited—one with characters that seem like old friends. But most of all, her books give you something to think about long after you’ve finished reading them. Suzanne lives with her very big family in northern California.
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Revell is offering a print copy of The Sweet Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher to TWO of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.
Bonus Giveaway!!
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What about you? What makes you want to read The Sweet Life by Suzanne Woods Fisher? What’s your favorite ice cream flavor?
My favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate peanut butter cup or any “loaded up with goodies” chocolate ice cream !
Strawberry. I love this author.
I love ice cream and especially Mocha Almond Fudge 🙂 and I love Suzanne Woods Fisher books!!
Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
I want to read The Sweet Life because I really enjoyed Suzanne’s Three Sisters Island series and The Moonlight School. I keep changing my favorite flavor of ice cream. I recently had Key Lime Pie ice cream made by our local ice cream shop that was really delicious. Thanks for the giveaway.
I want to read about the mother/daughter relationship as well as the second chance romance in The Sweet Life!
We have a local ice cream shop that makes their own ice cream. My favorite flavor is Mocha Fudge Chip: coffee ice cream with chocolate swirl and dark chocolate chunks. 😋
Suzanne Woods Fisher is a fantastic author, and ice cream is my favorite all-time treat. The Sweet Life will be perfect for summer reading.
Wonderful series. My favorite is chocolate ripple.
There are just too many delicious ice cream flavors to pick one and I can’t wait to read about running an ice cream shop!
I don’t eat ice cream anymore but when I did I liked coffee flavor.
Sounds good. Nice cover. I like a high quality vanilla all by itself.
Ice cream is a special treat, but my favorite is coffee with hot fudge sauce.
It sounds like a really interesting book. Thank you for sharing. My favorite flavor of ice cream is chocolate.
I can’t do dairy but my favorite ice cream is oat milk vanilla! I love Suzanne Woods Fisher’s books and can’t wait to read this one!!!
Sounds like a book I will enjoy.
I like strawberry ice cream.
One of my favorite book authors to read is Suzanne and I love eating vanilla fudge ice cream!
Vanilla
I love a good vanilla ice cream! I want to read this book for the cover alone, but the premise sounds lovely too.
I loved Suzanne’s recent contemporary Maine sisters series. Fun to hear she is doing more contemporary books.
Strawberry ice cream for me. I love Suzanne Woods Fischer.
The cover alone would make me want to read Suzanne’s book! 😀 My favorite flavors are Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Double Dark Chocolate.
I love Moose Tracks and Cookie Dough ice cream.
chocolate