I’ve been having such fun experimenting with flavours and with a nod to the fall season coming up, along with the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah. It’s a festive time of the year and one wishes friends and family ‘a good and sweet year.’ Apples and honey are the usual gift; an apple in biblical times being very rare and honey came more in the form of dates or figs, rather than bees but more or less the same.

My gift came early to one of my favourite people, City Shul Rabbi Elyse Goldstein and her husband Baruch Sienna, a good friend. We were talking at a motze shabbat party and the subject of gelato came up. There always is amazement at such a thing, that anyone would take it up seriously and could do it successfully.  Suddenly, I thought of all the terrific things the Rabbi and her husband had done for our congregation and I said, “I’ll make you some Gelato for the holidays. Do you have a favourite flavour.”

“Peanut butter chocolate chip,” said the Rabbi, unhesitatingly.

The challenge was accepted. I’d never made it. And I love peanut butter too. If I only had two things to take to a desert island, it’d be PB and hummus. The peanut has such a fascinating history and so many uses. A pioneering black agronomist (1864-1943), born into slavery, George Washington Carver, is credited with finding more than 300 uses of this nut that isn’t a nut (it’s a legume). Among the uses were peanut butter, chili, sauce glue and shampoo.

I just love peanuts, too. Cracking them apart at the ballpark and leaving the shells on the floor, there or at a bar like McSorley’s.

The second flavour was my choice, and I had told them about my Signature Dark Chocolate Sorbet, which is winning friends everywhere. As it’s so creamy, no one believes it is non-dairy and that can matter in Jewish circles, so I figure that would be appropriate.

It turns out that Peanut Butter is one of the easier flavours to make. Standard custard base, milk, cream, sugar, temper egg yolks and mix, put in a cup of peanut butter. Some recipes call for the easier to mix Jif-type PB but I opted for all natural brands, like Adams or a good one from Kraft. Funny, when I made the mix and tasted it, I was worried there wasn’t enough peanut butter flavour. But I let it ride overnight in the fridge where magic happens. And in the morning, it tasted very peanutty! Mixed in some melted Stracciatella style, my fave, and there it was. Peanut perfection.

In other flavour quests, the Queen of Matcha, Zoe, my stepdaughter, said that would be a good flavour idea, and it’s another fairly simple process: heat milk, cream and sugar, turn off heat and ‘temper’ five tbsps of Matcha powder (carefully ladling spoonfuls of warm milk into it and then remix, adding some cornstarch). Cool and churn overnight. I promised to hand her a pint when she Matcha comes in all sorts of varieties now; David’s Tea has five different ones, including traditional, vanilla and blueberry.

The peanut butter chip recipe has now been added to the easy-to-make list, which now includes:

Espresso (with or without chocolate chips)

Dark Chocolate sorbet

Matcha

Ricardo’s home flavour line up finished August as follows:

Dark Chocolate

Peach sorbet

Carmelized banana with chocolate chips

Vanilla with Skor bar chips

Mint chip (made for that special grandson)

Campfire (or burnt marshmallow, a nod to a summer’s end, takes me back to Slickers in Prince Edward County where we first encountered it.

I seem to be in deep with my perfect gelato quest. Once upon a time I’d have maybe two flavours at hand but now there’s a whole gelataria. I continue to resist attempts to start any kind of business with it.

Dinner guests mentioned there were many gelato markers who went for exotic flavours and combinations; some are very successful like Death in Venice’s smoked pecan and maple butter tart or pistachio yogurt baklava or Your Gelato’s ricotta, honey and pistachio.

“My philosophy is to prefect getting at the flavour’s essence,” I said. “Additions would include only other basics that add to the basic tastes — walnuts, pecans, chocolate chips or mint. I really feel that’s what gets closest to the original Italian idea. It’s what makes gelato’s intensity superior to ice cream’s.”