Mmmm...Egg Cream

I was having a conversation with one of the managers at the restaurant, and we came across the subject of ice cream. With the weather warming up, there has been an increase in requests for ice cream desserts. We have Ciao Bella gelato, but it seems that there is a demand for something with ice cream in it rather than just ice cream itself.

So I thought about what would be something easy we could do with ice cream. We would need something easy that the servers could put together on my days off.

I found two recipes for egg cream. One in the Scharffen Berger Cookbook and the other in Alice Medrich's "Bittersweet." Egg cream is a New York classic and is pretty much a chocolate soda. How it got the name egg cream I don't know since it does not necessarily have eggs or cream in it.

So I experimented with it for the first time today. I took some chocolate syrup from the coffee bar and some half and half. I stirred it well and then poured soda water from the soda dispenser.

But then, I decided to go an extra step and add a scoop of chocolate gelato. I was quite delighted with it and felt like a kid as I sipped the egg cream, making sure that I got a bit of gelato.

Here is the general recipe for egg cream. You can change it according to your taste.

1 part chocolate syrup (store bought works fine)
1 part half and half, or milk
4 parts soda water