Lauren Wilson wants you to make your own ice cream.
Wilson used to make the best frozen desserts you could buy in Seattle, and it’s true. Her “Sweet Rose Ice Cream” was sold in pint tubs printed with a distinctive caricature of her bright, curly face in select little stores. No matter the flavor, strawberry pound cake, lemon bar, cookies and cream, it was guaranteed to be fresh and delicious. Even Rose’s “regular” flavors, like vanilla bean, tasted unique.
While the business was a joy for Wilson and her customers, “it wasn’t sustainable because I was making everything from scratch,” she said in a video call from Eugene, where she has been living since closing her business and leaving Seattle in 2019.
“It was delicious. I certainly don’t regret it for a second. I just couldn’t keep going in that direction.”
I was one of the fans who shed a tear when Wilson left town and disappeared from the ice cream industry’s public eye. Then she appeared on social media last year, thrilling me as she cheerfully sampled exciting flavors of commercial ice cream with high, often dashed, hopes, and mused about how to remedy the disappointment. She generously shares some of her recipes online, and is currently hard at work developing recipes for a planned Sweet Lo’s cookbook, sharing her progress on Instagram at @sweetlosicecream and inviting readers to ask her ice cream questions on her Facebook page.
She says the online interactions are energizing and inspiring.
“My passion is sharing homemade ice cream with everyone,” she says. “Although I can’t do it like I used to, maybe this idea of sharing recipes will inspire, motivate and encourage people to try making their own ice cream and have the same experience I had.”
Wilson grew up in Los Angeles in a “foodie family”: her mother had a side job baking and decorating cakes for coworkers at the post office, and her father loved to cook with his family, who Wilson says would always give each other food as a “sign of love.” (Her sister, Joy the Baker, became one of the first successful food bloggers and shares some of her father’s recipes.)
Wilson moved to Seattle in 2010 to work at REI. “I met some amazing people, climbed mountains and hiked for a while.” After working at Tom Douglas Restaurant, she moved briefly to Vermont to work in a restaurant, looking for something new. There, she discovered an ice cream machine that would change her life. Curious to see what a homemade dessert would taste like, she made a bag. “I’d never eaten anything so amazingly different from what you buy in the store,” she recalls.
She returned to Seattle, bought an ice cream maker, and became obsessed with sharing that creamy wonder with everyone she knew, and soon with strangers.
Seattle is actually home to some pretty good independent ice cream options, so I asked Wilson if she had any insight into what makes her ice cream stand out among them.
The irony, she speculates, is that it was her homemade approach. Unlike most big commercial producers, she made her own ice cream base rather than buying it pre-made. All of the ingredients she added, like the salted peanut brittle and pound cake, were made from scratch. “We didn’t use any gums or stabilizers.”
It was a costly way to operate, especially for a small business without access to bulk discounts. Distribution added middlemen and costs, and it was harder to ensure quality control when the ice cream was out of her hands and required a longer shelf life. She tried adding more high-margin product lines, creating special flavors upon request (online reviews raved about her mustard seed ice cream), and an “ice cream club” where she developed a unique flavor each month for participants, but the wholesale side of things also wore her down.
“My ice cream just wasn’t meant for grocery stores,” she thinks now. To turn a profit, she estimates she would have had to charge $15 a pint in 2019, or about $18.50 in today’s dollars. “That would have been terrible, and I knew it.”
Her original goal in moving to Eugene was to open her own Sweet Rose Scoopery in a town where it would be profitable, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, opening a retail store became an even more unfeasible goal. She made the tough decision to sell her commercial equipment and now works as a caregiver with a passion for frozen treats.
Immediately after the call, she said, “I’m going to make a pineapple sorbet for my partner, and then I’m going to make pistachio ice cream, because I’m trying to perfect my pistachio recipe.”
Wilson says you don’t need expensive machinery to make ice cream at home, but you can save some time. A basic starter model with bowls frozen ahead of time will do. And Wilson points out that taking a little extra time isn’t necessarily a negative: She thinks the process of making ice cream is part of the joy.
Of her own preferences, she said, “I don’t like unusual or outlandish things. I like really good classic flavors like cookies and cream or rocky road. A lot of the more complex flavors I create are deconstructions of established desserts like Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Banoffee Pie or Key Lime Cheesecake – things that people already love and enjoy, in ice cream form.”
But she wants you to give it a try and see what works for you.
“We want to make it accessible to anyone who has even the slightest bit of interest and try to let as many people as possible know that you can do it too.”
Sweet Rose’s Rocky Road Ice Cream
Approximately 1.5 quarts
I want to share my recipe for Rocky Road Ice Cream, one of my favorite classic flavors. It’s an indulgent chocolate ice cream chock full of salted walnuts and mini marshmallows. The chocolate base is made with two types of Guittard chocolate chips: 46% semi-sweet and 63% bittersweet. I absolutely love this combination. I also have a recipe for Marshmallow Fluff for those who want to make it all by hand without using store-bought marshmallows.
— Lauren Wilson
1 ½ cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
5 ounces chocolate chips (I used 3.6 ounces semisweet chips and 1.4 ounces bittersweet chips)
1 ½ cups whole milk
¼ cup skim milk powder
⅔ cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
⅔ cup toasted walnuts (recipe below)
1 cup mini marshmallows or 1½ cups homemade marshmallow fluff (recipe below)
1. In a medium heavy-bottom saucepan, add the cream, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and all ingredients are combined.
2. Pour this mixture into a medium bowl (with a lid) and place a mesh strainer over it.
3. In the same pot (don’t wash it!), add the whole milk, skim milk powder, sugar, and salt. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the dry ingredients are combined with the milk.
Four. While the ingredients are heating, carefully separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Lightly whisk the egg yolks to make them easier to incorporate into the dairy product. Discard the egg whites or reserve them for another use later.
Five. Once the milk is combined, slowly add the egg yolks, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium. You will see the mixture begin to thicken as the egg yolks warm up.
6. Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture sticks to the back of a spoon and an instant-read thermometer registers about 175 degrees F, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Immediately pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the cream/chocolate mixture. Cool to room temperature. Stir in vanilla extract.
7. Cover the bowl and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
8. When you’re ready to churn, pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
9. To assemble Rocky Road, scoop the churned chocolate ice cream from your ice cream maker into a medium bowl. Quickly stir in the toasted walnuts and mini marshmallows. If using Marshmallow Fluff, spoon it on top of the chocolate/walnut ice cream combo, adding a bit of Marshmallow Fluff as well as the ice cream into the container. Once done, cover the container with pattywax or parchment paper and place the lid. Freeze until the ice cream is set, at least 4 hours. For best results, let it set overnight.
Toasted walnuts
Place 2/3 cup raw walnuts on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and toast at 350°F for 6 minutes. After 6 minutes, remove the walnuts and sprinkle generously with salt. Rotate the sheet and toast for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. When the walnuts are golden and fragrant, remove from the oven and allow to cool completely. Coarsely chop and store in a jar until ready to use.
Marshmallow Fluff
Makes about 3 cups
⅓ cup water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
¾ light corn syrup
3 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Add water, sugar, and corn syrup to a medium saucepan and stir to combine.
2. Place a candy thermometer in the saucepan and heat over medium-high heat. Do not stir at this point as crystals will form.
3. Wipe out the mixer bowl and add some vinegar, whisking until completely oil-free.
Four. Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Five. Once the sugar syrup has reached approximately 225°F, begin beating the egg whites until soft peaks form, about 3 to 4 minutes.
6. When the egg whites are ready, the sugar syrup should be 240° F. Remove from heat and with the mixer on medium speed, very slowly and carefully pour the sugar syrup into the egg whites in a thin, steady stream.
7. Once all the syrup is incorporated, turn the mixer to medium/high speed and continue beating – the whites will shrivel up at first, but will gradually thicken and become fluffy.
8. Continue beating for 7 to 8 minutes until the mixture is thick and fluffy.
9. Add the vanilla and beat until completely cooled.
Ten. Add generous spoonfuls of fluffy batter to churned chocolate ice cream.
11. Store any remaining marshmallows in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks.
