Hot licks

The scoop on homemade ice cream

by Johnette Rodriguez

BIG ALICE'S, 100 Hope St., Providence, 273-5812
Open Wed-Thurs. 5-10 p.m.; Fri-Sun, 2-10 p.m.
BRICKLEY'S, 30 Ten Rod Rd., North Kingstown, 294-7970, and Ocean Road., Narragansett
Open March-Oct., from 12-10 p.m. In Narragansett, open through Labor Day, 5-10 p.m.
GRAY'S, 16 East Road, Tiverton Four Corners, Tiverton, 624-4500
Open year-round, seven days, 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
THE ICE CREAM MACHINE, 4288 Diamond Hill Road., Cumberland, 333-5053. Open March-Oct., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

When I was a kid, homemade ice cream meant taking turns at the churn handle while someone sat atop the ice cream freezer to keep it steady. The ice cream was a bit soft and grainy on the tongue, with an undertaste of the evaporated milk that went into the mix -- totally wonderful. When I was a teenager, my mother went electric, with a motorized freezer, and years later, one of her wedding presents to us was an ice cream freezer, a people-powered one.

In the past decade, thousands of Rhode Islanders have tasted homemade ice cream at a number of shops around the state. These establishments churn their own, in large rotating vats, using cream and sugar mixes they buy from New England dairies. They create flavors, often dozens of them, from extracts, fresh fruit, nuts, candy pieces, cookie dough, brownies and cheesecake.

My tasting was extremely subjective (there may be shops other than these four that churn, but your intrepid reporter could only eat so much ice cream). I also did not have the wherewithal, even taking a 12-year-old nephew along for two of the tastings, to compare chocolates or vanillas from one shop to those at another.

The Ice Cream Machine in Cumberland takes the lead with quantity -- 62 flavors, including ice cream, non-fat and low-fat yogurt and sugar-free ice cream. Kim and Gary Caron have owned the business since 1985 (her father opened the shop in 1977). The sundae staple of vanilla is their most popular flavor, but orange-pineapple, black raspberry, peppermint stick, coffee, frozen pudding, grape nut and maple walnut are also well-regarded. Kids head for the bubble gum, cookie dough, M&M chocolate, and dinosaur crunch, a blue-colored ice cream with dino-shaped candies that taste like cake frosting.

Nephew Matt and I sampled watermelon sherbet (he loved it, I didn't); caramel fudge, created by Caron's dad; apple, one of two spicy fall flavors, including pumpkin; cotton candy, blue and sweet; lemon chiffon, reminiscent of lemon custard; and German chocolate, a rich, creamy chocolate that was a real winner.

At Gray's Ice Cream, customers can stop in for a cone on their way to work, as early as 6:30 a.m., and on their way home, until 10 p.m. The 76-year-old Gray's naturally stocks old-fashioned flavors -- butter pecan, butterscotch, cherry vanilla; seasonal ones like eggnog and pumpkin; and New England favorites -- frozen pudding, rum raisin and coffee (their biggest seller). Gray's doesn't go for fancy, new-fangled flavors, though they do have peanut butter cup, coconut and peach brandy. The latter two were too mild for me, though I found the ginger and the grape nut quite delicious. Cones are one generous size for $2.

Big Alice, which makes far fewer flavors than the other three, wins in the toppings category. In addition to the familiar hot fudge, butterscotch, strawberries and marshmallow, you can choose coffee syrup or maple syrup; bits of Oreo cookies or Graham crackers; syrup-laden dark bing cherries; walnuts drenched in maple syrup; M&M's, chocolate chips or jimmies. A "Little Alice" sundae ($3.85) contains a quarter-pound of ice cream with three of the above toppings; a "Big Alice" ($4.35) has a half-pound of ice cream with three "fancies." There are also Banana Boats and Luxury Liners, the latter with three-quarters of a pound of ice cream!

Big Alice had eight ice cream flavors during our visit -- our favorite was black raspberry lace, very berry laced with chocolate chunks. The sherbet was red raspberry and the sorbet was watermelon. The flavors change every night, but, alas, I haven't seen the wonderful aduki bean or tagarachi, a vanilla-based ice cream with hot pepper flakes, for many a year. Would you bring them back for a fan?

The new kid on the block is Brickley's, run for the past five years by Steve Brophy and his sister, Maureen Tholander, and named after their late mom. These two have their heart and soul in this business. As Brophy says, "We want to put our signature on it." He's proud of his flavors, 48 in all, including butter Brickley, butterscotch-flavored with candy bits and almond slivers; peanut butter cup; a cookie dough with a butterscotch base (Matt loved them, I didn't); and the "very chocolate brownie," which Brophy makes by adding cocoa to the base for a richer chocolate flavor before adding the brownie bits. Many diabetic customers are grateful for the four or five sugar-free flavors, which vary from the ordinary chocolate, vanilla and strawberry; lactose-intolerant customers can choose a daily sorbet flavor, such as tangerine or mango.

I loved the fruitiness of the banana and peach, both of which are made with fresh fruit, and also the dark cherries in the bing cherry, and the chunky mint chip. But, much to my surprise, since this chocoholic doesn't usually like chocolate ice cream (not intensely chocolate enough, I suspect), my favorites at Brickley were the chocolate coconut almond -- all three of those come through -- and the malted milk ball -- ah, the dusky taste of malt with the chocolate and bits of chopped-up Whoppers.

The fact that people in the Northeast eat more ice cream than in any other part of the country is borne out by Gray's owner Marilyn Dennis: "I tell my staff, `Nobody breaks anyone's arm to come get ice cream, so none of our customers are grouchy.' I love it when they line up in winter coats, shivering, with Christmas trees on their cars, and they tell me, `We're so glad you're here.'" So am I.