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Melina Hammer for The New York Times.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015

When They All Scream for Ice Cream, Give It to Them (and Cake!)

MELISSA CLARK

It starts around 3 p.m. and goes on until 10: the chimes of the Mister Softee truck, that classic summer earworm. It's hard to think of anything but ice cream right now, which is completely fine by me.
When I made ice cream as a kid, it had only three ingredients: cream, maple syrup and toasted walnuts. I didn't need to temper egg yolks or heat up anything. I just poured everything into the ice cream maker, then ate it directly out of the machine 20 minutes later. As easy as they come, no recipe required.
There are more elaborate, custard-based ice cream recipes out there (and I've written a few of them myself). But sometimes simplicity is what you want. Julia Moskin goes deep in her latest Recipe Lab column, and comes up with her recipe for the Easiest Vanilla Ice Cream. If it's Julia's recipe, you know it's exactly right. Try topping it with a generous pour of David Tanis's bittersweet chocolate sauce.
But what if you or someone you adore doesn't do dairy? You can still make a great ice cream - or rather, a great frozen dessert, because it won't technically have any cream in it. The easiest way to get there is by freezing chunks of ripe banana and then whirling them in the blender. Vanilla extract, cocoa powder or a shot of rum greatly improves this basic formula, as does the tiniest pinch of salt.
For something fancier and more impressive, there's this recipe for vegan roasted banana ice cream from Van Leeuwen ice cream in New York, which combines roasted caramelized bananas and homemade cashew milk. Time-consuming but utterly creamy and rich, and a favorite at our house. You'll want to plan ahead to source the cocoa butter. The Internet will deliver it, or if you're in New York you can pick it up at N.Y. Cake.
Here's a confession though. I live a block from the ice cream shopAmple Hills in Brooklyn and go there often (my 6-year-old is the beard). So I'm just as likely to bake a cake in the middle of summer as I am to make my own ice cream, since I can buy it so easily. Speaking of bananas, have you seen this recipe from Nigella Lawson for chocolate chunk banana tea cake? I discovered it in the NYTCooking app, and it's now in my recipe box.
Of course, as the mother of said 6-year-old, I couldn't possibly let anyone have ice cream until she has eaten her dinner. So to keep things on the up and up, there's Sam Sifton's watermelon and tomato salad. Cool, salty, sweet and quick to make.
O.K., now it's ice cream time. Go for it.
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